TransformingYourCareerTransformingYourself

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  Confirmed by what was disclosed in the Epstein files is how much Big Law operates through elite networks. Or, it did. Referrals came through relationships. And that we can size up as one probable reason Kathy Ruemmler got so chummy with the "connector" Jeffrey Epstein when she was a partner at Latham. However, that reliance on relationship-building could be lessening.  In the UK, a survey by the influential legal tabloid RollonFriday found out this: The number-one reason in-house selects a law firm to represent it and will continue to use that service provider is the quality of the answer to a very specific legal question.  As RollonFriday reports that's what differentiates firms. That is, how tailored the response is to the legal matter. No generics. No trotting out the same-old templates. No relying on ChatGPT.  For that, in-house is willing to ignore the web of relationships formed with law firms. It will go with the supplier known to come up with fresh persp...

The retired don't need a survey like the recent one from Schroders  to have confirmed that their financial situation is getting scary. Inflation, medical expenses and fear of a stock market crash have pushed them into fearing they will outlive their money. Only 4% experience being retired as living the dream. Meanwhile, the worried fret there is no "second chance" for shoring up their financial situation. If that is how you feel you might be caught in a doom loop. But, no, you don't have to tumble into that abyss.  There are second chances.  A number of retirees have come to me for coaching about how to re-enter the labor market. Those willing to dumb down their resumes and how to present themselves do land full-time/part-time jobs and gigs. The dumbing down includes: Leaving off job search materials all academic degrees beyond the BA. The exception will be formal education related directly related to job duties. For example, you apply to be an adjunct at the universi...

  The last line on the Bloomberg Law coverage of yet another litigation heavy leaving Paul, Weiss says it all: "The market has been keen for insights into [Scott] Barshay’s impact on the firm’s litigation group." Exiting for Paul Hastings is Roberto Gonzalez. He had been co-chair of Paul Weiss’ economic sanctions and anti-money laundering practice group. In other coverage, that is by Law.com , it's reported that litigation partner Andrew Enrlich is also leaving at the end of this month. He is co-chair of Paul, Weiss' securities and enforcement practice.  The watching creates a looping situation. The more the scrutiny the less probability the turbulence will calm down. As long as it exists the more will be the watching. In itself that can trigger more partner exits and difficulty poaching stars in their practices.  Obviously not cooled down is the upheaval created by multiple hits to the firm's reputation. They include the deal with Trump administration to lift...

  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...

 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...

  "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...

  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...

  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...

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. ...

  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 ...

"The Caesars Palace Coup" and "Servants of the Damned" probably will be the last exposes on the big-money law firms. Likely there will never be another smash hit like "Boston Legal." Arguing in front of the US Supreme Court? Just a client assignment. The cultural fascination with elite law firms and brilliant lawyers is over. Poof. Attention and aspirational whatevers have shifted to entrepreneurs and the AI crowd. The lawyers representing them have lost their glam. Come on, you'd rather imagine yourself being Dario Amodei than part of the legal teams representing Anthropic.  Of course, there are exceptions.  The gov's insider trading probe triggered a bit of tsk-tsk. The kind of way too ambitious types you bump into law school are being fingered for organizing a ring of intel on proposed mergers and acquisitions. One has turned cooperative so we know this isn't some kind of witch hunt. Bits and pieces to rant about have popped up on social and...

  It used to be that if your employer was holding up financially, you didn't worry about your job security. Now, that doesn't matter. The emerging dynamic is that, like Cisco, LinkedIn, Paul, Weiss and more, the ax swings even in the best of financial times. TechCrunch reports: "Technology giant Cisco is cutting fewer than 4,000 jobs, or around 5% of its workforce, despite reporting better-than-expected profit and revenue in its fiscal third quarter."  In addition, LinkedIn cut even with 12% increase in revenue. And Paul, Weiss has been riding high in Profits Per Equity Partner and still terminated litigation associates.  What else is becoming common is that help may not be on the way. Sure there are policy proposals to cope with the impact of cost-efficiency, AI and offshoring. But very little real experimentation.  Sure, you're told to network. But with fewer and fewer opportunities all that may get you is a decent-paying work situation, for a while. Then you ...

  In Q2 this year LinkedIn's revenues rose 12% . Despite that, that platform for job search is laying off 5%. A poster on Reddit claims it's more: "My brother works at LI, and things look really bad internally. The 5% figure is not accurate; the actual number is much higher." A higher number could happen through performance-based terminations. They are not classified as "layoffs" but a cause-related firing. The cause may or may not be perceived by onlookers as justified.  The terminations  include roles in Microsoft's owned Global Business Organization, engineering, product teams and marketing. About the latter: Marketing has been getting hit hard across myriad sectors, including the practice of law . Once glam and prestigious, it's now targeted. Creative thinking is in demand. But less so those in actual creative professions. In addition, LinkedIn is cutting back on investment in parts of its business . Among them are use of vendors, customer eve...

  What a difference half a century makes.  In the late 1970s the MBA was the  ticket. For getting in, for being promoted, for the knowledge assumed to be required to start a business. In order to transition from non-profit to the private sector I took calculus, the GMAT and coaching for my application to be admitted to the MBA program. I was right: One semester in, I landed a plum job in Big Oil at more than double my salary and with an expense account.  Now, as The Wall Street Journal has been telling us for a few years and again today: The marketability of that degree has declined. That's because employers not only value hands-on skills more than education. The MBA sends the wrong signals. Those include: Expectations of higher wages Entitlement for special treatment Stuck in school-learning that has to be unlearned. Too clever by far. There is the stigma of being branded negatively as the smartest kid in the room and, as with Jeff Stilling who was a Harvard MBA, w...

  Today, faculty at Harvard vote on the issue of limiting "A" grades.  The perception has been that too many of those have been handed out but not earned.  It's common for Harvard College graduates to go after jobs in finance and consulting and apply to top law schools. Those require high grades. That's the first cut. Without those grades the edge of the investment of a Harvard education could be diminished. Hell, you could have gone to a state school. Obviously students oppose limiting the number of "A" grades. The playing field on which they compete for a future could be made more level. Earning a Good Living in 2026 Involves Mental Combat. The enemy is usually your own thinking. Complimentary consultation. No Pressure. Solid Guidance. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

  There's that old saying: Being at the wrong place at the wrong time. That's how we might size up the job-security situation of IT salaried workers at GM. As CNBC reports, on the one hand, yesterday GM began laying off 500 to 600 It salaried in Warren, Michigan and Austin, Texas. On the other hand, there are 84 open IT positions in AI, motorsports and autonomous vehicles. In my coaching, I guide career-preparers and ambitious workers on how to identify where the demands is and where it's going.  After a year wandering in the underemployment desert when executive communications collapsed post-9/11 I did some intense research on who was getting work and getting ahead. The answer: digital marketing, That kept me going for years. When the glut took over, along with AI, I connected the dots again and have been doing okay for five years. The tough nut to crack in these kinds of transitions is that you might love what you had been doing which is no longer marketable. As Henry Cl...

  Hovering over the career prospects of recent law graduates and junior lawyers is this question: How much will AI impact hiring, holding on to the job and upward mobility? In addition, any such shifts could make obsolete the pyramid structure of law firms - a large base of grunt workers billing at high rates. It would be replaced by the diamond structure - few grunts at the bottom, bulge in the middle with experienced lawyers and a small pool of partners at the top. Much of this has been frozen at the level of chatter. For example, US Chief Justice John Roberts, Paul, Weiss partner Brad Karp and former head of Quinn Emanuel John Quinn all put out there dire warnings that AI will downsize demand for inexperienced lawyers. Yet, hiring of recent law school graduates has held up. Now this. Australian law firm MinterEllison had moved ahead with action and has been blunt about that is has been triggered by AI.  LawFuel  reports: "The firm has effectively put the  Australi...

Of course, influencer  is an actual career path. You bet, you can leave traditional employment behind. Along with that there could be so much more: glam, easy money, big names contacting you, invitations to speak at special events and the name recognition can open other opportunities. But, as The Telegraph documents, the influencer space has already evolved into a mature industry. That means it's glutted. Brutally competitive. And unforgiving by those paying for your influencing if your numbers, tracked by the likes of Click Analytic and Lefty, go down.  So, the 57% of Gen Zers who want to be influencers have yet another line of work blocked. The majority of those already in are struggling. Right now only 12% are grossing $50,000 or more. Worst of all, AI can wipe out 80% of influencer work. As with a growing number of career paths that are collapsing and leaving Gen Zers out in the cold, it wasn't always that way.  Back in 2005, being an influencer was totally open. W...

  Large global law firms could be shifting to a managerial model. Out-of-date can be the culture of the charismatic, high-profile head who embraces the role of thought leader. Today, Quin Emanuel - often labeled the " most feared law firm " - announced that its co-founder John Quinn is stepping down from the top job. Bloomberg Law gives these details: "Quinn will remain a partner at the firm and retain a non-executive chair title, allowing him to focus his efforts on promoting Quinn Emanuel and client development ..." None of this is a stunner.  Quinn is in his 70s.  In addition, just as at Paul, Weiss, a new culture seems to be taking hold. It's more traditional business-like. Less personality-driven. That seems to have been the ethos being established by partners William Burck and Mike Carlinsky over recent years at Quinn Emanuel. A similar development also seems to had been the emerging way of the world at Paul, Weiss. That seemed to be happening as current ...

  Now what? How do ambitious parents prepare their offspring for success in an economy which no longer requires so many knowledge workers? This month media targeted at the upper middle class such as The Wall Street Journal  and Town & Country  try to help. They clarify what's going down amid the upheaval in the proven ways in America to get the career edge.  For example, the WSJ notes: "The return on investment for a childhood designed to slot people into white-collar jobs has been shaken by a stagnating labor market and a possible reckoning for the professional class brought about by the seeming inevitability of AI."  One result is the end of the tightly wound rigid "Tiger Mom" model of career-preparation oughts. What's emerging is the permissive "Beta Mom" approach. Let kids find out about the world and the people in it. It's the ability to look reality in the eye. Without surprise. Without blinking.   And T&C is steering parents away...

Last year household debt  in America surged to more than $18 trillion, up from $4.6 trillion in 2019. The sources included mortgages, of course. But there were also personal loans, car loans, credit card balances and student education debt. Twenty-one years ago I was in that pickle. My industry had collapsed.  In a sense I was ahead of the times. Currently the new usual is that many lines of work are crashing because of cost-efficiency mandates, AI and offshoring.  In transition, I grabbed survival gigs. They paid peanuts. In the new medium of blogging I presented my argument that I could erase some of that financial burden if I could just sell a kidney.  The response in phone calls and email was telling. In voices shaking with anxiety cross sections of America shared with me where they were financially and how, yesyesyes, relief could come if only they could put their kidney on some kind of market.  Noble Prize winner and Stanford economics professor specializi...

  Those following the global legal sector hear that new business development is everything. And that it's changing.  Does that mean that there will be less responsibility and actual work for the staff in the marketing function? Maybe. RollonFriday reports this about A&O Shearman: "The Magic Circle firm is making cuts among its finance, marketing and IT staff following its  merger  with Shearman & Sterling and in advance of its London office’s move to fancy new premises in Broadgate next year." Is more of the hands-on marketing shifting directly to those who will do the actual work? That's who clients want to deal with, not middlemen. The extra layer has been a complaint over the years by some prospects and current clients with new legal issues. They need to know the precise details about the unique strategies of the case management, in real time. Paul, Weiss partner Brad Karp tells the story of having three consecutive breakfasts in a single morning. That...

  It's been a very bad kind of week for workers in telecommunications and large law firms. Call it the "Terror of the Hundreds of Cuts." Not big ones, as in a massive layoff that you see coming. No, it's the smaller kinds of terminations which can blindside. And because they can sneak up on you at any time terror can take over as a daily emotion. Good luck falling asleep and sleeping through the night. Yahoo Finance reports: "About six months after eliminating more than 13,000 positions in its largest-ever single round of layoffs, Verizon has confirmed a new wave of cuts totaling several hundred jobs across the country." Meanwhile, over in professional services, Law.com reports that both Paul, Weiss and McDermott have terminated a small number of junior lawyers. The terror springs from this reality: Since those particular law firms doing the cutting are not in financial distress, doesn't that give "permission" to other law firms in a strong f...

If something very illegal and very lucractive can be done, count on lawyers to figure it out. This alleged caper is insider trading by lawyers in top law firms who were associated with mergers and acquisitions. The Justice Department reports: "Charges were unsealed today against 30 defendants in connection with a large-scale, decade-long insider trading scheme that netted tens of millions of dollars in illicit profits. The defendants, who include corporate attorneys and other financial professionals, are alleged to have stolen and used confidential information on nearly 30 merger and acquisition deals from several of the nation’s premier law firms ..." Names of those indicted are listed.  Although the firms are not explicitly mentioned they are reported by Bloomberg Law to include Watchell, Latham and Goodwin Procter.  The alleged master mind is Nicolo Nourafchan. A Yale Law School graduate he had worked from 2013 to 2023 at Sidley, Latham and Goodwin Procter.  Along w...

  Paul, Weiss' reputational troubles can be dated back to 2021. That's when two determined investigative journalists Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap bulldozed beyond the law firm's formal warnings about "defamation." They published expose "The Caesar's Palace Coup."  The primary focus was the firm's client Apollo and its strategies to protect its investment in the casino. The book, which also did ink plenty about Paul, Weiss, was a best-seller. Also hot was the media detailing how that law firm had been a busy bee in those defamation threats, including penning one for the publisher. Journalists, not a well-paid group, stick with journalists. When journalist David Enrich published expose on Big Law per se "Servants of the Damned" he devoted five juicy pages to that attempted defamation stuff. That was in 2022. All that buzz buzzed.  In addition, it broke loose internal rants about how Apollo as a major Paul, Weiss client had been hardening ...