Law And More

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.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

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? 

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

Voodoo and Voice - Alexa, Podcasting, Audio Vetting, memvio

You stressed-out lawyers set your Alexa to nudge you with, Hey, it’s only a job. And you go on to fight for truth and justice another day.

That kind of voice messaging is exactly why Alexa is growing so rapidly.

“Voice establishes a powerful emotional connection, even more than facial gestures,” explains Shari Nelson, founder of memvio. “And, it stays imprinted forever. Voice resonates in our unconscious.”

Research, such by the Greater Good Science Center, confirms that therapeutic voodoo. How it happens is beginning to be scientifically sorted out. For example, we already know that the region of the brain where the ability to recognize voices is housed is the superior temporal gyrus (STG).

By 2021, there will be more voice-activated assistants throughout the world than human beings, forecasts Ovum. It took three decades for mobile phones to reach that level.

Call this a movement? Maybe. Alexa does represent the return to an oral culture. Of course, trial lawyers, by necessity, have never left that tradition.

Marketers, as usual, pounced on this audio trend. They noticed the popularity of podcasting among all generations. Because the voice medium is so engaging podcasting advertising often generates the most response for the lowest cost.

More employers, such as Unilever, are tossing traditional vetting procedures like requesting the resume and cover letter. Instead, essentially, they are telling applicants: Talk to us. That happens at the front end through digital technology. At the point closer to hiring, there will be the in-person talk-to-us encounter. However, it could be not in your lifetime that law firms will buy into this.

Then there is Nelson's story. It was after her mother died that Nelson got it: She missed hearing her mother’s voice. That’s an understatement. The reality was and is that she needed her mother’s voice.

She asked herself why she hadn’t recorded all those unique moments as a kind of family oral history. For instance, what about their conversation on her wedding day and when her mother let the family know she was leaving the earth full of peace? There were days when Nelson and her eight siblings needed that voice, with all its idiosyncratic nuances and Irish American intonations. Also, there have been so many times when she wished her own five children could hear the wisdom from a very different time. Those regrets were the seeds for memvio.

The mission for memvio became this: preserving memories. One of the mediums for that has been audio. Call it “storing voices.” Others are video, photographic, and text. Usually a project brings together all of them. A designer parachutes in. Some folks think of the process as “scrapbooking.”

Whatever and whoever has a voice has the ability to create emotional spells. 

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

Owen Labrie - Out of Jail, But Still Out of Luck

Thanks to good behavior, Owen Labrie has been released early from the Merrimack County Jail. Here is coverage from Boston.com. 

But he's still out of luck.

At age 23, he is registered as a sex offender. It will take lots of explaining to do for him to land a spot in a good college or be hired for a job. Also, it will be tough renting an apartment in a decent neighborhood.

Two weeks ago, the New Hampshire Supreme Court denied his request for a new trial. His prominent lawyer J.W. Carney Jr., who was in the defense loop for Whitey Bulger, failed to convince the court that his previous defense team didn't serve him well. Where he contended they really screwed up was on the felony computer crime. The other convictions in that original trial were for misdemeanors. A felony conviction can hog-tie anyone's future.

Long ago, when the criminal case was being put together for Labrie's sexual behavior with a 15-year-old fellow student, Harvard pulled in the welcome mat. Both on the admission and the scholarship.

But, where Labrie is most jinxed is that he's not likeable. He comes across as preoccupied with self and arrogant. Likeability counts for a lot. Both in the court of law and in daily life in society. That society is probably not going to cut him a break. In his iconic book "The Power Game," Hedrick Smith cited being likeable as a source of power. 

Can Labrie change his persona? Of course, he can. That's what coaches and spin doctors help with. But, the seeming darkness inside him probably will resist even the thought of that. His comfort zone might be self-destruction. 

Labrie is too young to be considered a tragic character. But his situation haunts those with an interest in how human beings manage to screw up.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Legal Marketers, Trial Lawyers - Why "Ugly Advertising" Is Effective, 5 Takeaways

Taco Bell, Beto O'Rourke, and General Mills are among those using what is called "Ugly Advertising." 

Essentially, as Nat Ives explains in The Wall Street Journal, that entails designing the marketing message to come across as amateurish. That is, the not-cool.

In this era of slick or fake everything, consumers, voters, and donors back off the minute a highly polished ad is foisted on them. 

In contrast, what is unpolished and seems thrown together in a fun way connects with them.

Nothing about that is new. Those who know the history of marketing understand the power of subpar advertising. For example, an ad which is not "perfect," according to the fundamentals of marketing, usually will attract more eyeballs and hold them longer than the slick version produced by a top agency. 

In the early days of the television medium, advertisers of products such as automatic choppers and nylon stockings which didn't run exploited ham-handed tactics. The messages were sticky.

Johnny Carson piggybacked on that by doing his commercials in a half-hearted ironic way.

Later there were the Geico cavemen, who became America's fav anti-heroes. (Unfortunately, their television show didn't pan out.)

Of course, there are many takeaways from the current effectiveness of Ugly advertising. Here are 5:

•  In all communications, don't come across as wound too tight. Or, over-scripted/over-coached. This is as old as Dale Carnegie teaching human relations basics at the Y. Begin in a casual, friendly manner. Focus on the other person. The most successful oral presentations involve the audience. That could be as simple as using the "you." Or it can be as interactive as throwing out a question to the audience and have them respond. 
•  When arguing a point, as in a court trial, display humanity, such as bead of sweat or a twitch of the lip. But not in a Machiavellian way. Juries are suspicious of layers of lawyerly polish.
•  For graphics, use simplicity. An example is a stick figure instead of a detailed infographic. 
•  Remember perfection is the enemy of success. Having a marketing message go through too many rounds of approval is likely to destroy its impact. That mistake is known as "turning inward."
•  Observe which marketing messages are grabbers and which are glaze-ats. Analyze why. Shake off traditional conditioning to over-think, over-design, over-assess. 

In real life, the not-cool players are referred to as "hot messes." Usually they are unusually successful. No names will be mentioned.

Exactly the less-than-perfect tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

Charlie from "The Intruder" - Made for "Dateline"

Promos for film "The Intruder" highlight the deranged thinking of former home owner Charlie, played by Dennis Quaid.

But the emotional grabber is that the intense emotions Charlie goes through mirror those many of us have also gone through. We are among those forced by financial circumstances to sell a house. After all, a house captures our soul. Call the effect voodoo. And the plot line is made for "Dateline." In that iconic series the husband is usually the killer.

Deeply in debt, Charlie hands over his prized abode in the woods to a advertising guy and his wife. The two plan that to be their nest for rearing a family.

There had been a previous marital crisis involving the husband's roving eye. But that is in the past and their present is about total commitment.

What they don't know is this gregarious guy has had an earlier emotional unraveling when he was threatened with loss of the property. His wife had told him she was filing for divorce and taking the house. He offed her, making it look like a suicide. There wasn't enough evidence for law enforcement to nail him. So, that is one saga which will never make it onto "Dateline."

His new strategy to get back the house is to get rid of owner Scott and marry the wife Anne. It takes a while for them to catch on. And that's too late for one more murder to be committed.

Quaid is great in simulating the facial expressions of growing insanity.

But, there is something very human in Charlie's battle to not lose the house, not forever. His fantasy is not only regaining the property but the life he had had. That impossible mindset is familiar.  

More and more often that is playing out in the ordeal of aging couples who get it that they should ditch the house in the pricey metro area and rent in a less expensive location. That house remains a presence in their lives. They can't shake the memory. And, rarely do they adjust to the need to re-start fresh. 

In 2004, at age 59, I took that road more traveled. Fortunately, it was at near of the top of the real estate boom. The transaction was profitable. That should have been that. But, like Charlie, I had moments of rage when I observed modifications the new owners had made to my house.

Reflection: Members of The New Aging should view "The Intruder." That could clue them in about the brutal tradeoffs of giving up home ownership and the lifestyle they assumed would be forever for a lower cost of living. Houses can cast spells. There could be something to the aging-in-place movement.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

Lousy Week for Medical Doctors - Arrest of William Husel, Major Expose in Boston Magazine

In Ohio, a medical doctor looking like the earnest boy next door - William Husel - is arrested. He is charged with 25 counts of murder for allegedly administering fatal doses of fentanyl. 

Much further east, in New England, Boston Magazine publishes a scathing expose. The subhead reads:

"Sexual misconduct, sloppy - sometimes catastrophic - mistakes, and a medical board that's been known to look the other way. Local physicians keep getting away with bad medicine, but you may never know who they are until it's too late."

The author of the article Michael Damiano depicts a profession in which there is little accountability. What is typical is that medical doctors who are disciplined at one hospital simply hop to another. Or, if the situation is that serious they leave the state and get set up in medical practice in another.

This in not unique to Massachusetts. Nationwide as few as 10% of medical mistakes are reported. In Massachusetts, the state medical board received in one year 211 complaints. Only 11 medical doctors were disciplined. 

According to data from the National Practitioner Data Bank, 200 medical doctors in Massachusetts had been in the loop for at least 5 malpractice incidents. None of them had lost their license to practice medicine.

Reflection: Now, when neighbors say they have great trust in their medical doctor, we will consider them downright naive. Yes, do that signature smirk of teenagers.

Trust may never be restored.

One solution is to pull out all stops to remain healthy. 

If that fails, consult with a local shaman.

In southwestern Arizona, a faith healer eliminated the crippling pain in my left hand and wrist.

A group of faith healers prayed over me for 3 sessions. That was for the clinical depression the insurance companies and I had paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat. That group of shamans didn't promise total relief. For the rest they trained me in deep meditation.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

 

 

 

 

Rebranding Felon Charlie Kushner - How PR Genius Howard Rubenstein Undid What Chris Christie Had Done

It was New Jersey prosecutor Chris Christie who sent dynasty builder and real estate tycoon Charlie Kushner to the slammer. 

But the setback wouldn't be for long.

After he was released from prison, Charlie, father of Jared who is married to Ivanka Trump, set in play his rebranding.

The four-part strategy was developed by Manhattan public relations genius Howard Rubenstein. 

As Vicky Ward details in her book "Kushner, Inc.," the plan entailed:

Purchase a trophy property in Manhattan. That turned out to be 666 Fifth Avenue.

Establish his brand as a New Yorker, shifting from his NJ roots. One wonders if NJ will always have a stink attached to it.

Buy a newspaper or publication. Being a media owner brings immediate influence. The media property would be the New York Observer. Son Jared would operate it. He got to pal around with the likes of Rupert Murdoch. 

Create the platform for a marriage of convenience. Jared was instructed to begin dating brandname women. That search triggered the romance with Ivanka.

Obviously, the reimagining of an identity has gone well. At least for the time being. Like Joe Kennedy, Charlie is the father of a man who made it into the White House (but not exactly as U.S. president). 

Inherent in a successful rebranding is the ability to punish one's former enemies.

Christie believes he was ousted from the Trump Administration Transition team because of Jared's meddling in the matter. Maybe, maybe not. But what we know from Ward's book is that Christie pleaded for hours not to be axed. His wife Mary Pat had warned him that the "kid" would get him. 

In itself, that anecdote of fighting so hard for a job downsizes a once very powerful prosecutor and then governor. With his television gig Christie himself seems to be in rebranding mode. You bet, he has published a book. In addition to the supposed push-back from the "kid," Christie is also stalked by the ghost of Bridgegate.

Takeaway: Public relations, not the law, creates mankind's destiny.

Given Robert Mueller's statement today, one wonders if Charlie's version of Camelot is on short time. It could be the night of the long knives in Congress aimed at his son's father-in-law.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Gilded Age Ethos - Extreme Loneliness in Most Careers, Not Just Law

The focus is on money.

That's the reality of the current Gilded Age. 

It permeates most career paths.

That single-minded pursuit of money, of course, leads to the extreme professional loneliness of the second decade of the 21st century.

That's because, face it, with so many colleagues chasing the money, whom can you trust?

The context is totally competitive.

No longer is there certainty that cooperation will generate mutual success. Instead there is the high probability that one party will seize the opportunity and run with it - solo.  

Examples of just that are detailed in the new book "Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption." By Vicky Ward, it captures a professional universe consisting of silos. The depiction resonates. The book, which you can order here, ranks high on Amazon: 9,715.

In Law.com, Lizzy McLellan puts the spotlight on loneliness in the legal sector per se. One major factor is, yes, the high visibility of the prestige metric - Profit Per Partner (PPP).

McLellan quotes Manhattan psychotherapist William Meyerhofer, who had practiced law. He confirms the importance of that number. Many in law school make the decision what law firm to apply to based on PPP. 

Once they do make it into the law firm with the high PPP they get locked into the isolation box. 

To begin with, the nature of law is adversarial. So, no, you can't befriend lawyers outside the firm. They and you could be on opposite sides of a lawsuit or negotiation. No way should they understand what makes you tick or your vulnerabilities - essentials of friendship. 

Next, there is the increase in lateral moves. Some of that is because there are fewer equity partners. To go after the real money - that is, becoming an equity partner - you may have to do a lateral. That means, though, you won't be doing much bonding internally.

And, third, there is the necessity of piling up those billable hours. Doing that usually means working alone, fiercely concentrating on the task at hand. Small talk, a prelude to building a relationship, eats into that time to accumulate the hours.

As long as the ethos of the Gilded Age persists, so will loneliness. That, in turn, generates clinical depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide. 

That value system could be blown to a billion bits, though. How? Via a severe recession. Since there will be so much less money to pursue, many will just have to give up. They could return to the joy of human connection.

And, a whopper of an economic downturn is what the World Economic Forum indicates is possible. It could be worse than the 2008 global crash. 

In what were then the worst of times for human beings, novelist Charles Dickens hammered the meme of the milk of human kindness.

Once Ebenezer Scrooge opened himself to that value he was no longer all alone. That saved him, including from himself. 

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

 

Crime and Punishment - Let's Re-Think All That

From the get-go in America, early social systems leveraged the power of public shaming.

The Puritans put miscreants in stocks in the town square.

Those settling the west tarred and feathers con artists and horse thieves.

Today, the official vestige of that is pretty tame. It's the perp walk. The alleged Wall Street insider trader is marched out the office in cuffs, with the media notified ahead.

Yet today social behavior is beyond offensive. Crime, especially the violent kind, is escalating.

It could be time to return to official and unofficial forms of public shaming for restoring social control and deterring crime. 

The 14-year-old mouthing off in class is mandated to take the elective course in poop removal in public housing. The progress in that learning experience is streamed back to the classroom and athletic events. Others will earn class credits by simply watching that. 

And, the hell with "sentencing" to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings those pleading guilty to DUIs.

First of all, only about 5%  to 10% of those in AA get and stay sober.

Secondly, everyone understands the power of social pressure. Let law enforcement and the courts come up with a public means of punishment that is not cruel or unusual. Clever lawyers can put that together. 

Meanwhile, contemporary social systems such as neighborhoods in old urban areas have developed their own ways of public shaming. There is no ambiguity about the message.

The self-absorbed pulls into a cleared parking space post-blizzard.

Sweet.

That car owner returns to a smashed windshield.

Beyond the cost and inconvenience of replacing the windshield there is the horror that everyone has witnessed this play out of crime and punishment.

The fear inside the car owner is the possibility of being shunned.

Of course, never again will there be any gliding into a cleared parking slot. 

In a densely populated residential complex in New Haven, Connecticut, a woman spoke harshly to me in front of others.

Soon enough, in front of others, when I spotted her coming down the block, I stepped off the sidewalk until she has passed me. Then I stepped back on. As others observed the theatre the area became eerily quiet.

Quickly, the woman became more respectful in her speech.

An alterative, of course, would have been to follow standard procedure: Going to property management and reporting the harassment. Yeah, that would have branded me everything from a rat to a cry baby. No question, figuring out modes of public shaming is the most effective approach to righting perceived wrongs. Instead of taking on the label of "tattle-tale" we are anointed "community organizer."

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.