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Paul, Weiss: Hail, Hail, The Gang Is Not All Here ...

  Cultural/branding shifts are happening all the time in this crazy economy driven by political issues, cost-efficiency, AI and offshoring.  ESG (remember that movement) shoe maker Allbirds  became an AI business called New Birds AI. Job search platform LinkedIn is terminating the jobs of more than 600. Aggressive financial player Apollo has taken on the role of reformer of higher education, allegedly on company time (intel via Freedom of Information Act). So, it should seem just more of the same that law firm Paul, Weiss has been mutating from a progressive change-agent with deep litigation roots to a business focused on corporate, that is, transactional practices. Way back in September 2022 journalist David Enrich summed up that evolution in "Servants of the Damned" as the prevailing ethos in Big Law. In the rush to boost the monetary metric of Profits Per Equity Partner large law firms were no longer serving the public interest. The game was all-business. Max those...
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Education Reformer Marc Rowan: Using Company Emails and Allegedly Staff Time

 Freedom of Information requests as well as other sources turned up this: Apollo CEO Marc Rowan used the company email account for his political campaign to reform higher education. The Financial Times cites that as wrong because of: " ... company ethics language stating that employees engaged in personal and civic affairs must make clear that their views and actions are their own, not the company's." In addition, Rowan is accused of using Apollo staff to do work on the project. This story exploded yesterday when the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors sent a letter to Apollo's audit committee about these issues.  This matters to the unions because Apollo manages their pension funds. And it should matter to Apollo because if the story has legs there might have to be another attempt at reputation rehab. Many recall that when Leon Black was CEO at Apollo a major scandal broke out after it was discovered that he paid Jef...
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Delivery Gig Shifting to E-Bikes: For Aging, There Are Three Wheels

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  "I am afraid. I don't know if I can get up on two wheels and stay up." That's what an aging client lamented when they heard the delivery gig involves 1) having an e-bike and 2) using only it for handling those packages. More businesses, ranging from Amazon to mom-and-pop eateries, are shifting from the traditional van or auto to some version of e-bikes. In Manhattan, documents The New York Times , this use of e-bikes to deliver cargo started in 2024. In Europe, with its narrow streets and embedded cycling ethos it's been around for much longer than that. The good news for seniors is that there are mass-produced and customized e-tikes. Those have three wheels and are equipped with a large basket in back for parcels. Some also have a basket in front. Amazon lists them, starting at about $700. In Sierra Vista, Arizona M & M Cycling are among the growing number of shops which will customize an e-trike. That includes setting the miles-per-hour to be in complianc...
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That Real World: Higher Education Is Making It Kick in Freshman Year

  A silver lining in this brutal entry-level job market and AI: No longer will new college graduates have to endure that complex, soul-wrenching rite of passage of adjusting to the real world. A Boomer, I recall how the laddie and young women's magazines briefed us on the transition from college to whatever.  Everything from get a haircut to be fitted for a good suit.  CNBC documents how the higher-education industry is making the shift from education-for-the-sake-of-education to education-as-platform-for-earning-a-good-living. Here's a snippet: "CUNY’s chancellor, Félix Matos Rodríguez [said] 'It’s not enough for students to graduate with a degree ... they must leave with direction, preparation, experience and connections.'" That changes so much about those four years. Some institutions such as Seton Hill University have developed three-year programs to be more cost-efficient.  For example, frats may no longer be for fun. They will be reset as a key strateg...
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Rolling Layoffs - Meta Makes No Apology

  The last bit of humane seems to have gone out of laying off workers. That had been the massaged rhetoric of how difficult the decision has been to do this, with a mea culpa tagged on.  In its latest round of rolling RIFs - 8,000 this time - Meta makes no apology, reports CNBC . The message is totally delivered in capitalistic terminology. That is, the language of efficiency. Also, there's no softening that this will be the last of the massive RIFs. There could be more in August. So, here is the worker in America. The state of being is as raw and as uncertain as the Industrial Age depicted by Charles Dickens in his novels such as "David Copperfield."  In coaching, I hammer that careers no longer exist. The professional objective is no longer for climbing the ladder.  Work has mutated into the need to make a living, hopefully a good living. The ranting on Blind or Reddit about how it used to be showcases how many are locking themselves out of the current reality. Ext...
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Big Businesses: Therapy Nation, Awarding Those Academic Degrees and More

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America, the land of optimism about improving ourselves, was a sitting duck for the businesses of psychotherapy, becoming educated at college and more to take off. And that they did. The therapy sector  is almost at $100 billion. Higher education  is at almost $218 billion. And, BTW, another category of self-improvement, that is,  managing our weight that's at about $90 billion. So, it's predictable there is an outcry about the overuse, misuse and abuse of both psychotherapy and what had been heading to be the universal rite of passage of going to college. After all, they are businesses. And most nations, including the US, had to establish a regulatory framework to oversee business. Consumer beware.  This week psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert is blowing the whistle on other players in his line of work. Published on May 19th is "Therapy Nation." Alpert's beef: Essentially therapists not only side with their clients' perception of grievance. They reinforce it. ...
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Reputation Fixes, Terakeet, Kathy Ruemmler and More

  Reputation management is the core of public relations.  But there is a but. In the process those doing that managing could wind up requiring their own reputation rehab. In the past, examples of things going very wrong for public relations firms doing fixes include Bell Pottiner, Burson - Marsteller and Hill & Knowlton.  Most recently it's Terakett which just took a major hit. On its website Terakett describes its mission as: "Securing, protecting, and supporting your reputation in search and AI chat experiences." In great detail today  The New York Times  describes the fixes Terakett has done for clients such as Goldman Sachs' head David Solomon and investment expert/philanthropist Robert F. Smith. And how it does them. However, as the old saying goes, no one likes to know how the sausages are made. The "making" seems to involve lots of technological manipulation, plus aggressive positioning and packaging of positive narratives. Obviously, readers can ...
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