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Paul, Weiss - NYT, FT Coverage of Epstein Connection Presents Nothing New, So What Could Be Going On?

Legacy media is supposedly on its last leg. But certain platforms, such as The New York Times and FT, remain influential. Very recently they might have been leveraging that influence to have law firm Paul, Weiss' association with Jeffrey Epstein remain sticky. Here are the Times long form article and here is the windy recount by FT . In the analysis there seems to be nothing new. The result could be to put a wrench in the usual crisis-management strategy for the institution to lay low and stay out of headlines. Eventually, goes standard reputational rehab wisdom, the scrutiny will lift. The constituencies which count will forget. And attention will move on to other institutions feeling the heat.  At risk, if the intense focus continues, is plenty for Paul, Weiss. That ranges from new business development to the continued presence of former chair Brad Karp as partner to retention/recruitment of stars. Just yesterday it was announced that two Intellectual Property partners exited Pa...
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The Scott Barshay Era at Paul, Weiss: Low-Media Profile Strategy Interrupted with More Partner Exits

  After the press release about the change in leadership at Paul, Weiss it's been quiet on the external news front. That's a classic of crisis management: Get out the necessary information, then lay low. The odds are that, in time, another institution will be in the soup, the heat will be off you and the repositioning and repackaging strategy will unfold nicely. In Bloomberg Law, Roy Strom detailed the pieces of Paul, Weiss that have to be realigned.  And, in charge of that is the new chair, appointed by the firm's Deciders, Scott Barshay.  Well, despite the smartest approaches, stuff happens. One of those pieces broke loose and made news. Law.com reports that two Intellectual Property Paul, Weiss litigation partners have lateraled to Dechert. They are Anish Desai and Priyata Patel. That probably Barshay finds so unwelcome, especially the news element.   In the past 12 months 260 lawyers, both partners and associates, left. That's a 70% increase from the year befor...
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Wage Scarring: Reversal of Boomer Salary-Hike Game of Changing Jobs

  "So how often did you change jobs?" That's what a journalist asked me. They are doing an article on how we Boomers were probably the last lucky generation in America. Not only were plum jobs in abundance. By job hopping we could achieve significant leaps in compensation. I engaged in that ritual about every two years.  The not-so-lucky current generations which still need to work full-time to pay their bills likely are only changing jobs because they had lost the previous one. Unlike us, as BusinessInsider reports, they are hitting up a two-part compensation disaster called "wage scarring." One part entails accepting a job which pays less. According to Revelio Labs 40% of job changers swallowed more than a 10% cut in what they had been earning before. To that I would add an older number floating around out there from Pro Publica. That's if you were over-50, lost your job and landed another one in your field the odds were that only 10% of you would be earn...
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Cap and Gown: 2026 Symbol of "Having Been Duped"

 Like the Roman Catholic Church, the institution of higher education has leveraged ritual. Very effectively. A powerhorse part of that is the cap-and-gown graduates wear during the ritual celebrating receiving an academic degree. Starting back when the GI bill opened higher education to the masses that cap-and-gown symbol had signaled progress. Of a nation which now had the knowledge workers it needed. Of families who were movin' on up. Of individuals who could position and package the reality of having to earn a living as a "purpose-driven career."  That symbolism was sticky, up to recently. Kelly Services  reports: "According to the  Bureau of Labor Statistics , 9.7% of bachelor's degree holders ages 20 to 24 were unemployed in September—up from 6.8% a year prior. Meanwhile, underemployment , that is laboring at a job not requiring a degree, ranges from 42% to 52%. Today The New York Times  features that shift of higher education from a platform for advanceme...
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Leon Black and More: Some Become Targets, Odds Lousy for Reputation Rehab

  In the long-going fallout from association with Jeffrey Epstein, some in the loop have been receiving more scrutiny than others.  For example, why are Apollo co-founder Leon Black and Goldman Sachs top lawyer Kathy Ruemmler going to testify about the relationship in April before the House Oversight Committee? Where are the many others who orbited in Epstein's world of wealth, influence and power?  Today, again the spotlight has been put on Black and more in legacy media. The New York Times published a very long detailed article in which the primary subject was this: an allegation, based on financial documents and emails, that Epstein served as the middleman for Black's payments to women. Here is a snippet: "Mr. Black paid about $20 million to a dozen women, at least some of whom he’d had sexual relationships with ... Mr. Epstein was involved in figuring out ways to dispense a significant portion of that money." Black's current lawyers Courtney Forrest and Susa...
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Gen Z's "Love Story" Nostalgia - But, Creative Fields Probably Won't Be Coming Back

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  Members of Gen Z are orbiting in two worlds.  One is the nostalgia for the simpler analogue 1990s. That's when  John and Carolyn had their "Love Story."  Buy a Carolyn headband and an old-fashioned alarm clock. Feel safe.  For those I currently coach I explain that, yes, back then was a time of job abundance. It was even possible to make a good living in creative fields. That is, as long as you developed specialized expertise. For me that was executive speechwriting/ghostwriting. Most of us creatives knew to be practical. Even in better times, we recognized that we had to. Few of us had any illusions about being the next F. Scott Fitzgerald and conjuring up a Gatsby. The other world for Zers is the radical uncertainty about employability. Cost-efficiency, off-shoring and AI are sucking off entry-level jobs. Especially vulnerable are creative fields - writing, film production, graphic arts, music, acting and more.  On BusinessInsider a mom shares her an...
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Prediction Markets Pushing Wall Street and More into Oblivion

It was predictable - to use that current wealth-creation term - that some youth on Wall Street would be featured in Interview Magazine without their employers' permission. Essentially the four were positioned and packaged as lads about town. They were from Goldman Sachs, Barclays and PwC. Not at all the right image for buttoned-down institutions handling global funds.  What they might have sensed is that they no longer had to accept the hazing culture of Wall Street. That ranges from impossible hours to top-down authority. Now, you bet, there are options to making it big. One lad - Demarre Johnson - is already gone from PwC. Details not disclosed. But I have a hunch Johnson isn't skipping a beat in his journey to become wealthy. Things have changed a lot since David Solomon started out. Wall Street could be forced into oblivion. See, among the seductive emerging career options is the prediction markets or what's known as the "collective intelligence." Back when ...
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