Law And More

Section 230 of Telecommunications Act of 1996 - Push to Repeal

There was really a time - it seems light years ago - when idealism was high about social networks.

The assumption was that those digital platforms for self-expression and connecting could and would regulate themselves. In the worse-case scenarios, if posters proved to be rhetorical miscreants, the network's powers that be would remove the content.

Yes, the bad guys would be banned temporarily or even permanently. If the members of the media covered that banishing from Paradise, there would be public shaming. Not only branding but actual business revenues could be hurt.

That mindset shaped Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Essentially, social networks were not responsible for what was posted. However, if they observed material which threatened violence and so on, they was accountable for taking appropriate legal action.

Post the Synagogue shooting, there is a growing outcry for repealing Section 230. The assumption is that networks are unable to self-regulate and/or if they do it is too little too late. 

In addition, just about everyone in the loop of facilitating those platforms is being put under a public relations and legal microscope.

For example, should payment processors such as PayPal and Stripe had acted sooner in suspending extreme network Gab?

Should GoDaddy had ended its domain registration as soon as the tone and content of Gab were documented as standard fare.

The world knows that alleged synagogue murderer Robert Bowers had been a "regular" on Gab. Here are more details from Phillip Bantz at Law.com.

The ugly underbelly for all this is the fragile right to freedom of speech, both personal and commercial. That is not an abstract matter. Progress in a society - cultural, social, technical, and economic - depends on being able to put out there all kinds of ideas. 

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Whitey Bulger - Breaking the Rules Started with America's Founding Fathers

Whitey Bulger might have been murdered in a West Virginia federal prison because he was poised to do "the right thing." That's a bit of speculation from the Daily Mail.

The buzz is that he had long been a federal snitch and now was going to snitch on the feds themselves. That can't be allowed, of course. So, those who are good at taking care of such things took care of them.

If Bulger had been an FBI informant that is a dark spot on his brand.

After all, many of us Americans love our bad guys - and girls. Just recall how Bonnie & Clyde had been heroes during The Great Depression. It took producer Dick Wolf to reposition and repackage the law & order folks as the heroes. 

The nation has been founded by a bunch of misfits who couldn't cut it in the old country. They broke the rules of being settled and opting for safety by boarding a small ship and coming to the new country.

By grit and maybe underlying craziness, they did okay for themselves. That okay included establishing what had been the most successful economy in the world. Today their legacy of thumbing their noses at the rules is being played out by tech titans. 

In the tourist town of Tombstone, Arizona, what's palpable is a healthy respect for the outlaws. Although the location's tourist promotions are about the Earp Brothers (Wyatt, Virgil, Morgan) lawmen, the branding is really about the lawless crowd who piled into town. The steps up to the former prostitute quarters are worn down. 

Bulger will hover over U.S. history as an interesting character. The fascination could diminish, though, if there is solid evidence that he was confused about his bad guy identity. Only recently, as with the television series "Good Girls," are hybrids tolerated.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

IBM Red Hat Acquisition - Cravath, Swaine & Moore Out of the Loop

The $33.4 billion acquisition which could change the cloud niche has reinforced that Scott Barshay is the star in the M&A niche. Currently with Paul, Weiss he is the lead legal counsel on IBM's purchase of open source cloud software company Red Hat.

Meanwhile his twinkle could be throwing shade on law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Cravath is not in the loop on this deal. That's despite the reality that Cravath has been a long-time legal guide to IBM, including its earlier M&A strategy and moves. Part of that partnership was Cravath's hiring one-time IBM in-house IP counsel David Kappos. Here are more details from Brian Baxter at Law.com.

Much of the business of law is based on an adversarial model. That's binary. You win or you lose.

In this situation, as far as we know, Paul, Weiss has won. Cravath has lost. The implications for Cravath branding could be profound. This also makes for grand theatre in the media.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Foley & Lardner - What Law Firms Should Learn from that "Cyber Event"

It's not news that law firms are juicy targets for cybercrime. 

After all, accessing confidential client data can provide details about pending mergers & acquisitions. Those, in turn, can be peddled as insider information for buying, selling, and shorting stocks of the affected companies.

What is news about cybercrime are the emerging objectives.

As Roy Strom reports in Law.com, a fresh form of cybercrime is called "cryptojacking." The heavy-duty computing power of the organization is accessed in order to "mine" cryptocurrency such as bitcoin. Mining requires lots of computing - along with energy. In the process of cryptojacking, there is no need to access client files. 

That issue has come up in what law firm "Foley & Lardner" is positioning and packaging as a "cyber event." It notes that no client files were accessed. However, that might not have been the objective. 

That's one lesson law firms should learn from the cyberattack.

The other is that no matter why the bad guys got in or tried to get in, that development throws shade on the law firm. Often in requesting proposals from law firms, in-house counsel requires a description of the cybersecurity measures. No newsflash, an event which has already taken place will have to explained. 

A third lesson is that cybersecurity has to be a priority, not an afterthought. That has to be factored in from the get-go in the creation of all law firm systems. 

The author for this blog researches and ghostwrites articles on cybersecurity. For a complimentary consultation, please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Gab Goes Dark - GoDaddy Tells It to Find New Domain Provider

Smart media and business guidance could have kept social network Gab in the safe-content box.

However, the newbie, launched in 2016, allowed its posters to stray too far out of the box with rhetoric that was assessed to encourage violence.

Now, reports TechCrunch, Gab is over. At least for now. Its domain provider GoDaddy told it to find another registrar. Since then, Gab is offline. 

Part of this GoDaddy action is in response to the worldwide news that alleged mass murderer Robert Bowers posted hate speech on Gab. But even before that, alt-right Gab got on the wrong side of the tech community. For example, Apple and Google banned it from its App stores. 

More recently, though, PayPal and Stripe suspended its payment accounts. And cloud hosting service Joyent parted ways. 

Underlying this push-back against a social network which is perceived to be extremist is the age-old issue: Can there be a direct correlation between words and action? 

In short, how much influence and power does language really have? Is the pen really more mighty than the sword?

In the era when the medium of published books dominated, academics frequently raised the question if language products such as "Uncle Tom's Cabin" helped end slavery.

Further back in history, did the satire on religion Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" prompt Roman Catholics to push for reform? 

Although we are in a post-book time, there are still those questions on applications for content assignments or even jobs about what books changed one's thinking or had a great influence on us.

Not long ago, for instance, I applied to research and create equities analysis for Motley Fool again. Years ago, more than 140 of my writeups had been published on Yahoo Finance under the umbrella of Motley Fool.

On the application was that question about books. My answer was that Scott Galloway's "The Four" had reinforced my questioning about the power of branding. The system of brand management had been invented by P&G in the 1930s. In my current purchasing patterns, I am post-branding. 

Will it be up to the lawyers to duke out if social network language can be held accountable for behavior?

Meanwhile, those socializing youth should explain how misleading the nursery tune can be: Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me. On an emotional level, for many of us the damage has been profound. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Gab Was Robert Bowers' Social Network - Tech World Pushed Back Even Before Squirrel Hill Carnage

Social network Gab, its leadership contends, prevents violence through free speech. 

Maybe.

However, Gab now has to deal with the reality that one of its posters - Robert Bowers - allegedly fatally gunned down 11 and injured six in a Jewish house of worship. 

But even before that carnage in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, the tech world was pushing back on that alt-right platform. Some call its rhetoric and content "extremist." After the massacre, more tech enterprises parted ways with Gab.

For example, as Fortune reports, payment processors Stripe and PayPal suspended Gab's account. So did cloud hosting company Joyent. Apple and Google won't let Gab into their app stores. And Microsoft also isolated Gab.

Will these actions eventually shut down Gab?

No one knows.

It could also fundraise from wealthy alt-right players to continue to operate. And, it's possible it could exist financially via advertising. 

Meanwhile, the legal sector can anticipate more lawsuits about what is protected speech, both personal and commercial.

Do ordinary citizens, for example, have a perfect legal right to praise Nazi ideology? 

As a scriptwriter, I am fully aware of Hitler's rhetorical talents. He both wrote his own speeches and delivered them in a way that mesmerized audiences. That's documented in Thomas Childers' 2017 book "The Third Reich." Here it can ordered from Amazon.

But, come on, we can't come to praise Hitler. We have to come to bury everything he represented, including what public speakers might be able to learn from his mode of presentation.

The best socialization for getting the hang of being circumspect in politically charged times is to bunk in the Midwest. Instinctively, as soon as I blew into eastern Ohio I knew to listen, not speak.

The neighbors and I get along just fine.

That hasn't been the situation since I had fled the Hudson County, New Jersey Frank Hague Machine and began to connect the dots about the system - out-loud.

Now, I restrict my opining to digital platforms. No one here reads mine. It seems they assume I write cute little articles for newspapers on their last leg. I don't discourage that.

In person, I am mute, just as I was my first 18 years of life navigating the Jersey City, NJ version of the Hague Machine. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

October 29, 2018 and Beyond - Legal Sector Will Recall 2009 When 6,000 Lawyers Were Laid Off

But in the headquarters for capitalism - America - that very human emotion endures a relatively short time.

Monday morning the stock market opens. And BusinessInsider reports that panic will likely shift into an upward trajectory. 

During the crash of 2008, we all received a brutal introduction to systems theory - or how so many aspects of the economy intersect.

When the value of stocks tanked, law firms lost business and 6,000 lawyers were put on the street, enrollments in law schools tanked, housing prices seeped below the mortgage, depreciation set in (and stayed) in wages for full-time jobs and contract assignments, just to survive more were applying early for Social Security at age 62, and many had to claw their way back from retirement to land a place in the workforce. 

The essence of panic is that it is contagious.

A neighbor will nervously blurt out that she felt devastated to have to tell her son that he can only apply to the state universities in Ohio, not the private out of state colleges he had had his heart on. Reality bites, just as it did a decade ago.

Soon enough everyone in the neighborhood is re-thinking purchasing patterns.

The husband of the retired wife parachutes into insecurity about his job and encourages her to search for part-time work. Already, the Federal Reserve Board documents, one-third of those who have retired have bounced back into work. 

However, all this does have a silver lining. A mean-spirited one.

The underlying malice in capitalism, where envy is dominant, triggers happy thoughts about the boastful smug cad in the McMansion on the Gold Coast of Connecticut.

With her employer jittery about the price of the corporate stock, she has a sense her job is on short time. She recalls the increasing number of empty seats on the Metro North commuter train to Manhattan's Grand Central as 2008 moved into 2009 and 2009 became 2010.

Also, she is no fool. She knows her age is against her.

In addition, the housing market is down, especially in the northeast where the cost of living is high, weather brutal, and good jobs are migrating to other parts of the nation. Also, GE is relocating from Fairfield, CT to Boston and houses in her particular suburb aren't selling. That means she can't cash out, relocate, and semi-retire. She could be housebound, with a whopper of an energy bill. 

Sure, her portfolio could come back but that will take time. Right now, as she is being squeezed, time is not on her side. 

Joy could fill the land tomorrow as those in a financial panic envision the even more intense suffering of those who considered themselves the haves.

Capitalism isn't pretty. That economic ideology has many flaws. And the up or out policy in law firms will probably go on an accelerated schedule. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

MANHUNT! - NJ Law Enforcement Search for Lawyer James R. Ray III for Alleged Murder

For those in the New Jersey Metro area, this represents a scary development.

Lawyer James R. Ray III, who received his JD in  2008 from the University of New Hampshire, is wanted for the alleged murder of Angela M. Bledsoe.

She was the mother of his child. He is on the run, armed, and considered dangerous.

As Abovethelaw reports, this is not Ray's first time on allegedly being on the wrong side of the law. His paralegal had filed a sexual harassment lawsuit. That had been settled outside court. 

This manhunt is receiving high-profile media attention because that's standard when a lawyer is perceived to be, accused of, or convicted of a crime.

One wonders how they, who know the law so well, could get into such a pickle. They should be smarter than that. They should recognize they are risking their license, that is, their ability to earn a living, and their social standing in the community.

The odds are this will play out shortly as suicide by cop. That's how domestic crime usually reaches closure: as a suicide-murder. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

The Paul Rawlinson Saga - Hey, Lawyering Isn't Unique in Being Platform for Exhaustion

Baker McKenzie's global chairman Paul Rawlinson took a temporary leave.

No, it wasn't to serve on some public interest committee to address an issue such as cybersecurity or climate change.

It was for exhaustion.

That revelation opened the door to others in the legal sector to admit how difficult it is to sustain oneself when conducting business  The stresses include client demands, the always-on digital work culture, and the fear that top performers will be poached. Here is Dan Packel's article on that in Law.com.

However, this syndrome isn't unique to the legal sector. The whole game has changed throughout professional services, ranging from management consulting to public affairs. Both the leadership and the rank and file have little wiggle room in negotiating how much stress they will endure.

Among the shifts since the good old days of the 20th century in professional services are:

Increased competition. For instance, startups and lone rangers in a service such as marketing communications are taking on the established brands. Often help-wanted ads from known companies indicate they want individuals, not agencies, to respond. 

Churn as standard. It's become unusual for a client to stick with one firm. Eyes are always open for a better service at a lower price.

A buyer's market. With a few exceptions, prospects know they can dictate the terms and conditions of the relationship. Those might include a 24-hour turnaround. Seeming impossible deadlines are the new usual. 

Talent glut. Sure, there are top players in every niche. They are untouchable. However, overall there are too many talented professionals chasing a static number of good jobs and pulling out all stops every day to hold onto those jobs.

Technology edge. Digital immigrants are at a disadvantage and the stress they are going through wears them out. Millennials and iGens have the upper hand in pitching to, closing deals with, and retaining clients. Continually they can come up with a digital approach which can get amazing results for peanuts. Eventually they can plow over the old guard.

Overall, my colleagues and clients continually are at the point where their resilience gives out and they can fall into exhaustion. That has many names. Those range from burnout to a mental breakdown.

Those in organizations have no choice but to keep coping with challenge after challenge, non-stop.

As a solo entrepreneur I can create a cover story why I am not taking on new assignments. Of course, some business I turn away won't return. But I haven't lost my mind. For me, that's the most important bottom line. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Birds of a Feather - Many of Us Don't Like Megyn Kelly and Also Don't Like Her Former Employer Jones Day, Either

There's that old adage: If you want to know who a person really is, observe who he or she associates with.

Yes, birds of feather hang out together.

The scientific term for that phenomenon is "mirror neurons." Human beings influence each other cell by cell.

That's exactly why mom and the nuns at Catholic grade school warned us about "bad companions."

So, it's no newsflash that many of us who dislike Megyn Kelly also dislike her former employer law firm Jones Day. They seem to have attributes in common.

I will leave the comprehensive listing of them for Jones Day to Joe Patrice at Abovethelaw.com. Here is just one of Patrice's myriad negative columns about what has been labeled as Donald Trump's go-to for legal counsel. 

Kelly's tragic flaw seems to be being locked within herself and therefore not being able to connect.

That became immediately obvious in the talk show format on her NBC Sunday night disaster which, as Joe Pompeo reports in Vanity Fair, has been "euthanized."

When she was political firebrand on Fox that wasn't an issue. Tossing rhetorical grenades was the format. It was effective.

Not being able to connect is, of course, bad for building an audience. The ratings for her morning show haven't been too hot.

However, it can also incur professional suicide in her relations with those in the "Today" loop whom she needs to cooperate.

The pile on by members of the "Today" family in response to her blackface mistake provided evidence of the intensity of dislike.

Had they liked her, they could have provided support - and forgiveness. As Hedrick Smith hammered in his classic book "The Power Game," the ability to be liked is a key form of power. John F. Kennedy was a master of that.

Psychologists and executive coaches could spend hours with the media trying to explain how the Megyn Kelly types get that way and if there is hope for change.

But, my experience being a communications strategist and content provider for those players  in high places indicates the prognosis isn't good.

Wealth and success (even if its peak has passed) frequently have hardened their personality contours. If they even admit imperfections, they likely will take the stance of William Shakespeare's King Lear. On the heath, where he has gone mad, Lear rants that he has been more sinned against than sinning.

The blackface stumble could provide NBC the opportunity to buy Kelly out of her contract. That will be, many of us will feel, good riddance.

Then we can devote our full attention to monitoring how Jones Day is faring in the court of public opinion. Often that has greater influence than the court of law.

If Trump keeps making serious mistakes or is accused of crimes the Jones Day brand could be badly tarnished.

Clients might fear guilt by association. Notice has Ted Olson, partner at Gibson, Dunn, backed out of lobbying for Saudi Arabia.

Full Disclosure: I had gone to college with females who mirrored Kelly's attributes and I have done communications assignments for lawyers who seemed to share the Jones Day public persona. The suffering was profound. I still have flashbacks.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com