Law And More

In More Workplaces, Cupid Has to "Go On The Record"

"While workplace dating policies have been commonplace for years, typically targeting relationships between managers and subordinates, many companies have been compelled to update them to take into account new state anti-harassment laws and remote work activity spurred by the coronavirus pandemic." - Bloomberg Law, October 22, 2020. 

Everyone has a work story of a romance - theirs or someone else's - derailing. The drama. The awkwardness. Then, the fear of the next shoe to drop (that is, one, usually the female, nudged to leave the organization or transfer to another department.)

Those stories are usually pretty tame. The version that isn't could include allegations of abuse of power or of sexual harassment. Heads could roll. Lawsuits could be filed. Colleagues could bellow in pain. They would claim that favoritism shown for the one-time romantic partner prevented their own rise up the ladder.

The surprising thing is that widespread action about regulating office romances hasn't been taken sooner. Though it was universal or almost so it was supposed to be ignored.

As Bloomberg Law points out, employers have the right to regulate personal relationships between employees. The #MeToo movement has pushed that further. Many feel that employers have the responsibility to do so. In itself, that can prevent sexual harassment. 

The regulations are all over the map.

Some companies forbid all romance. The push-back on that policy is that the relationship will go underground. Also, the reality is that working together closely on a project can trigger love and lust. Suppressing that can distract.

Other companies require being informed that a romance is happening.

Then there are those mandating formal "love contracts."

Overall, the love game is one Mothers couldn't teach us. Their world of work was not so intense and did not involve such long hours. It was possible to remain detached. Also there was time to seek romance outside the workplace. 

For too many, the policies, whatever they might be, won't protect them from workplace crushes. They may not act on them. The other party may not encourage taking the next step. But they can be a source of so much preoccupation.

Reflection: All this could be excellent arguments for restructuring the organization with Artificial Intelligence. The manager won't find the robots crying at their desk because of a romance which soured.

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History Is Back - However, It Never Left the Legal Sector

"A bit of perspective.

"Forty years ago (January 1981—think Reagan/Thacher, the introduction of the original IBM PC, and the recent death of double-digit inflation at the merciless and brilliant hands of Paul Volcker), the S&P 500 was 29% made up of energy by market cap.  In 2008 (the GFC), it was still 17% and oil was at $140/barrel." - Bruce MacEwen, "Build Back Better." Adamsmithesq.com, October 12, 2020.

Obviously, Bruce MacEwen is reaching back into the past to make a point about the present - and future.

In the beginning of the cancel culture such as strategy would have been, well, bold. The ethos back then mirrored the dismissal of history by Henry Ford. He blew it off as "bunk." 

Maybe it's the craziness of living on planet earth since March of 2020. Maybe everything is cyclical. But the interest in history has boomeranged back.

Help-wanted ads on Craigslist, for example, are growing in number for the old-fashioned kind of historical research. Not just doing the Survey Monkey thing.

Also, finally, when I attempt to add value to my publishing by including trends from the past, that is getting attention. Lots of it. 

For example, in PinHawk Marketing Brief there is a link to my post - highly historical - about how the patterns of layoffs in BigLaw are dead wringers for what occurred in Corporate America from the late 1970s through the late 1980s. The combination of technology and cost-cutters like Jack Welch disappeared our good jobs. Here is that post. Traffic to it has been heavy. 

So, those in the business of persuasion, yes, use historical data as rhetorical tactics.

Meanwhile, those in the legal sector probably are smirking. The industry operates on a platform of precedents. Sure precedents are overturned but not before they can unleash tremendous power. 

Given the return of history to Main Street, lawyers might take a side door to developing brandnames by giving Ted Talks, blogging, podcasting and becoming a social network influencer discussing how history can cast spells. How to leverage that. How to exorcise the bad parts. And, of course, what to learn 

They can segue into the narratives by citing the profound pull power humans' own family histories have on them. Just consider the saga of feuds. The speakers can show a clip from "The Godfather."

Reflection: Could this revival of history signal we are returning to the age of reason?

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Transcending Marketing & Its Discontents - Sales w/o Selling

The gameplan for marketing keeps mutating. And, during COVID-19 times, with so many businesses failing, survival of the fittest keeps requiring new plays.

While some law firms are engaged in the bonus wars others are still wobbly. 

Sure, for certain players, the tactics can still include publishing a book. Venture capitalist and co-founder of PayPal Peter Thiel put out there "Zero to One." That was in 2014. Currently it still ranks high on Amazon - 8,140. Expect an uptick.

In that guide for entrepreneurs, Thiel discusses applying to clerk for two justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, being rejected and lessons learned. Given the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, sales of any book reflecting on SCOTUS dynamics are bound to soar.

In addition, if layoffs become the norm should COVID-19 circle back or a contested election throws the world economy into disarray, those in the RIF loop will have to reflect on what Thiel had to find out. Namely that a setback can be opportunity. Those suffering that blow have upped the odds of winding up on their right career path. 

Here's another kind of lesson to learn. Public affairs Manhattan boutique owner Bob Dilenschneider published "Decisions" on December 31, 2019. Currently it ranks quite low on Amazon - 1,024,555. That makes publishing a book, at least for Dilenschneider, a - not a +. His shop does have a niche for the public opinion aspect of litigation as well as tort reform. The Dilenschneider Group helped promote Philip Howard's "The Death of Common Sense."

You bet, book publishing is risky for the non-Thiels as well as the non-Woodwards. Sales are made public on Amazon. That is information available to the author's competitors and enemies. Prospects for the author's services are also aware of the rankings. In America, we count. That's why resume experts hammer to quantify accomplishments. Your team's wins and settlements totaled X amount for 2019. 

What Dilenschneider ignored was this: All the other cool marketing tactics he could have invested his resources in. They include podcasting, YouTubing and Instagram. The content of those could have been entertaining. 

The essence of marketing is a distraction from the existential tragedy that is life. Ginsburg, like all human beings, really did die. 

The marketing message is supposed to lift the targeted demographics from focusing on what is to the promise of what could be. That ability characterized Don Draper's creative talent in AMC's programming "Mad Men."

Successful marketing is actually a process of not-marketing. The response is built-in. The targets respond, kind of on autopilot. And it transcends the inherent hatred of being sold to that iconic Harvard professor Ted Levitt warned about. He made famous the meme Marketing and Its Discontents. 

In constructing his gameplan for 2021, Dilenschneider can dismantle his in-place marketing machine and conjure up the voodoo of sales w/o selling. So can law firms. 

The genius in that category is chairman of law firm Paul, Weiss Brad Karp. Each and every outreach doesn't look, walk, talk or smell like marketing. Those range from social justice initiatives to acquiring brandname laterals from his competitors. There is no heavy-handed marketing imprint. 

When I consult with displaced lawyers for my career coaching services, early into the session it is usually appropriate to introduce the question: Have you considered experimenting with how you are marketing yourself? 

Their answer is always "yes." That is because the answers for our economic survival are always within us. Otherwise, caveman wouldn't have had endured long enough to produce the next generation of the human species.

If what's inside you is sending out signals to assess your marketing, then Stop, Listen, and experiment. Most things in business don't pan out. All that's needed are for a few to produce results. 

Small changes can have big impacts. Results-driven career coaching.  Affordable rates (sliding scale).  Make an appointment for complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com) Download UnleashingPossibilitywithJaneGenovaCareerCoaching

Jed Rubenfeld - America Is the Land of Reputation Restoration

Media outlets have been busy bees chronicling the fall of Yale Law School professor Jed Rubenfeld.

But that's today.

If he lays low for a while, then soon enough he can conjure up the magic of reputation restoration.

As a career coach, so many have been asking me if Rubenfeld is "comeback material."

In response, I have published this article in Odwyerpr.com.

With the growing number of strategies and tactics in public relations, no one has to be stuck more stuck most stuck. There are Nexts. 

The answers about your professional life are inside you. You will learn through coaching how to open yourself up to them. And get unstuck. Soon enough you will be your own coach. Affordable rates. Make an appointment for complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)

Don't Use that Language Around Here: "The Retirement Dream"

In giving relocation advice to those about to retire, MarketWatch hammers the importance of, well, not retiring. At least, not completely.

Even for a financially comfortable couple, there is a recommendation to grab part-time work and back off from touching the nest egg.

High healthcare expenses may bite them in their pocketbook in the future.

Work is increasingly the necessary hedge.

Overall The Retirement Dream of extreme pleasure and no work can keep you stuck. That's because of 3 realities.

One, you can doom yourself to living on a fixed income. That's the platform for worrying since just about everything, from the cost of housing to that of groceries, is going up. Yes, there is work out there. Here, free to read, is my bible on how to land, hold and move on to better work Download Outwitting ageism.

Two, you socially isolate yourself. Work, from the days of ringing up purchases at CVS in high school to the career-path jobs, is where you have access to God's Plenty.

Isolation triggers more isolation.

When I visited former college acquaintance Kathleen Huebner in an Oro Valley, Arizona retirement community too many residents experienced "shrunk boundaries." They preferred, for example, to celebrate holidays in the development's dining rooms rather than the affordable restaurants beyond that box.

And, three, the ability to work, if you need to (and, surprise surprise, so many need to), can atrophy. In the old days parents mandated their offspring get a job, any job, in order to kick off the go-to-work socialization process.

When I coached displaced lawyers who had lived off severance and savings I noticed that when the money ran out they had difficulty interviewing for even survival jobs such as security guard.

Being without work for too long also resulted in their failure to nail down a position back practicing law. They had put themselves outside the work loop by not working. In addition the adage is on the money: Nothing gets you a job like a job. While doing a job you are maintaining the eager-beaver worker persona.

Once some retirees are stuck, the condition may harder into ossification. They are even fearful, like a number of those in Oro Valley, to venture out and try to amuse themselves in another sandbox. If there is a low-cost tour to X, they pile on the excuses why they have to stay in their box with the worn-out toys.

Takeaway: Structure The Retirement Dream with porous boundaries. That full-time, part-time or gig assignment can wind up being a fresh career path. You might find out you have unexpected talents and skills. Welcome, Late Bloomers.

All the answers are within you. Get unstuck to gain access to all the insight. Intuitive Career Readings (intuitivereadings123@gmail.com) invites you to a 3-minute complimentary session.

 

Stuck - Maybe That Term Applies to Many of Those Hanging in at SmallLaw/Solo Practices

Just as predicted, the coming of LegalZoom reduced business for B2C lawyers. Then it got worse. LegalZoom itself expanded into B2B. Then it got much much worse. Along with LegalZoom have been myriad other low-cost online legal services. Some are general, some have niches such as Nolo in estate planning.

Among the best, along with Nolo, reports the New York Post :

Yes, LegalZoom is still up there in ratings.

BizFilings

RocketLawyers

Legal Nature

Legal Match.

As a result, lawyers still trying to make a good living in SmallLaw/Solo practices might have gotten stuck with so much demand being taken care of online. When I asked the PNC banker in Youngstown, Ohio where I could find a lawyer to do my will, her smirked. Essentially, he said, they are lined up all along the main drag.

But, it's so hard to embrace that reality of being surplus supply and to even think about a Next.

However, the new radical frugalism triggered by COVID-19 hard times might make it necessary to take a peek into the abyss. From what the New York Post writes about LegalZoom I will probably use it for my LLC. 

All the answers are within you. Get unstuck to gain access to all the insight. Intuitive Career Readings (intuitivereadings123@gmail.com) invites you to a 3-minute complimentary session.

 

Demoted Equity Partners/Forced Out Nonequity Ones - What Story Are You Telling Yourself

We are the stories we tell, including those we tell ourselves.

The professional reality documented by the Altman Weil transition survey is that many partners are not busy enough. In numbers that's 31% of equity partners and 51% of non-equity ones. Depending on the law firm, billable hours have declined 10% to 20%. As Kathryn Rubino reports in Abovethelaw, the equity ones are being demoted to nonequity and the nonequity ones are being forced out. 

The human element in this development is the future of the affected partners. How rosy that future is depends so much on the stories they are telling themselves and telling others about this transition.

They can and must shape those narratives in a way that they build a platform to the Next. That Next could be how they position and package themselves in their own or another law firm. Or if they are no longer employed it could be how to prepare themselves for either continuing to earn income or to retire/semiretire.

That should be the good news.

But it rarely happens that way.

Change often triggers those in the loop to become stuck. They tell the wrong stories. And the narratives take over. 

Partners are welcome to a 3-minute complimentary consultation with IntuitiveCareerReadings to check if they are on the way to Stuck (please contact for appointment at intuitivereadings123@gmail.com.)

All the answers are within you. Get unstuck to gain access to all the insight. Intuitive Career Readings (intuitivereadings123@gmail.com) invites you to a 3-minute complimentary session.

 

Thud of Dewey Leboeuf Collapse Resonates - When Human Beings Get Stuck

Blame it on systems theory.

Organizations and careers come to be thought of as living, breathing entities. When they stop functioning well, they are said to be "stuck." Consultants parachute in to get them unstuck. 

Most applied systems theory.

Not enough told those paying the consulting bill that is the human beings who operate those organizations or put together careers who are the sources of the stuckness. 

Sure there are external factors. The economy. New technologies making what-is obsolete. Shifting consumer tastes. Age bias. Personal problems. 

But why some organizations and careers derail and some don't amid those conditions is usually because of this: One or more human beings got stuck. The most brilliant marketing communications won't cut it, not for long. Stuck has a way to keep stuck. What's needed is to get unstuck. 

When that is impossible, then an unstuck pro has to come in.

That's why, in the early 1990s, IBM has to cut loose chief executive officer John Akers. A first that conservative corporation. It brought in the outsider with no preconceptions. That was Lou Gerstner Jr.

Before that, nearly bankrupt Chrysler brought in Lee Iacocca. He had nothing to lose after being fired from Ford. So, he wasn't dragging in "oughts" like dog turds on his shoe.

And, I have a hunch after he also got the boot from Apple Steve Jobs got himself untangled from what was holding him back. 

Aren't symbols of unstuck Joe Andrew at Dentons and Brad Karp at Paul, Weiss? 

In The New Yorker, James Stewart chronicled how human beings first got Dewey Leboeuf stuck. Then no one could get it unstuck. The thud from that collapse is resonating through these scary times. 

If your legal-sector organization, private sector or nonprofit, is sputtering or your career is stalled, including in joblessness, that's about you. 

The good news is that, since all the answers are inside you, you can get yourself unstuck.

That is, if you can embrace that you are off the game.

How can you assess that?

Ask yourself 4 questions?

• Are the stories you're telling yourself about your professional performance full of blame or praise? Both are red flags. You shouldn't be engrossed in so much self-talk.
• Are the stories you're telling others falling short of any authentic connecting? That means you're not exchanging the information and insights you need for your organization and career. There's a reason for that.
• Do you regret your setbacks? Shame on you. They are your teachers.
• Are you asking others for "permission" to do this or that? Obviously, you've lost your confidence.

Unfortunately, most of those for whom I've done communications assignments couldn't manage to unglue themselves from hardened mindsets and behavior patterns.

However, what they noticed was that the intuitive observations I made about them, not the organization or careers, was what got things moving again. That's because they got moving again.

They requested more intuitive career readings and less communications strategy.

That's how IntuitiveCareerReadings had been born during The Great Recession. The New York State Bar Association invited me to lecture displaced lawyers. Odwyerpr.com published my articles. My target market back then was the over-50. 

Then there was a recovery. And more of a margin for error.

IntuitiveCareerReadings became a side dish on the menu of services.

Now, it's the main dish. And it seems like the only dish. Demand has surged with the wildness of 2020. All generations are asking for me to take a peek to check out if they are stuck. However, the over-50 are experiencing more of a challenge landing, holding, and moving on to better work than in The Great Recession. 

For a complimentary 3-minutes, please make an appointment at intuitivereadings123@gmail.com. You might not need any more than those 3 minutes to start the unstuck. 

All the answers are within you.

From now on, this blog is getting unstuck from its traditional content. I am transforming it into a platform for helping professionals help themselves in their jobs, entrepreneurship and career paths. 

Lawyers - Lousy Childhood As Distinct Edge

The statistics are boringly familiar. As the ABA-Hazelden Ford study documents, lawyers have a higher than average rate of mental illness and all that goes with that. 

But those who tout those numbers as a stern warning for lawyers to seek professional help miss this: Those monsters of the mind can provide that intangible which separates competent lawyers from those who make it big. 

Those monsters usually date back to a lousy childhood. That reality is articulated in the memoir "Recollections of My Nonexistence" by Rebecca Solinit. Published this year, it ranks 16,235 on Amazon. 

Solinit chronicles her struggle to get launched when reaching what the world labels as "adulthood." She notes that those from happy families didn't experience that. They had been given a map. Because they were well put together, there was no need for rebellion. They followed the map. Without such a guide, she had to experiment. Most often, as we from horrific childhoods know, that is done wildly. We may look foolish. Onlookers might judge us harshly. 

However, what more and more are picking up on in these volatile times is this: The maps have become out of date. Many who had depended on them are floundering. On the other hand, those who, from the get-go, had to figure out what were the dots and how to connect them are scaling in success. 

This pattern isn't new.

Way back in the late 1970s, the academic market for humanities scholars collapsed. Throughout the U.S., those in doctoral programs were stopped cold. Prior to that they were regarded as the best and the brightest. That was light years before the tech era. F. Scott Fitzgerald and William Shakespeare were still relevant.

For the humanities doctoral crowd, the situation was binary. The happy-children kind consulted their maps. The direction was to be admitted to another demanding academic program in which there was demand. Those included medicine, law and clinical psychology. None become stars. Their core competence had been associated with the liberal arts. Others with the Hallmark background simply never got on the professional launch pad and wound up in low-level government jobs. 

The "messed" reached various kinds of Promised Lands. Some became management consultants. Others financial leaders. I landed in executive communications at the Fortune 50. As the world changed, changing demand, so did I. 

This pattern of lackluster performance among those lacking early trauma has become so blatant that the issue has arisen: Should parents interject artificial adversity into the lives of their offspring? Call in the ethics experts. 

Meanwhile, lawyers plagued with the Monsters of the Mind should count those as a blessing. The challenge, though, is to leverage that edge w/o being self-destructive. After all, those monsters such as alcoholism, want to kill us.

Place your paid sponsored content on this blog. Here are 6 tips for search engine optimization (SEO) in 2020. Contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Not the Lawyer You Used to Be - Lifequakes & Story Time

"I don't know who I am."

That's how people in transition usually sum up how they feel. Lawyers who had depended on their work to have an identity usually feel especially dismal when there could be change. Or the change has already happened. Those upheavals range from a stealth layoff to being forced into early retirement. 

But what would be more accurate and what would make moving forward less painful is if they noted "I need a new story."

We are the stories we tell about ourselves.

Both professionally and personally.

Way back when in a less chaotic era we used to call that the "elevator speech." In a sentence or two it summed up what we were about. If it concerned our professional identity, it could help our career. For instance, "I'm Joe and I help big companies sell a lot of products." 

In transition, that identity, once so solid, is shifting. In the interim and then longer term, folks can gain control of the process if they put together a fresh narrative. That tells the world where they are in their careers and personal lives. More importantly, it delivers the message to themselves that they are in-charge.

That's especially needed in what Bruce Feiler, author of "Life Is in the Transitions," has called "lifequakes" or seismic shifts. As MarketWatch reports, Feiler anticipates lifequakes to increase in number and intensity.

So, as folks sense a lifequake coming to rattle their lives to the core, a multi-dimensional tool could be conjuring up a new story.

The partner at a law firm gets it: The firm wants him out. He isn't bringing in enough new business or billing enough hours. The way to emotionally, socially, and professionally manage that experience is to capture it in a story that moves the process forward. An example? "I'm reviewing what could be Next. This is the first time in 30 years I looked up from my desk." 

A former star in public relations contacted me for a complimentary consultation on her career. She wanted another one. So typical she framed that in the narrative embedded in the past, in who she used to be. "At Corporation X, the world knew my name. I made a lot of money. The media quoted me." 

To have a shot at a Next, she had to extricate the story from the past to possibility. During four coaching sessions, she came to manage this lifequake with the story "I fix brands. That could be your personal or social brand. Or the brand of, say, Uber." That got people interested. Even before she had fully established her communications boutique she had business. 

In COVID-19, it's the rare professional, parent or retired who isn't being rattled by a lifequake.

How to start on the new story? 

Accept that what was is no longer. Then be ready to take the first few steps. Get those down in one or two sentences. Let language take charge. It's not what is happening. It's how people manage that whatever. Christians came up with the narrative of how the word was made flesh. 

Coaching, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on human resources and careers.  

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The special area of expertise is the displaced over-50 professional. Please contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.