SCANDAL! John Profumo Was Finished, JFK Untouched, Leon Black Still Reeling, Matteo Godi Holds on to Prestigious Job in (of all places) a Law Firm

 About the same time in history (so don't claim "it was a different time with different mores") Secretary of State for War John Profumo in England and US President John F. Kennedy both had sexual affairs which could have impacted national security. Profumo's career collapsed and it never recovered. In contrast, Kennedy was protected and even today he is revered in some circles.

Scandal has oddball dynamics. 

Currently scandal seems to have stuck to outsized financial player Leon Black. He was on top, ranging from CEO/Chairman of alternate asset management firm Apollo to Chairman of the board of the Museum of Modern Art. Then came a probe of his financial relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. He got off the hook and that could have receded in the global and US consciousness. After all this was Black, mover and shaker in finance and culture. 

But then came a nasty lawsuit by his former mistress Guzel Ganieva. There were plenty of allegations including sexual misconduct. That was dismissed. And that too might have receded had not Black become combative - legally. All that legal action sure has gotten attention.

Black countersued the mistress (which was dismissed) and included others on the list such his former partner Josh Harris. The tone and content of the complaint were sensationalistic. The chattering classes chattered.

More recently he sued the law firm representing Ganieva and two women contending sexual misconduct. That's Wigdor. Black accuses it of malicious prosecution without evidence. And Bloomberg Law had visited that today, keeping the whole enchilada front-page news.

Since litigation is long slow process, even if Black proves his point there may be no path possible to reputational restoration. So much time will have passed. Is Black simply unlucky like a Profumo kind of player or has he shot himself in the foot? 

In contrast there is Matteo Godi whose scandal has had a short shelf life. On February 4. 2022, Politico broke a stunner of a story. It was right up there with The Washington Post's outing of Jones Day's representing MAGA for the 2016 presidential campaign. Here is the Politico scoop:

“A former law clerk [Godi] for a potential Supreme Court nominee [Ketanji Brown Jackson] embarked on a Wikipedia editing spree over the past week, bolstering the page of his former boss while altering the pages of her competitors in an apparent attempt to invite liberal skepticism, according to a statement from his fellow clerks."

But Godi held onto his associate position at Paul Weiss. The heat seemed to be on, though. For example, on his profile on the law firm website his phone number and email address were deleted (but have been restored). When I called him (wearing my journalist hat) he hung up. Later when I contacted him again for an interview there was no response.  Was he coached to lay low - a tactic Black might have leveraged?

Godi is still there at Paul Weiss. And no one seems to give a damn. Since I am trained as a features journalist not an investigative one, I sought to dig into this by pitching the story to those who do the investigative kind. No takers. 

Godi might be a very fortunate professional. Scandal came and it went. How it could shape the rest of his career in the legal sector, though, is an unknown. 

In my coaching, I hammer: It's not what happens, it's how you handle it. Those in JFK's and Godin's orbits handled it quite well, it seems. Those in Profumo's and Black's, not so good. 

Regret: On an earlier version of this article I spelled Matteo Godi's name incorrectly.

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