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Paul, Weiss: Poaching Is the Most Critical Metric for Sizing Up a Law Firm

The late Ed Koch used this signature phrase when NYC mayor: How'm I doin'?  If law firms like Paul, Weiss are wondering that same thing, the answer comes in the form of high-profile poaching of star players. Those twinklers must be brilliantly recruited, then held on to and continually motivated. Those are the key assets of the firm. (AI could, of course, eventually change that.) Way back in 2021, Paul, Weiss partner Brad Karp outlined that value reality in a Bloomberg Law interview. To begin with, a large law firm needed the huge war chest to invest in the sustained poaching. Those stars constitute the platform for growth. Without it, a law firm could actually go out of business. You know, the old grow or go. See, clients purchase the services of individual brandname lawyers, not the law firm per se. All that law-firm branding is mere window dressing. The old joke is that no one ever decides to do business with a law firm because of its website. Or even its awards. They come ...
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When Not to Use Public Relations: US Supreme Court, Goldman Sachs/Kathy Ruemmler and More

On July 16th of this year, there was World PR Day .  The meme was The Golden Age of Public Relations. Why the sector was entering another golden age was because, it claimed: The profession functioned as a type of "Human Operating System (OS)" for universal trust in an automated world. Overall, that might not be hyperbole. For decades I had created strategy and content for the industry. The tools leveraged have resulted in game-changers. For instance, Dove gave the blessing for all females, no matter their body type, to feel naturally beautiful. But, those power tools have to be used selectively. Sometimes they can worsen a situation. Often what is required is direct reform of the whatever, not public relations. Jump in, fix. Take the US Supreme Court. The latest Gallup puts the approval at 33%. A primary source of that negativity seems to be rulings allegedly tilted toward conservative ideology. Well, liberal member of the Court Elena Kagan (get that, too-clever-by-half cho...
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Water - Supply and Cost: A Must-Factor-In for Retirement Relocation

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  The smart thing for the successful along the Northeast Corridor to do was plan a financially safe retirement in the southwest. The specific city or town would be determined by availability of healthcare, cultural infrastructure and ease in developing new social networks. Oh! What an adventure. Such a different lifestyle.  Now - and it's urgent - what has to be added to the checklist are the supply and cost of water.  In cute tiny towns like Kearny, Arizona there may be no supply. Vulnerable in supply are all locations which depend on the drying-up Colorado River. According to ChatGPT those range from the Phoenix/Tucson, AZ region to Las Vegas and Denver.  As for cost, the monthly bill for a two-bedroom condo in Phoenix ranges from $25 to $45. But usually the fee for sewer is bundled in. That combo fee ranges from $70 to $120.  Those realities deterred me from returning to Tucson, where I had first relocated from the New York Metro area after I had aged out of ...
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Wachtell Partner Romancing Associate in Central Park: Let's Talk About Power

  Would red-haired 40-something Nathaniel Cullerton be so appealing to a 20-something if he hadn't been a partner in an elite law firm and she was an underling at that firm?  That's what most of the coverage of the kissing incident in Central Park by the two Wachtell lawyers doesn't touch. Here is the video by Tik Toker Jay Guapo of their romantic break in the day. It was foreign-policy expert Henry Kissinger who observed: "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."  Since then, organizations have recognized how that reality can create major problems in the workplace. Typically, those take the form of a manager type engaging in an intimate relationship with a subordinate or at least a person with less status. Another issue is that such arrangements can breed favoritism. The subordinate gets goodies others don't. The rest of the organization seethes in resentment.  In addition, it can also trigger penalties for "non-compliance." The subordinate resists th...
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You Didn't See It Coming, But You Should Have Known It Could Come

  Typical now is this kind of posting on professional anonymous networks (PANs) Reddit, Fishbowl, Glassdoor and Blind. This one is from Blind  and it's by a laid-off employee at Amazon: "This morning I opened my inbox and found out my role had been eliminated. There was reorgs but really no other warning from my manager. Also, no feeling that my team was in danger. Just an email." Forget the regrets about not seeing it coming. Businesses have become more opaque. Managers, more protective about their own jobs, have becoming less willing to alert their reports about possible reductions-in-force. Intersecting factors such as AI, cost-efficiency, offshoring, upstart competition, geopolitics are triggering exponential change. The issue is: Know it could be coming.  Preparation goes way beyond the financial matters such living below your income, building a financial reserve, not taking on new debt and rapidly paying off current debt including student loans. As responders on the...
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Tom Goldstein: What to Make of All This?

  When a giant in a profession falls there's a rush to pony up lessons learned. But as super lawyer and influencer Tom Goldstein  is sentenced to six years in prison for federal tax and mortgage fraud, we might not be confident in sizing up what Goldstein should have known, should have done or should not have done.  The collapse involves too many intersecting factors. They range from a superior intellect to the thrill of a double life to the power of addiction. There are no simple takeaways. Maybe we should accept how complex human beings can be. In the blockbuster film "Odyssey," King Odysseus is depicted as heavily flawed. Yet, the positioning and packaging lead us to struggle to understand him - with compassion.  In prison, like Watergate lawyer Chuck Colson, Goldstein might find a new path. Meanwhile, we could be monitoring our own behavior to put a check on our darkest human impulses.  Career Paths? So Over. It’s about Earning a Good Living. No matter wha...
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Your Unemployment Story on LinkedIn, BusinessInsider and More: Counterproductive?

  The supposed wisdom of crowds can generate horrific outcomes. Think back to investor enthusiasm for dot.coms.  Well, currently, the herd instinct seems to be pushing the jobless to post the stories of their (ineffective) searches on high-profile platforms ranging from LinkedIn to BusinessInsider. With a great deal of compassion I approached one of those LinkedIn posters. I shared my own 1987 layoff story. Then I indicated I would be interested to know eventually if this outreach turns out to be counterproductive. The response was immediate: They were worried about the same possible outcome.  My hunch is that for the snippets of sympathy the jobless receive there can be a tragic cost: the optics that go along with not being in the winners' circle, even if temporarily. Our economic system is capitalism. Winning is everything. Do that and all is forgiven. The classic example is Mike Milken. Post-prison he won big in how he did philanthropy.  The manner in which these ...
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