Law And More

Manna from Heaven (and hell) - Epstein Donor Crisis at MIT Deepens as Goodwin Procter Investigates

As in big time politics, among prestigious academic brands, there must be a continual influx of what is usually referred to as "real money."

That manna comes from both heaven (respected foundations and philanthropists) and hell (donors such as Jeffrey Epstein).

Now, such a traditional dynamic is being scrutinized in the media. That had been kicked off by Ronan Farrow's expose in The New Yorker about the MIT Media Lab's acceptance and lack of transparency regarding donations from convicted pedophile Epstein. Very quickly the head of the Lab Joi Ito resigned. Then MIT president Rafael Reif contracted with prominent law firm Goodwin Procter to investigate.

Since then, the crisis has deepened.

The Daily Mail reports that Goodwin Procter has uncovered an August 16, 2012 thank-you letter from Reif, then a new president at MIT, to Epstein for a donation. Over the long term Epstein had contributed $800,000 to MIT, in addition to the gifts to the Media Lab.

Those who understand how large organizations operate find it credible that Reif indicated that letter was standard procedure and that he does not even remember signing it. He probably doesn't.

But given how the media plays with stories and how many feel resentment against elite academic institutions, Reif will suffer. MIT will suffer. The Media Lab will suffer. 

What and who will be left standing is a betting game bookmakers can oversee.

However, at the end of the day, MIT as the powerful force it is in many fields, will bounce back. The odds are that it will seek guidance with the best of crisis counselors, probably both internally and externally, on how to navigate this scandal. 

Ever since the Puritans established Harvard in 1636, higher education has had an almost voodoo-like hold on America. MIT's power isn't going away. It will continue to cast spells. 

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Uber Push-Back as CA AB-5 Becomes Law

California is a trend-setter. And now that its AB-5 is being signed into law by its governor, classifying contractors as employees could spread to other states.

That's among the threats to Uber as well as myriad other businesses which use the gig economy model to gain a competitive advantage.

Without the gig edge, the playing field in the manpower game would become more level. So, no surprise, Law.com reports, Uber's head lawyer Tony West has plans to push back. Some of them include aligning with other businesses which leverage the gig economy model. 

Essentially AB-5 mandates that employers apply the three tests established by the CA Supreme Court Dynamex ruling to determine if the workers they use should have the protections, rights, and benefits of employees.

The law goes into effect next January 1st. 

Right now, West has declared that law doesn't affect Uber because the contractors are not a core part of the business. That is one of the three Dynamex's tests. So it does not play to comply with the law. Here is more on that from Law and Crime. 

West and other businesses using the gig model also have already targeted about $90 million for creating a 2020 ballot measure. That could take the form of proposing an alternate to the terms and conditions established by AB-5. For example, an alternate work classification would be put out there providing not employee status but minimum wage and benefits.

Another tactic could be litigation. The exceptions in AB-5 for professions ranging from lawyers to fishermen could be shown through lawsuits to violate the equal protection theory. 

Clearly Uber is encountering serious headwinds in AB-5. And overall it isn't sitting pretty.

During Q2 in 2019, the startup lost $5 billion - a record. Recently it laid off more than 400 employees in product and engineering. That follows the earlier layoff of 400 in marketing. As with the investors for WeWork, a growing number of those for Uber are no longer "patient capital." They are tired of all the growth with no sign of the business ever being able to achieve a profit. 

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The Career Wisdom of Becoming Guest of the State - Felicity Huffman et al.

For seasoned players in the branding game, a prison stay can kick off reputation restoration.

Examples of that range from jailbirds Watergate lawyer Chuck Colson to private school head Jean Harris.

So, Felicity Huffman could be making a public relations wrong move in trying to duck being a guest of the state. Instead of an all-out high profile campaign for no prison time (which ordinary people would turn on her for) she should request a stiff sentence. Immediately the career magic would begin blossoming again. The sound of her name will cast spells. 

A seemingly nice human being, Huffman could thrive in prison. One-on-one she could help fellow inmates with everything from advice (learned the hard way) about parenting to genius makeup tricks. On a macro level, she could launch a new program tutoring about transforming pain into game-changers. 

Upon release (probably with reduction of the sentence for good behavior) Huffman can start a foundation for mothers in prison. For the rest of her life she could be its chief fundraiser. Then her family can take over.

Prison time can be the unique opportunity to reconfigure career strategies. It took a stay behind bars for the Malcolm X to emerge. Previously, that unchanneled force of rage had been a street thug. 

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The Strange Voodoo of Shut-Down Males in TV Law Enforcement - Jack Malone, et al.

Those shut-down law enforcement characters on television grab and hold onto audiences.

At the top of the list is Jack Malone, who heads an FBI unit on "Without a Trace." His mirror image is Aaron Hotchner in charge of the BAU on "Criminal Minds."

There are no new episodes of "Without a Trace." But the series is still in reruns. Here, in the Midwest, they are scheduled on Escape.

One of the most intriguing attributes of Malone's character is his self-awareness. He knows exactly who he is but he can't change - even though he tries, over and over again.

For instance, he tells a subordinate facing serious medical problems he realizes he hadn't been there for her in the past but will be there for her in the present. She gets it that's impossible and that's that. 

Another episode has him on the roof, as an old man. That man is contemplating suicide. Malone decides to save himself by changing. However, the audience wonders if he is capable of any psychic reorganization. So wounded he had been by his father.

As for his relationship with subordinate Sam, he both tries to let her free to live a life with someone else and struggles in subtle ways to hold on. Another relationship with a woman more his age collapses when she miscarries their child.

He also can't relate to the family he already produced.

Because he is onto himself, Malone's suffering is profound. What's amazing is that he can leave that in some kind of box when he is working a case. Everyone respects his investigative genius and how he connects the dots. 

The filming of new episodes ended with Malone's and Sam's relationship still up in the air. She was building a connection with the father of her baby. Malone is sending off a message of non-acceptance. What the audience is left with is the question: Did Sam have the strength to break free of Malone? Those following the reruns look for clues to answer that question. Malone possesses the unique voodoo of being able to cast romantic spells. 

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Language Refresher for Lawyers: The Buzzword "Gaslighting"

The Guardian quotes Taylor Swift on a gaslighting observation. She states that U.S. Donald Trump is "gaslighting" the American public with his meme that if they don't like him they don't like America. 

Buzzwords come and go and come back. Baby Boomers might recall the buzzword gaslighting from the noir film genre. Some evil genius was gaslighting a sweet powerless person … 

Then the term vanished from cool.

Now it's becoming a standard way of describing Machiavellian mental and emotional manipulation. For example, in the court of public opinion an age bias lawsuit against Mount Sinai is contending the head was gaslighting older females in order to make room for younger mails. Of course, that immediately grabbed headlines.

And Roger Ailes' "mortal sin" could go down in history as his alleged ability to gaslight females at Fox into believing their careers depended totally on him. He siphoned out talent from the success formula. Some seemed to buy in. But the good news is that some, such as Gretchen Carlson, didn't.

One wonders if the gaslighting went beyond the alleged sexual harassment sandbox. Did Ailes, for instance, persuade males in the loop that he was the primary source of their success. For example, Bob Dilenschneider had served as Ailes' personal public relations counselor.

On behalf of Ailes, Dilenschneider might have tarnished his own brand in what could go down in history as "The New York Times Review of Books Caper."

Given his decades in public relations, Dilenschneider could have or should have known that the media would out that supposed stealth move to distract from Gabriel Sherman's new negative biography of Ailes "The Loudest Voice in the Room."

Both the concept and the actual term "gaslighting" have power.

Lawyers should exploit that. Soon enough the influencers will remove that linguistic default.

No longer will it be able to cast spells, including in developing new business for class action bias lawsuits, as in "The managing director at the law firm seemed to gaslight females and older associates, right?" Such language can establish unique connection, the kind which closes the deal. The lawyer leveraging it gets to represent the plaintiff class. 

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So Many Moving Parts: The Royals' Public Relations Machine, U.S. Legal System

For a long time, the royals have been on the defensive.

The times have changed and, aside from tourism, their institution creates less value for the pocketbooks of their financially distressed "subjects." In addition, there's climate change to worry about.

So, some day and that day can be soon the once solid "firm" operated by Queen Elizabeth could go the way of the low-IQ phone. Who knows, Prince Harry's wife might have to return to her acting career in the U.S. William's daughter Charlotte might have mastered the royal wave for a lousy return on investment.

So, it was predictable that with the most recent allegations about the Duke of York - 59 year old Prince Andrew - the royal public relations machine should be flipped on.

Media outlets are publishing star snaps of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Andrew, and his daughter Princess Beatrice on their way to Crathie Church. After all, it's Sunday. Church is good. 

Prince Andrew, it is alleged, groped a woman's breast at a party at a party at Jeffrey Epstein's mansion. The woman allegedly had been Joanna Sjoberg.

Esptein's death and the mystery surrounding it have catapulted what was to be a U.S. trial about alleged sex-trafficking into a hot global media story. Over and over again it played on global broadcasts this weekend.

Forever, conspiracy theories will bounce around Epstein's death. That gives the saga sustained marketability. In the process, the branding of the royals could shift from sometimes-naughty to predatory. Not good. 

An activist can organize a boycott of tourism scheduling anything royal. Queen Elizabeth will go down in history as the chief executive officer who lost the firm. 

The royals deny all the allegations associated with the Duke of York. The world might be thinking: A pox on all their houses. 

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Cursed Kennedy Summers - Now, Saoirse Kennedy Hill Apparent Overdose Victim

It was in summer that John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane went into a death spiral.

And before that it was summer when Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick car accident resulted in the tragic death of a former aide and ended his presidential ambitions.

And now what might be thought of as the Kennedy Summer Curse has siphoned away another life. It has been the grandchild of Bobby and Ethel Kennedy and daughter of their daughter Courtney Kennedy Hill: Saoirse Kennedy Hill, 22 years of age. Here is one of the myriad media reports.

The cause of death is suspected to be a drug overdose. Saoirse was staying at Ethel's part of the Kennedy compound on Cape Cod. At 2:30 P.M. New York Time, Barnstable police and medics were called to the compound. They found the victim in cardiac arrest and transported her to the hospital where she died.

Some will recall that Ethel's own son David died of an overdose in 1984. Here is the media coverage from The New York Times back then. 

No one but a Kennedy can know the burden of being a Kennedy.

This blog wishes those who loved Saoirse peace about her passing. 

 

Make It a Crime, Name Crime After Roger Ailes

Vampire.

That might be the best way to describe Roger Ailes. And that comes through in the 4th episode of the Showtime series "The Loudest Voice in the Room."

Essentially The Ailes Move seems to have been to take human beings and suck out their sense of self. That rendered them an entity with no self-worth.

Those range from his mistress Laurie Luhn to editor in chief of his Hudson Valley newspaper Joe Lindsley.

That horrific invasion of a human being seems worse than any alleged sexual misconduct.

The odd thing about that is that it hasn't become a crime in its own right. No, "deliberate affliction of emotional abuse" doesn't do that kind of heinous act justice. Yes, a new crime should be put on the books. It should go by the nickname "The Ailes Move."

One wonders if Ailes' long-time personal public relations representative Bob Dilenschneider was a possible enabler in The Ailes Move or, like so many in the Ailes loop, a victim. 

The sucking activity might have been for Ailes just a compulsive need to control and/or what was required to create a conservative media empire.

Of course, Ailes wasn't unique in adopting this kind of process.

Subtract the sex addiction, and Steve Jobs might also fit the vampire description.

So do many authority figures in the Roman Catholic continuum.

In fact, so do all those creatures who parachute in during challenging times in others' little lives. 

What vampires are so good at is sizing up people. They know exactly what will motivate those human beings to turn themselves over to the predator. 

That ability, though, could result in their downfall. In the end Ailes became overconfident. He probably didn't pick up that subordinate Gretchen Carlson had any sense of self left after years associated with Ailes.

Since this Showtime series has exposed myriad power tactics one wonders if some of them won't work well any more. For example, in the job interview, if the head guy or woman seems like a vampire, applicants will know to run the other way.

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Privilege & Alleged Recklessness - Andrew Bachman, John F. Kennedy Jr., et al.

"They are carless people."

That's how a line from F. Scott Fitzgerald's book "The Great Gatsby" sized up the privileged.

The book was fiction - a novel.

The nonfiction book, to be released this coming Tuesday, "Four Friends" confirms that observation. Published by Flatiron, it will be released July 9th. Here it can be ordered from Amazon.

By William D. Cohan it hammers the hypothesis that the blessing of wealth can trigger extreme recklessness.

Essentially, it documents the risk taking by John F. Kennedy Jr., right from the get-go.

Eventually that might have been the primary cause of his death in the ocean 20 years ago this month. Unfortunately, his ill-fated plane flight also resulted in the death of his wife and her sister. Here is an introduction to Cohan's book by the media. 

Fitzgerald and Cohan give us something big to reflect on. Maybe ordinary strivers have a long-term advantage. At least they are able to continue playing whatever game they decided seemed promising. They go on to retire and live a long life in middle class retirement communities that crowd Oro and Green Valleys in southwestern Arizona. 

Several years ago I might have encountered a classic example of that kind of darkness.

Boston entrepreneur Andrew Bachman contracted with me to assist with his memoir, which was due to be published by Wiley.

That publishing commitment was put on hold when the feds showed up at his door. First he surrendered his assets. Then he took a guilty plea. Here is more on all of that.

Bachman is the son of two Boston metro medical doctors and brother of another one. He was born into a situation late Providence, Rhode Island mayor Buddy Cianci might have described as  "the lucky sperm club." 

In the Babson dorm Bachman was part of the group who launched successful startup Tatto Media. In 2011, Ozura World acquired Tatto for $60 million. The team got rich. Bachman and I would go over the memoir manuscript in his penthouse overlooking Boston. Underneath the building were his designer roadsters. Initially we joked that the title of the book should be "My Car Is My Business Card."

That all unraveled when the Federal Trade Commission discovered that embedded in the Bachman team's genius was a mobile scamming scam. The rest is law enforcement history.

Some wonder if Bachman can come back from his reversal of fortune. Or, will he, like too many from "the lucky sperm club," resume alleged self-destruction.

If "Four Friends" becomes a best-seller, Kennedy could be rebranded as "The Reckless Son."

Among the early excessive risk taking adventures had been those out on the water. That was despite the fact that he had been part of a dynasty experienced in what it took to remain safe off land. Family publicity photos frequently involved some kind of water transport. Those photo-ops came to be published more often than the touch football games at the family compound.

Recently, son of a hedge fund manager and Princeton graduate, Thomas Gilbert, Jr. had been convicted of murder. At his August sentencing he faces life in prison. The murder victim? His father, the man who had reduced his allowance. At the time of the allowance cut/murder, Gilbert was around 30 years old.

Those who grouse about not being a member of "the lucky sperm club" might shift to humming the lyrics from a Billie Holiday hit song.

Those are about the blessings of a child who has his own. The lines go "Mama may have, Papa may have …"

Reflection: In this gilded age there is probably a need for a national day of prayer for privileged offspring.

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Trial Date August 4, 2020 for "U.S. v. Elizabeth Holmes, et al."

The phenomenon of Elizabeth Holmes is a platitude.

Over and over those who preach a miracle get heard, get supported including financially, and then get accused of being an alleged fraud.

The other example of that which comes to mind, of course, is Bernie Madoff. It's a kind of witchcraft.

Human nature seems to be a sitting duck for wanting to believe in the impossible. Some contend those who buy in get exactly what they deserve. The thinking goes "They should have known better." The consequences of their magical thinking ranges from loss of money to loss of reputation. Those on the Theranos board such as Henry Kissinger look mighty foolish. 

Finally the court system will turn up the ugly underbelly of what Holmes, along with the Theranos number-to Sunny Balwani, was allegedly up to. U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila has set a date for the trial of "U.S. v. Elizabeth Holmes, et al." on August 4, 2020. Both face two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud. Here are more details from the media. And, here is a copy of the Indictment.

Those following this alleged exotic fraud might wonder if the defense team should play with the theory of insanity. How could a sane person have attempted to pull off what Holmes allegedly did? Or, did she simply recognize her ability to cast spells and leverage the voodoo? 

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