Law And More

Self-Made Witness Protection Program - Sell Olivia Jade Giannulli a Kit

Already Olivia Jade Giannulli has lost the accounts of Sephora, TRESemme, and Estee Lauder. 

That was through the alleged fraud her parents - Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli - committed in getting her admitted to college. Ironically, she told her parents she didn't want to go to college. Currently she is no longer in college. 

Now, reports the New York Post, Olivia blames those two parents for messing up her bigtime life. It is for their alleged sins that her career might never gain traction again. 

The college admission scandal is major. Olivia is a symbol of privilege. And not in a positive way. Back in the hood where I grew up she was the kind of rich girl we would wrestle to the ground and stick gum in her hair. 

Until the day she passes from planet earth she will probably not be able to shake that stigma of extreme wealth and a parent-given professional edge.

Olivia would be wise to put together her own version of a witness protection program. She should change her name, relocate to a nation where she can get a work permit or operate a business, and socially keep her head down. Her parents' BigLaw lawyers can sell her an assembly kit for all that. Monica Lewinsky could have had a fresh start had she chose the expat path. 

Olivia = poor little rich girl.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

Helicopter Parents - Unethical/Illegal Behavior Affects the Admission to the "Right" Summer Camp, Also

Getting into the "right" summer camp has become as competitive as landing a seat in an elite college.

No surprise, helicopter parents are also offering bribes for that, reports MarketWatch.

Or they will cheat by forging free lunch forms to have their child placed in one of the subsidized slots. 

In addition, they are hiring consultants, at up to $400 an hour, to assess what camp that will be the best fit.

The cost of bribes, forging, and consultations is in addition to the fee for the actual camp. The day version can be about $300 a week, the sleepover, up to $1500. 

Helicopter parents recognize some camps will provide their children with an edge.

That could be networking with other privileged children, learning an in-demand skill like coding, or simply just having in their background that they had attended a certain brandname camp. 

Of course, the offspring are aware of the supposed need to be on-track in being admitted into the right feeder pools for later professional success. That can burden them with kinds of pressure they can't process. According to the CDC, currently one in five under 17 years of age has a diagnosable mental disorder. 

A former Yale professor - William Deresiewicz - experienced the offspring of the rich as fearful, soulless, and unable to connect. He chronicles that syndrome in his best-selling book "Excellent Sheep."

As adults, more and more of the high achievers in professional life are taking their lives. They range from designer Kate Spade to law partner Gabriel MacConaill. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

The Legacy of the GI Bill and The Almost 20,000 Lawyers Who Lost Jobs Around 2008

Did the GI bill of 1944 kick off the current obsession with "getting into college?"

That well-intentioned federal initiative made it possible for ordinary people in America to obtain degrees in higher education. Before that, such preparation for the life of the educated person (now called the "global citizen") and a supposed edge in making a living usually were limited to the upper middle class. 

Soon enough in the land of opportunity America had been in those days there was that ah-ha moment: Hey, I can go to college too. 

Soon enough that mutated into: Hey, I have to go to college. 

The higher education industry overbuilt and now, as Boston Magazine reports, it's downsizing. College after college had been closing down, merging, or radically restructuring. My dark humor is that the dorms will be retrofitted into assisted living facilities and nursing homes.

The meme in my Jersey City, New Jersey inner city high school in 1959 was: preparing for college. We were mandated to do this (take typing for doing term papers in college) and don't do that (get in trouble in class which would go on our permanent record) in order to get into college. The kids in shop - that is, the non-college preparation track - were a lower caste. 

En masse, we went to college.

Since higher education became a high status pursuit, the game became the more education the better. My race away from my blue-collar background included doctoral studies at the University of Michigan and admission to Harvard Law School. 

And here we are The Educated Generations.

What happened to us?

The main development is that education didn't insulate us from the machinations of The Invisible Hand.

During the 1980s, when business globalized, there had been that Stalin-like purge of middle managers in corporate.

Most of us were middle aged.

Those who couldn't figure out how to be entrepreneurs and shop for office supplies at Staples essentially had to retire early.

Meanwhile those who had gone the trade-school route didn't skip a beat.

The global crash of 2008 sucked away jobs and nest eggs. Currently, raw age bias is forcing white collars out before they are financially and emotionally ready to stop working. 

Meanwhile, those kids in shop who made it their business to be trained in a trade had a better track record for remaining employed.

On the elite Gold Coast of Connecticut, the plumbers, electricians, trash collectors, and long-distance drivers had plenty of work in 2008. Simultaneously, the college-educated were dropping like flies. Some haven't made it back yet.

At the top of the list are the almost 20,000 lawyers who lost their jobs and then were labeled "damaged goods." They weren't hired for comparable jobs.

In the coming recession, there's a projection that more than 10,000 will be put on the street, glutted with highly educated talent. 

A large number of those shop kids also have a more financially secure retirement. A neighbor, a retired long-haul driver, has his Teamsters pension, Social Security, and plenty more socked away. He had only been laid off once in his career.

During high school, sure, they hammered him about applying to college. Instead he went into military service. After that he worked three days in a production facility, then found out how to drive those big rigs. Currently, according to ZipRecruiter, the average salary for long-distance driving is $70,727.

What would I have done for a living had I not fell in line and attended college?

Likely, I would have knocked on the doors of The Jersey Journal, Hudson County, NJ's powerful newspaper. I would have offered to work free learning how to cover news, lived in the ghetto with my family, and continued to be a part-time long distance operator at the then New Jersey Bell. In those days, putting together a career path in that way was possible. Only we were not encouraged to take the non-linear path.

It wasn't until I was 30 that I began writing professionally. Right now, my field is glutted as The Invisible Hand wipes out jobs in journalism, traditional stand-alone public relations, and, as a result of the college admissions scandal, ghostwriting personal essays and term papers for those in the academic loop. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

"The Good Parents" - That Real-Life Show Produced College-Student Offpring Needing Lawyers, PR Crisis Counselors

It was a reality show - only played out in real life. That could be titled "The Good Parents."

The wealthy contingent of helicopter parents, with or without their offspring's awareness, allegedly purchased an unethical and illegal edge for admission to a brandname college. Of course, many of those parents are already suffering the consequences of those allegations. There have been arrests and work assignments lost.

But the second shoe to drop is this: consequences for the offspring.

In Vanity Fair, Julie Miller explains the immediate and longer-term implications for those who benefited from this edge, knowingly or unknowingly. The situation is so serious that experts recommend the students get both a lawyer and a public relations crisis counselor. Yes, some could wind up being slapped with an indictment. 

Already, the two daughters of the "Full House" star have dropped out of U.S.C. Experts are pushing for that same move for others. The scenario goes like this: Don't talk to press, drop out, get a menial job like waiter, start over again sometime in the future, and expect to be questioned forever about this scandal. 

Of course, if those offspring want to pursue careers, shade had been thrown on all that. They will remain part of The Lost Generation of Rich Kids from 2019. Salvation could come in the form of taking on professional roles of do-gooders such as social workers in the inner city or building facilities for fresh water in developing nations.

Can the best of the breed of crisis communications experts conjure up sympathy for The Kids? Don't bet on it. Earning a living has been a struggle for all generations. The hostility against the wealthy will escalate if there is a global economic slowdown. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Buddhism - Accessible, No or Low Cost, and Won't Prevent Admission to the Bar

Psychotherapy, even with good medical insurance, is expensive. My co-pay would be $45 a session.

And, as Olga Khazan reports in The Atlantic, 60% of counties in the U.S. don't have even one psychiatrist.

So, no surprise, in this era of extreme stress associated with earning a living and coping with so much change, Buddhism is catching on. Khazan notes that four in ten of us have tried meditation.

Participating in some form of Buddhism currently is very accessible and conveniently located. If there isn't a temple per se in the area, Buddhist oriented meditation and discussions are available at a yoga studio, meet-up, or local public library.

Also it is low-cost or no cost. At the Shambhala Buddhist temple in Tucson, Arizona, there was no fee when I had attended meditation practices and discussions. Donations were welcome, though, and most of us pitched in a buck every time we swung by.

The beauty of Buddhism for law students and lawyers is that, unlike seeking professional mental health treatment, there is no stigma. Having participated in meditation practices won't get anyone rejected for admission to the bar. A psychiatric diagnosis could. 

We who try out Buddhism keep coming back because what it provides works. By that I mean, we do calm down. We learn to process matters that pass through our brains in a different manner. And, most of the tactics are those we can carry away and use anywhere at any time in our lives.

For example, on my trip from AZ to Ohio the motel, two hours behind me, notified me that I had left my attache case, with my laptop and wallet, in the room. I pulled over the car and meditated. I got it that this was a setback, not the end of the world. The four hours added onto the trip were just four hours added onto the trip. One tenet of one school of Buddhism is that what is just is. It is neither good nor bad.

I have a hunch that Buddhist fundamentals such as not attaching to outcomes reach us because they are new to us. Most of us grew up with the tenets of Christianity or the Jewish faith. Unfortunately, much of that evolved into mere platitudes. 

In 2012, I began studying at the zen school of Buddhism in New Haven, Connecticut. There was also no fee.

Maybe there is no direct cause and effect relationship but soon enough I had the insight that I had "aged" out of doing business in the New York Metro area. I reconfigured my two enterprises to telecommuting ones and relocated to the more affordable, less age-biased AZ. In addition, I was able to phase out of antidepressants. And, there has been no need to pony up the money for appointments with mental-health professionals. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

How an almost 60-something, in 6-figure debt pulled off a FIRE (financial independence, semi-retire early)

In 2003, as I chronicle in this e-book, I was lugging around 6-figure debt.

My industry had collapsed. So, obviously, I had to do a career change.

I was over-50 and feared age bias.

Meanwhile, genius cognitive therapist Amy Karnilowitz, LMFT, based in West Hartford, Connecticut, mandated I get a survival job, any job. That's where humor kicked in. Five-foot me somehow wound up doing security in inner city retail. 

For about 6 months now, I have been doing a FIRE (financial independence, [semi] retirement). That is, my customized version of it. I continue to work about 45 hours a week. But it's totally on my terms. I only agree to accept work I decide is stimulating, with clients who are simpatico, and where the fee structure is fair. 

How did I go from being a pawn in the system of capitalism to one of its masters? Here is how I interpret the key steps in the journey:

Took a vow of poverty - now called "radical saving" - and stuck with it. Even for professional attire, I shop (carefully) at Goodwill and higher end consignment stores. Although I can afford to buy a house again I don't take on the financial uncertainty associated with the American Dream.

Picked up fast that I had aged out of doing business in New York Metro area. Actually, it took 3 trips into Manhattan from CT to pitch for accounts for my two startups to get it: The "they" perceived me as old. Therefore, paying that high rent wasn't paying off. I retrofitted my businesses to being totally telecommuting and relocated to the lower cost of living in Arizona. 

Picked up even faster on what else was changing. Where I residing in AZ was becoming gentrified by those relocating from California. Of course, the cost of living was no longer low. I researched other locations and, again, moved.

Another shift I sensed and acted on was that I had to purge my network of people who were not good fits - probably never had been. Here is how that process played out. And, here is my more recent insight on the need for an ongoing Network Cleanse. 

Invested. That was scary. There are no sure things. Those safe investments might not track with inflation. The ones in equities could be total losses. But, now I have enough of a locked-in reserve not to have to worry. 

Navigated emotional lows in cost-efficient ways. It doesn't take a trip back to Manhattan to shake off whatever. I can't explain the dynamics but a day trip to a large lake in the worst of winter can unleash the same mood-lifting magic.

Learned extreme self-forgiveness. Damn it, I got played two weeks ago by a brandname in my industry. I invested lots of work at the front end. The expectation was getting a piece of action in a big project. Humans plan, the gods laugh. Had I not been able to forgive my gullibility, I wouldn't have been able to reach out for help. The best advice I received was: Pray he gets what he deserves. I pray that every day. 

What specific advice would I give to other over-50 who feel they will never be able to row to the Promised Land of being whole again, emotionally and financially? 

Answer: Take that leap into self-love. It's never too late. And, all too often, it takes the worst of times to see and accept the best in ourselves.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Females & The Law - "Good Girls" Will Continue to Explore How Traditionally Socialized Mothers Go Rogue

The previews for the kick-off of the second season of "Good Girls" are juicy. The second season starts Sunday, March 3rd, on NBC, at 10 P.M. New York time. 

In the previews, one of the former traditional housewives gone rogue - Beth Boland - has crossed yet another line.

It appears she and Gangbanger Rio have had an encounter of a sexual kind. Fellow former good girl gone bandit and more Ruby Hill simply asks: How was it? Beth's husband is on the wimpy side.

This series has caught fire because it mirrors the shift in socialization of women as their problems and opportunities change. The three mothers in a Detroit suburb had encountered financial disaster.

Beth couldn't pay the mortgage. The family would lose the house.

Ruby's daughter needed a pricey transplant, not covered by the family's medical insurance.

Annie Marks, Beth's sister, has to fight for custody for her child who is on the way to transgender. Her former husband wants therapy to address the gender issue. Legal expenses are way beyond her income as a clerk in a grocery store.

Their first walk on the wild side is to rob that grocery story. Then they move on to more complex kinds of crime.

As they do, their confidence surges. Each comes into her own. Yet, despite their new sense of self, their relationships with each other deepen. When there is a setback in their life of crime or in their personal lives, they are one for all and all for one.

This series could be the kind of model of what is going on in the culture that "All in the Family" and "Law & Order SVU" had been. Ph.D. students in Media or American Culture could be doing their dissertations on how "Good Girls" gave permission to mothers to bypass socializing their daughters for traditional female values.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Tierra Ortega's Alleged Behavior - Happens All the Time

Allegedly Tierra Ortega murdered her daughter Ezlynn. Then, she allegedly threw her son Jericho from a building. After that, she jumped. Both son and mother survived.

This is positioned and packaged in the media - e.g. the Daily Mail - as the unique tragedy.

However, if it turns out to be an instance of a mentally ill mother, then it happens all the time.

Severe mental illness is a common reality.

Meanwhile, the children in that setting overseen by a disturbed mother, have few options. Foster care may not provide a more wholesome environment. Running away from home could land them in a sex trafficking ring.

Over the years I debated with my female siblings: Should we have outed our mother, descending increasingly into madness, to the "authorities."

I had a hunch I would have fared better in foster care. One sib was loyal to my mother and repelled by the idea of opening the door to our mother's being locked up in a psychiatric facility, shot up with potent medications. The other sib was pragmatic. Her take that foster care could add to our miseries the possibility of molestation. Yet, she lived in fear she could be murdered during the night by that scary presence who rarely could sleep.

The tragedy of being a child, at least beyond the cute infant stage, is that society doesn't welcome you with open loving arms. You have to navigate downright dangerous situations.

My solution was to play the academic card. By being a top student I was awarded a full scholarship to a college out of state and out of that house. Of course, the tradeoff was becoming a closed system. Intellectual activity was my default.

If Ortega is mentally ill, she may receive help. Meanwhile a daughter is dead and a son, if he makes it, could face a difficult life. I have great empathy with all in that loop. Despite the advances in digital technology, we still know so little about diagnosing and treating mental illness. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

The Sensational Legal Saga of Benjamin Rauf - No Ted Bundy, But ...

Would executed serial killer Ted Bundy have become such an object of media fascination had he not been a law student? 

Probably not. After all, it was while waiting trial, as a former law student that he was allowed to research his case in the law library. That provided the means for one of his two daring escapes. And, it was during his trial for murder that he did defend himself in such a flamboyant way. That provided many media moments of high drama.

Yes, a law school back story is a media magnet.

But former Temple University law student Benjamin Rauf attracted such interest for more reasons than just having been studying the law. The case would actually set legal precedent.

He had been accused of the murder of his former classmate Shazum Uppal in 2015. The latter was found shot to death in a car containing the amount of marijuana only a dealer would possess. It turned out, a dealer he was and Rauf was his assistant. 

When the relationship soured, Rauf killed him. He wound up taking a plea for manslaughter and weapon charges. Last week he had been sentenced to 15 years.

That sentence could been death.

But the judge turned over the issue to the DE Supreme Court if a death penalty would have legal if the jury was not unanimous in ruling that. His question was prompted by a similar case in Florida. As a result of that question, the high court in DE ended the death penalty. Rauf was off the hook and his case made history.

Another issue which delayed movement on the case was the question of what approvals law enforcement needed to search a cell phone. Data associated with Rauf's cell phone indicated he was in the vicinity of where the murder took place.

At his sentencing, unlike Bundy, Rauf was remorseful. That positioning and packaging of himself could be useful to him. It was held against Bundy that he was cocky right up until he got it that he was really going to be executed. Then the bravado went poof.

In prison, Rauf could finish his law degree. Whether he could practice law, though, would be the decision of a state bar association about whether to admit him.

Convicted murderer who served 12 years in prison - Bruce Reilly - is not optimistic about passing the bar's character test. After prison he studied for his law degree at Tulane. Classmates balked but he made it through and did receive his JD. Now, as The New York Times had reported, he might have hit a wall in being able to practice law per se. 

Plagiarist at The New Republic - Stephen Glass - was in the same pickle. After the scandal he chose studying law as his next career path. When he applied for admission to the California bar he was turned down. He brought his case to the CA Supreme Court. It upheld the rejection. According to media accounts Glass is employed as a paralegal. That, of course, doesn't require bar passage.

If Rauf continues to attract media interest, his saga could become more fascinating than Bundy's. That's because he is only about 30-something and his Nexts can be covered live and in real time for 70 more years.

Meanwhile, law enforcement, psychologists, clergy, and a fearful public wonder: What is the tipping point in the decision to murder?

On "Criminal Minds," there is the theory of the stressor.

But the combination of how the brain works and how one was socialized seems to make the why more difficult to answer. Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky explored that in his iconic "Crime and Punishment." What stops some of us mid-rage from offing those we perceive did us wrong? 

This blog welcomes Rauf and those in the loop to share their thinking in a bylined article. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

The Leader Says, "I know what I am doing." Run Like Hell

Any former English major probably smirked when U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein verbally smacked down a greenie with "I know what I am doing." Here in MarketWatch is the coverage of that weird incident.

The great literary artists, ranging from William Shakespeare to F. Scott Fitzgerald, played out the realities of human fallibility and its consequences. King Lear makes a bad bet about whom to trust and Jay Gatsby is naïve in assuming he could be a "class migrant."

There is even a literary device known as "Fallible First Person Narrator." That person has no idea how much he or she is revealing in telling his or her story.

Since mother of mankind - Eve - made the strategic decision to enhance her lifestyle in Paradise by eating the forbidden fruit, we have fooled ourselves into believing that we knew what we were doing. 

In the Berkshire Hathaway annual letter, released Saturday, Warren Buffett documents that, no, all those brilliant investment minds didn't really know what they were doing in plowing funds into Kraft Heinz. Thanks to that and other decisions that didn't turn out too hot, in Q4, the company lost more than $25 billion.

Meanwhile, a growing number of Roman Catholic have grown impatient with the doctrine of papal infallibility. That has been the ancient dictum that, when it comes to spiritual matters, the pope is always 100% right.

In Rome, he and the bishops around the world are struggling with how to deal with clergy sex abuse scandal. Not many are betting that the pope, despite his claim infallibility, will get that right. 

The genius of tech entrepreneurs and the giant corporations they created is this: They knew they didn't know what they were or are doing. All strategies and tactics were approached as an experiment. That's exactly why they look for evidence of multiple failures on the resumes of those who apply for jobs.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com.