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All had been quiet for a while on the legal front, at least as reported by the media. That is in the sensational lawsuit "Ganieva v Black."    Filed by his former mistress Guzel Ganieva, it alleges rape by the co-founder of financial empire Apollo Leon Black. Later that was amended to include alleged attempted sex trafficking for convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Black and Epstein had had a business relationship.   In response to the lawsuit, Black filed his own alleging everything from defamation to conspiracy. The court tossed that but not before it generated lots of derision. The style and tone mirrored what has been standard for tabloids. Black is attempting to refile the litigation. Both parties filed a request for sanctions against the other but that was dismissed for both.   Now this:  Ganieva and the brandname employment law firm Wigdor have parted company.  She will represent herself - that is, do pro se litigation. According to...

There is that old joke: Only one entity at a time can inhabit a space. In the psychiatric facility there can be only one Jesus Christ. Others will have to settle to be The Holy Ghost or Michael the Archangel. So there could be great glee in the land of law firms today. Any heat remaining on lawyers after Insider took a “hard look at them” probably has gone poof.  Today, Insider's Casey Sullivan who signature is those hard looks on lawyers did one of them on John Emanuel, founder of Quinn Emanuel.  Here  you can read all about it. Of course, there is praise. After all, Caesar's homeboys came to praise him, not to bury him. (Read William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.”) Quinn, Sullivan hammers, is a brilliant trial lawyer. One effective strategy has been to glance up at the ceiling bored when potentially damaging material for his client is going on in the courtroom. The jurors might assume all that is irrelevant to the substance of the trial. Then there are so many juicy tid...

It's not only up there at 30,000 feet - the macro level - that the US banking system isn't serving us. I KNOW THIS ISN’T BEDFORD FALLS Right here on Main Street, I have been through the wringer. Not that I expect the Beford Falls ethos of community banking with the caring of a George Bailey in "A Wonderful Life." I am too cynical for that. But can't the system at least work and can't the ground forces such as in the local branches at least pretend concern?  The ordeals extend from a complex financial transaction such as purchasing an annuity to having a duplicate of a credit card to the supposedly simple matter of ordering checks. About the latter, some dino businesses still demand them. HAD TO TALK LIKE A LAWYER My ordeal began seven years ago in Austintown, Ohio. At a local branch I assumed I had put in motion the investment in an annuity. Months later the "they" notified me that the order was never made but, lucky me, a better deal was...

  "The Class of 2023 Faces a Jittery Job Market: 'The World Seems to Have Flipped on Its Head.'"  The Wall Street Journal , March 30, 2023 In response, Gen Zers are recognizing the search for that crucial first job won't be the kind their grandparents - that is, we boomers - embraced. And, unlike our early-career experiences that first career move probably won't represent the "stability" they crave. Soon enough they will probably be looking for another way to pay the bills or be forced to by official reductions-in-force, quiet firing, and business bankruptcies  and mergers.  We boomers went for the job related to our major, found one fairly easily, and tended to stick with it. With the job market being turned upside down, many Gen Zers have to ditch the expectation that they will land a position related to what they had studied in school. And which they had been told until recently is in demand in the labor market. Instead, after they hit a w...

When I booked an urgent appointment at  OU Physicians, Tulsa, OK  in February , I expected competent medicine. The facility has an excellent reputation. However, soured on the "customer service" (which used to be called "bedside manner") provided by much of the US health system in the past 40 years, I didn't anticipate genuine caring. You know, the type we boomers had experienced in those times we think back to as Norman Rockwellish. Everyone, including those in the medical community, were concerned about us.  It was real. Remember how Rockwell captured the ethos of the family physician who had been totally engaged. The “emergency” I brought to 4444 E. 41 st Street, the third floor, was both physical and emotional. A wonderful team put together by Dr. Sean Huff swooped in. The members ranged from a physician overseeing the group to a licensed social worker. They offered me the option: Just have them address the presenting problems or go a bit deeper. I lo...

 Anyone who has been deposed knows this: Good lawyers keep reframing the same question until they an shake loose the statements they are going after.  So, the deposition of JPMorgan Chase's head Jamie Dimon by a lawyer such as Brad Edwards could result in releasing sensitive information. That could be about what Dimon might have known and when he had known it related to the financial instiution's relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Five of the years (2000 - 2013) included those after that conviction.  The deposition is connected to the legal action against JPMorgan alleging it enabled Epstein's sex trafficking. Interestingly the court mandated release of documents relating to Dimon covering years after which Epstein was no longer a client (2015 - 2019). Should we smell a smoking gun? Dating back to Watergate days one mindset has been: What did X know and when did they know it?  Another meme has been: Follow the money. It's what we may also be askin...

"Who you are up against in the years surrounding your year is almost one of the biggest determinations."  - Response to post on Fishbowl Big Law about making partner in a law firm, March 29, 2023. Here is the  thread. It turns out that there are no stand-alone absolutes. Even if the lawyer hoping to become partner is a rock star, that's still no guarantee. Along with that dazzler there could be other homegrown or lateral lawyers with more wattage. Get It: What matters a lot is who you are up against. All those junior lawyers saluted on websites for participation in important legal matters may turn out to not be shoo-ins for partnership.  It was hailed as seminal when in Spring of 2020 Paul Weiss launched a  Sustainability - ESG practice.  No other law firms had done that, even though already the changing values imposed on businesses were triggering upheaval, ranging from the C-Suite to the boardroom. Paul Weiss had bypassed the usual competitive context by b...

"Need consulting services to help our company [McKinsey] show show bare min emphathy in layoff comms today [sic]" -  Employee at McKinsey posting on Fishbowl Consulting, March 28, 2023. Here is the  thread . This morning  Bloomberg  was the first out there reporting that leader in the management consulting business McKinsey will lay off 1,400. That's in a restructuring. Further reductions in manpower will happen through attrition and voluntary buyouts. The 1,400 is not as large as the number of cuts McKinsey anticipated making. In February it noted a reduction-in-force could total 2,000. However, what we should be looking at are not the raw numbers but what the decision indicates. At the top of list is that in professional services management consulting is experiencing the same vulnerability in this volatile world economy as Wall Street and law. We still haven’t absorbed completely that Accenture is axing 19,000. Will demand for those services at a premium fee...

 " ...  boutique investment bank William Blair has pushed back start dates for incoming first-year analysts to the fall from summer, according to people with knowledge of the matter."-  Insider, March 27, 2023 Although those members of Gen Z  have had no direct experience of a down market they could be receiving a brutal introduction to how things went down in 2008 - 2009.  In professional services such as law firms there were not only delayed start dates. All too often the job offer eventually went poof. Millennials who were waiting to show up for their first day of work and who had leased apartments in pricey metro areas were left stranded. They had no job and there were no jobs out there for those in their field without experience. Some never got in and had to have a career change. That unraveling could be set in play again. That's the fear among Gen Zers, both for full-time jobs and internships. The experts are warning: Keep vigilant. If the start date is d...

" Disney  will begin layoffs this week, the first of three rounds before the beginning of the summer that result in about 7,000 job cuts ..." -  CNBC, March 27, 2023 The corporate efficiency mandate is overriding the happiness meme at Disney. Predictably the stock price is up. At 12:20 PM ET it's at 94.95. That's a long way from the 52-week high of 144.46 but investors have confidence in CEO Bob Iger to bring the stock to where it could be. In a memo about the layoffs Iger calls it a "difficult decision." Smirk. It's a whole lot more difficult for the employees losing their livelihood. The cuts are happening primarily in media, distribution centers, parks and resorts, and ESPN.  Some such as in media will enter a glut market for talent. What media operation isn't laying off? The falloff in advertising has had brutal effects.  Others like the now-ex employees in hospitality enter a growing market niche.  But it is unlikely any will be able to shake o...

"It’s [earning the M.B.A.] useful if you want to career switch and/or have the means to go on a two-year 'holiday' to network and have fun. The tuition fee is prohibitively expensive & the opportunities aren’t as abundant as before, however.  The most successful people I know don’t need it to get ahead in life." -  Response on Fishbowl Consulting post about the value of the M.B.A. Here is the thread , dated March 27, 2023. The M.B.A. had once been the golden ticket. Now, like so many academic credentials, it is declining in market value. The shift in hiring, retaining, and promoting has been toward experience. That seems to even apply to credentials from the Ivies.  What could catch the eye of employers is the list of certifications. In my intuitive career coaching, I advise clients who are slow at work to use the time for picking up one or more certifications. They are available both online and in-person and remain affordable. Incidentally, as wth the M.B.A. whi...

"Patriotism, religious faith, having children and other priorities that helped define the national character for generations  are receding in importance to Americans , a new Wall Street Journal-NORC poll finds."-  The Wall Street Journal , March 27, 2023. In contrast, notes that same poll, money has become "very important" to almost a majority of those responding. And that pragmatism - actually a fundamental value established by our Puritan founders - is dominating all aspects of life and work in America.  Marymount University, for example, is ditching the English major. No longer is it okay to be young and have the romantic objective of producing a literary masterpiece. Higher education is too expensive and after it so is life in these inflated times. Incidentally, Marymount, a faith-based institution, also is eliminating the religion major.  In my intuitive career coaching the sessions primarily focus on money: how to get it through working, how to increase ...

What sales representatives and those in the loop for that broad continuum of what we think of as "marketing" aren’t experiencing challenges in this perfect storm of an economy. That’s obvious. So, what to do new or do the status quo differently? Way back in recovering times after The Great Recession - 2016 -  Entrepreneur  ran an article on the Zen approach to sales. The focus was on how to manage the myriad variables that can’t be “controlled” in the selling process. Currently, of course, it seems everything is beyond the control of the salesforce. That makes Zen a must-consider. So, what is "Zen?" A simple but profound understanding is presented by  Science ABC : " ... [Zen] centers on a personal relationship with your own mind, and a higher, undefined entity outside of yourself. “ Yes, Zen is both an inside job - focusing in on one's mind - and an external reach to what is, including the existence of a force field beyond what the consensus is about ...

What's becoming standard as a rite of passage for over-60 is relocating. Or fearing that eventually will be necessary. How much longer can they afford Northern New Jersey? The decision is not only being driven by money. There are the other issues of weather, health, family, and more. Frequently the first time or even the first few times aren't a fit. Call that the Goldilocks Syndrome.  Not that any relocation is easy.  Home Bay  found that 75% of those moving regretted it. And 44% cried during the process. The grass is rarely greener. The job that pays more and entails a 1,200-mile move might not be worth it. And along the way to what was supposed to be the Promised Land much can and probably will go wrong. That ordeal can be even more of a horror for the aging. Right now, many of the over-60 are discovering that after putting down stakes, they are yanking them back up. Unfortunately, that could be the situation multiple times.  Maybe the cost of living isn...

   As with all technologies some jobs are more likely to be wiped out by the growing versions of generative AI than others.  Those who fear their livelihood could go poof should pay attention to the findings of University of Pennsylvania researchers, published in  Arxiv.  Headed by Tyna Eloundou it found that the most vulnerable include tasks involving writing. The least are those involving critical thinking. So, if you are employed currently at a public relations agency such as Edelman you might navigate to the strategy or big picture side and away from the slots in the organization which produce the actual content for the initiatives. The big-picture players can run their plans through an AI chatbot for a lot less cost and perhaps more quality than a human copywriter would. Yes, ChatGPT - 4 is more creative than the earlier version. If you are working in a law firm worm your way into assisting with the litigation or transaction strategy and as far as possible ...