Law And More

Reputation Restoration and Goldman Sachs - Now a Wrap for Image-Fixer Jake Siewert But New Branding Challenges Emerge

"Jake Siewert, who guided Goldman Sachs’ reputational recovery in the aftermath of the global financial meltdown, is joining Warburg Pincus." - Kevin McCauley, Odwyerpr.com, April 16, 2021.

In 2010, in Rolling Stone Matt Taibbi had positioned and packaged Goldman Sachs as "The Great American Bubble Machine." Taibbi contended:

"From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression ..."

Siewert took that on. His strategy was essentially to make Goldman Sachs transparent and to humanize its executives. Tools for that included podcasting and social media. Most of Wall Street shuns such openness. Siewert also healed relationships with much of media and with policymakers.

Now Siewert is moving on.

But new kinds of reputational trouble have arisen for Goldman Sachs. The media and internally its employees are focused on its culture. The rot is within.

In a recent edition of Vanity Fair, William Cohan turned over Goldman Sachs' ugly underbelly.

Within the organization, the beefs range from overwork to frat-boy values. In regard to the latter a former intern Patrick Blumenthal filed a lawsuit in 2020. In that lawsuit "Blumenthal v. Goldman Sachs, et al.," the plaintiff claims harm from hazing.

This could bite the leadership in the butt, just as it had in Deloitte UK and KPMG UK. Because of the contentions about a toxic culture, one executive stepped down from that particular position, another resigned from the company.

In western economies there is a movement against all forms of workplace bullying. 

Obviously, the Goldman Sachs' brand is in play, yet again. Heads could roll.

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Ronald Ilg - Threesome, Dark Web, Alleged Kidnap Scheme Payment in Bitcoin

"Washington doctor [Ronald Ilg] 'tried to hire dark web hitmen to kidnap his wife and inject her with heroin twice a day to stop her divorcing him after he invited another woman into their relationship'" - Chris Jewers, Daily Mail, April 19, 2021.

The payment allegedly was to be made in bitcoin.

This is a plot line perfect for a James Patterson novel. 

Ilg, a neonatologist in Spokane, Washington, denies the charges. 

The saga is reported to have kicked in with a threesome. Those are fragile entities. Jealousy often rears its head. Also, there can be a perception of inequities: One or more parties are viewed as getting more out of the arrangement than the third member.

That threesome was between Ilg, his wife and another woman. Eventually all that didn't sit well with the wife. Then things allegedly began to unravel.

It had been journalists investigating the dark web who warned the wife about the kidnapping plan. She alerted law enforcement. Ilg has been charged with attempted kidnapping.

Interestingly, threesomes have become less taboo. In Vanity Fair, Caroline Giuliani (yes, Rudy Giuliani's daughter) chronicles her own introduction to the threesome experience. 

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LinkedIn Features Law and More's Article on Peloton Thread+ Crisis in Its News Coverage

I am thrilled.

LinkedIn selected my Law and More article on Peloton Thread+ as one of its featured news stories. Here is that article.

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Andrew Cuomo/Eric Schmidt Alliance Bridges Digital Divide for New York - Model Could Catch Fire Througout U.S.

"[Andrew] Cuomo took the recommendation from [Eric] Schmidt’s reform commission Reimagine New York, and signed a bill that requires internet providers like Verizon to offer lower-income families basic broadband access for no more than $15 a month, a cap that Cuomo says is the first of its kind in the nation. High-speed plans will be capped at $20 a month." - Theodore Schleifer, Recode, April 16, 2021.

About 7 million are eligible.

Schmidt, the former chief executive officer at Google, hammered that access to the internet is a necessity.

Of course, he's on the money, literally. It's almost impossible to embark on a job search without the internet. During COVID there also has been a scramble by many public schools to provide free internet access to low-income students for remote learning. Some also distributed tablets.

But the shut-down of in-person instruction only made more apparent the need for internet access. Even before COVID public libraries throughout America had been filled with both children and adults plugging into their internet connections. Then when the libraries closed because of the social distancing of COVID those who depended on them for digital communication were stranded. 

Likely the New York model will catch fire in myriad other states. That could be significant in helping the unemployed get back to work.

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Inept Attempt at Reputation Restoration - Hunter Biden's "Beautiful Things"

America is the land of second chances.

That ethos kicked in when that bunch of misfits from the old country came to New England to have another try at acceptance and material prosperity. Along the way those Puritans developed what was to be for centuries the most powerful economy in the world. 

So, it was predictable that the reputation-restoration niche would thrive in America.

O'Dwyer Public Relations published my article on how suspended Yale Law School professor Jed Rubenfeld could rebrand. Every now and then I receive calls from official reputation restoration firms about how I might help their clients. 

However, for every success - such as how Jimmy Carter repositioned and repackaged himself - there is plenty of failure. 

Among the latter could be First Son Hunter Biden. It might have been a mistake for him to use the strategy of publishing a book for redemption, forgiveness and a second chance. That was "Beautiful Things." As Daily Mail reports, in the first week of sales, only 10,638 copies have been sold. Future sales don't seem promising.

What Hunter should have done was something more hands-on activist and noble. Carter threw himself into global good deeds. Hunter could have organized a team and built irrigation facilities where there were none in a desolate part of planet earth. That should have proceeded on a low-profile basis. Then, 18 months later an international journalist stumbles upon the project. 

This inept book tactic, of course, makes Hunter's transformational work more difficult. 

In general, the odds are against salvation through book publishing. Not only does that approach tend to be inefficient. For instance, there is too much of a lag between conception and publication. In addition, social networks, social media and podcasting are where personal branding is made, destroyed, course corrected and reimagined. 

Small changes can trigger big success in your career and your business communications. Swing by for a complimentary consultation (janegenova374@gmail.com)

Prop 22 Got Uber, Lyft Off the Hook, But Other App Businesses Getting Sued for Not Complying with AB5

Sure, there are lawsuits challenging Prop 22. That referendum got Uber and Lyft off the hook - at least for now - from reclassifying their drivers as employees.

Uber is known to be aggressive when it comes to legalities. So, those lawsuits could be in play a long time. Meanwhile Uber will continue to retain its business model of employing gig workers. That provides a distinct competitive advantage.

Other app companies aren't sitting so pretty with that model. Bloomberg Law reports that two dozen have been sued for allegedly violating California's AB5. That requires, with some exceptions, that independent contractors be reclassified as employees. That means they are to receive the protections and benefits mandated by federal and state law which are granted employees.

Among the app businesse sued are Handy Technologies, Lime scooter and Taskrabbit. 

Since what happens in CA tends to catch on in other states, app businesses throughout the U.S. should be aware how seriously that state is taking AB5. That kind of law could come to their own state. So could the strict enforcement.

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If You Want Legal News/Analysis from Reuters, You'll Be Paying $34.99 a Month

Getting your legal news from diverse sources provides unique perspective. 

Now that Reuters will be adding a legal section, you might have to add it on your digital must-read list. However, that will cost you $34.99 a month, reports DNYUZ. Reuters is setting up a paywall. You will have to register and you will first get a brief free review time. 

That paywall puts Reuters in direct competition with paywalled Bloomberg (also $34.99 a month) and The Wall Street Journal ($38.99 a month). 

Organizations such as a large law firms might be able to put in the budget digital subscriptions for all the top media centers. But individual professionals might not. That could put in play the media outlets battle for survival. Earlier,  DNYUZ had published a major article on the WSJ's struggle for the future. For example, it could include more cultural features targeted at Millennials and reduce the business coverage.

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2021 - The Year of the Solo Lawyer

" ... solos quickly learned that by shedding their brick and mortar overhead and embracing intuitive technology they can actually have a higher net income." - Micahel Djavaherian, Abovethelaw, April 14, 2021.

2021 could go down in legal-sector history as the Year of the Solo. The mindset could be evolving: Why not try it. Let's give it two years.

This can be nudged by the reality that, as the New York Law Journal reports, the pivot to partner at 25 large New York law firms is down 10.7. 

The hours are getting longer in BigLaw, notes Abovethelaw. And, associates usually have little control over that. When you hang out a shingle you regain control in issues such as how hard you are willing to work. Sure, that affects revenue. But that's your choice.

And, bullying seems to be embedded in the culture of so many law firms. Here Rocket Matter's flagged the issue way back in 2019.  This month, Law and More brought that up-to-date.

In a sense, the work conditions of many brandname law firms are nudging talented lawyers to seek another kind of setting. And, technology is making that possible.

The analogy is this: With corporate downsizing at the end of the 1980s (remember how GE's Jack Welch wiped out so much of middle mangement) we who had settled into the role of "Organization Men/Women" got a surprise. We were on the street. In middle age.

That became the era of The Accidental Entrepreneur. The technology of the PC made it possible to set up a business right next to the kitchen sink. Many of us succeeded. Very few of us pivoted from our home office to a traditional one in a corporate park. I am still operating not far from the kitchen sink. 

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Another Big Issue for Biden Administration: Pizza Delivery

One of the oldest part-time jobs and gigs out there has already gone to the robots. That is, if Domino's R-2 Robt pilot pans out in Houston. This represents a partnership with Nuro.

ABC reports that R-2 is an automatic on-road vehicle. After you give your pizza order you can track R-2's movements with a GPS. When the robot is nearby you will receive a text with a PIN. Once R-2 is in front of your door you run out, key in the pin and take your pizza from the vehicle.

This could be very bad news for both part-time and gig workers. Not only could you be out of basic wages. You will miss out on tips. Those are usually ample because people are so pleased to be receiving their pizza.

So, you will have to be more creative in your search for work. But that might not be enough.

This is yet another big issue the Biden Administration has to take up. McKinsey projects one-third of Americans could lose their source of income by 2030 because of automation.

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The Reality of Time Zones - Burnout Continues to Be Major Story in BigLaw (but clients want you to respond on their time)

Another angle on the epidemic of burnout in BigLaw is the issue of time zones. Law.com loops into that. 

Of course, many legalities large law firms deal with are global. After all, Apple and Exxon are international corporations. With clients paying the big bucks they expect responsiveness in real time - that is, their time zone. 

Of course, that plays havoc with the phsyical, emotional and social aspects of U.S. based lawyers' work schedule. 

Not that this is new. Some Baby Boomers will recall how that became the usual with corporations such as IBM which had been international from the get-go. When I had been employed there full-time U.S.-based executives and middle managers would be re-arranging their internal clocks after doing business in-person in another country. 

But intersecting with other time zones is now mainstream. That's for myriad industries, not just law. Even startups have business plans based on global. The ambitious agree to be there in real time for meetings and collaborative projects. 

My client list for both communications and coaching has looped into Canada, China and the Phillipines. Meanwhile, after a recent relocation from the East Coast to the West Coast in order to lower the cost of doing business, my inner clock is still sent on ET.

To get, hold and move on to better work, professionals have to be willing to accommodate time zones. And that's that.

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