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Public Relations Jobs: Goldman Sachs' Tony Fratto Has Been Busy Guy, Same for Skadden's Luke Ferrandino

  The subunit on Reddit for public relations jobs posts laments from both in-house and agency employees about the stress generated by superiors, clients including internal ones, journalists and even shareholders.  The classic example of that could be illustrated by what Goldman Sachs' spokesperson Tony Fratto has had embedded in his recent duties. At the top of the list was being out there often delivering the financial institution's stance on the ongoing employability of its top lawyer Kathy Ruemmler. Since it was all quite positive many of us took to decoding what the statements might be revealing. For example, there was speculation that whenever a corporation indicates a controversial employee has the full support of the board that support actually might already be souring.  Well, for now, Fratto is off the hook on the Ruemmler situation. As is well-known, she resigned. There is a distancing there.  Ruemmler is using the services of her own spokesperson Jennifer ...
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Work Didn't Come in: UK's Knights plc Lays Off Partners, Senior Associates, Paralegals in Leeds

  This time the axe falls on lawyers, not just professional staff. That's what's getting attention. The UK's Knights plc has been known for laying off service workers as redundant during mergers.  The story this time involves partners and senior associates, along with paralegals at the Leeds location. And the reason is different. As RollonFriday documents, the expected work didn't come in. However, CEO David Beech is jolly confident the work will eventually come in. Meanwhile those professionals were sent packing. When lawyers get caught in a layoff a tense feeling goes through the global legal sector. That's especially the situation during the intersection of so many economic and political factors. The situation is making for fear of a worldwide financial downturn.  This morning Dow futures are down. AI is such a wild card. In the US the job market news is disappointing. Worldwide gas prices surge. And the unpredictable Trump administration has about three more y...
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BoomerVille: Tender Mercies

  As every one of us oldest of the boomers on blood thinners (the new 80 is still 80 and the body starts to fall apart) knows: Today oil prices have soared and the Dow has plunged. The latter is down almost 700 points. But we grab joy where we can.  Yesterday I found out that insurance will take care of all but $1,000 out-of-pocket on a dental bill. Horrors. A front tooth, the specialist concluded, wouldn't hold up for a root canal. That mandates an extraction and that means some fancy replacement engineering.  Amid such jolts as the Iran war and climate change (polar vortex) in our golden years there are those snippets of tender mercies. At the Toledo Buddhist Temple I am learning the fundamentals of radical simplicity. We don't need much, do we. I recall when I "needed" one of those big old houses on the Gold Coast of Connecticut and a cottage at the Jersey shore.  But along with that there have been tender mercies. We grab positive happenings in whatever form the...
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"Retirement" - Could Just Mean No Longer Taking on So Much Stress

"I retired because my health couldn't take it." This man, a mental health professional, made clear though that he was still able and willing to work. Not just conducting therapy sessions. The stress, which worsened several medical conditions, he determined was because he wasn't a pill doctor. He really did do old-fashioned talk sessions.  For him "retirement" meant admitting he could no longer handle the demands of his long-term career. And that might be how more of us Boomers, Xers and Yers approach aging. There could be biting the bullet on why the high-paying job or enterprise had to be abandoned. You don't have to be especially in-touch with your mind and body to get when that time comes.  The psychiatrist came for coaching to test out whether some possible nexts were total fantasies or doable in terms of yielding some income. They had worked since teenage years and couldn't face the rest of a life without income from labor. Would teaching music ...
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Impressive Resumes: Never Great Predictor of Job Success, Now Increasingly Ignored

  Almost 50% of new hires will fail within 18 months. That proves out the BusinessInsider reporting that   1) Those gold-plated resumes with Ivy credentials and experience at brandnames were never an accurate predictor of job success 2) Decision-makers about manpower increasingly are ignoring resumes, especially with all the AI-generated slop and  3) Other front-end screening strategies are being tried out. The emerging vetting process includes: Picking up on enthusiasm. You should be excited about the opportunity and be able to cite concrete reasons why. Yes, do your research about the organization and its players. "I want to work at Anthropic because of its AI ethics." "Paul, Weiss is my only real choice because I could contribute to Brad Karp's litigation team." "There's so much experimentation at Panera. Promising for increased traffic are the half-size portions. I have two ideas how to promote those." Identifying the skills needed for the spe...
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Kathy Ruemmler Testifying for House Oversight Committee - Distancing from Goldman Sachs, Paul, Weiss' Brad Karp Gets to Move On

The House Oversight Committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein has requested former Obama administration/Latham lawyer and current Goldman Sachs general counsel Kathy Ruemmler to testify. Here is the coverage by CNBC.   What's interesting in her response - which is "yes" - is that the spokesperson is her personal public relations representative Jennifer Connelly. Not a member of the public affairs staff at Goldman Sachs. Obviously, there is a distancing of her from the corporation.  Three weeks ago she had agreed to step down. But surprisingly that won't be until June 30th.  That date has remained set, despite more information coming out about her relationship with Epstein. For example, The New York Times recently did a comprehensive expose of elite medical doctors and medical centers looped in with Epstein. In it, Ruemmler was cited as using those services. Epstein oversaw that to the point that he reminded her to schedule her mammogram.  That didn't move up the dat...
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Lloyd Blankfein: No One Cares Who You Used to Be

 Way back in 1991, now-with-Yale Jeffrey Sonnenfeld nailed it in his book "The Hero's Farewell."  Former CEOs just can't let go. They do what it takes to stay on stage.  At Disney Bob Iger succeeded at that. He managed to climb back on. However, as we recall, his re-entry was rough. He initially hadn't gotten it that the media landscape had changed. His charm offensive looked manipulative. Currently, it seems that former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is struggling to use a side door to re-enter the force field of extreme influence. That is, he published the memoir "Streetwise" and is giving scary interviews about the possibility of another 2008. Those still with the titles and with the influence could turn on him. The fearmongering could kill off business. Actually, as we know, the prediction of disaster could bring on the disaster.  The book is doing well. On Amazon it ranks 139. But, come on, it's the usual saga of up from less-than-nothin...
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