TransformingYourCareerTransformingYourself

  Dow Jones Industrial Average INDEXDJX: .DJI 51,769.26 1.10% −573.30 today

Over now are the days when a Paul, Weiss partner such as Brad Karp would crow about surging Profit Per Equity Partner.   A perfect storm of client resentment about high fees/lawyers' making more than they and instability in the sector (think Weil collapse) has driven Paul, Weiss to halt reporting its financial performance to American Lawyer. FT broke that story. Kirkland & Ellis had been the first law firm to discontinue the release of financial data. That, of course, means the end of most of the rankings game.  For years now Paul, Weiss has been grafting on parts of the Kirkland & Ellis' hustler model and veering away from lockstep practices of white shoe firms.  Internally and in a growing number of venues that tended not to sit well. For example, here's how BusinessInsider  lamented the shift way back in 2021 in the new order of things. The new era of Scott Barshay has accelerated that transition. It remains controversial. Watchers wonder if Barshay can ...

Humans are a self-oriented species. That's probably why caveman survived, passing on genes. So, post-Weil collapse the major buzz is: Who's next. That's the individualistic angst. Should I start looking now? The essential answer is: Any and all law firms could be next. That's because, as prominent law firms currently are structured, a small number of rainmakers with portable books of business can pull out at any time, driving the business into ruin. All the other variables might be positive. Still, the firm could go out of business. That's the new order of things in Big Law, as David Enrich documents in the 2022 "Servants of The Damned." The law firm as noble public-interest institution has mutated into an ATM for building wealth.  And that's exactly the partner flight Paul, Weiss' Brad Karp feared when the Trump administration issued its infamous Executive Order.  So, Karp made the decision to cut a deal with the administration to prevent Paul, We...

  As a coach back then I still vividly recall the glut of unemployed junior lawyers during and after the Great Recession. They included both laid-off associates and those whose job offers had been rescinded. The situation was glut.  With Weil's unwinding there will soon be 594 associates scrambling to land comparable jobs. Also in upheaval will be the plans of those who were to be members of the Class of 2027. According to a chat bot Weil hadn't released that number. Of course, people, not a resume, get you jobs. So, the reach-out, beginning today with the announcement that Weil is winding down, in the legal sector is and will be intense.  But, even amid this soul-wrenching development there is gallows humor. On Reddit , there's the conjecture that Michael Aiello started it all (lateraled to Cravath) and speculation if he feels bad now. I offer all Weil associates a complimentary intuitive coaching consultation (Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com, text 203-468-8579).

Reddit captures the now-usual in job search:  " ... 4 months. I’m in fashion ... Interviewed with 23 companies and did 49 interviews just to land this 1 offer." And that has a happy ending. The poster 1) Landed a job and 2) The position was in their field. Most of those scrambling for career whatever or even for work, of any kind, aren't so fortunate. So, no surprise, among us Boomers the talk is: "No way, I couldn't go through eight interviews per application to get a career started or keep it going." Those of us still earning income from the sweat of our brow are primarily doing it on our own terms. For five years I have been operating a highly specialized boutique. I have enough business and that's enough. So far I haven't had to withdraw from savings/investments to pay the bills. Overall, other Boomers on my networks also are doing it their way. If that means doing retail at a big box, that's okay. No grousing about the loss of title, status...

  In after-hours trading, Apollo's stock rose to more than 114 when it was announced  that it had taken a minority equity stake in Mubadala Capital. At 10:10 AM ET the stock is about 117. This development is significant because it deepens Apollo's reach in Abu Dhahi, a region known as the "capital of capital." Apollo has been doing business in the area for 15 years and partnering with Mubadala since 2022. This latest development positions both parties to jointly source and custom-make global debt and equity financing for business. Mubadala Capital is the area's only significant asset manager. It's the alternative asset management subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company.  It administers and advises more than $755 billion in assets. Its wholly owned core alternatives business manages and invests more than $60 billion. The objective of the transaction for Mubadala is to scale.  For the legalities, Apollo is represented by Paul, Weiss, as usual. That unique and ...

 Thanks, but no thanks. That's what sources r eport the incoming executive partner at Weil Romona Nee told the distressed law firm. The optics are brutal for Weil with this latest development.  An underlying problem for Weil has been that its growth in the last several years didn't keep up with that of its competitors. Way back in 2021 Paul, Weiss partner Brad Karp had warned that it was Grow or Go, that is, go out of business for law firms in the new world order. That requires increase in revenue/profits per equity partner, international expansion, adding more and more stars on the marque and scaling practices.  Old news, of course, is that the proposed merger with Willkie fell through and how Weil has experienced partner flight. Recently that loss of talent has included members of the management committee.  Typical in crisis, there are players who win big from others' situations. Here that includes Paul, Weiss. It had poached one of those management committee m...

  We Boomers vividly remember Black Monday - October 19, 1987.  We were middle-aged, corporations were downsizing and the stock market had crashed. I had just launched an executive communications boutique, after being laid off as being "redundant." The Big Food company where I had been employed had been taken over in a merger.  Again, October is proving the cruelest month of all. Given the impacts of war and oil prices, it keeps us in FORO - that is, fear of running out of money. Here's what we are dealing with today, at least so far. 52,273.11 1.13% −594.87 today Oct 23, 10:05 AM EDT •  Disclaimer Follow 52,289.27   ‎ 10:05 AM UPDATE: 10:30 AM ET. Dow down 800+

 In the chaotic 21st century, the rhythm is work. Those adept at time management might be able to steal away moments for snippets of a life. The extreme form is 996 - a concept imported from China, the workday schedule is from 9 AM to 9 PM, 6 days a week. Then, the unthinkable. That is a medical crisis. That sort of thing doesn't happen to us, right. Good health is a status symbol. The successful, the privileged, the youthful - we blow all that health stuff off.  Until we get caught in that convoluted web of human realities known as a "serious medical problem." In this YouTube  and article, PR Week editorial director Steve Barrett tells about weeks of drifting between life and death last summer. His special message to males is: Submit to those health checkups. Along with that, even in this era of 100-year life spans, is the warning that life is short.  In a podcast with New York Order  Paul, Weiss law partner Brad Karp recounts his heart attack. That was Janu...

HIGHLIGHTS Watching Scott Barshay as leader Paul, Weiss loses corporate partner Restructuring heavyweight expected to return to Kirkland & Ellis Brad Karp solidifies reset as lawyer Kirkland & Ellis becomes vulnerable Mankind plans, gods laugh *********************************** Partners are the revenue generators at most law firms. Their brandnames on the marque can also enhance the firm's branding.  Therefore, the key metric we're watching to determine if new Paul, Weiss chair Scott Barshay can lead is the ability to recruit, retain and motivate those big names. The focus is primarily on transactional practices, not litigation. Watchers conclude that Barshay's agenda is transforming the one-time litigation powerhouse into a corporate one. So, it's a setback that there has been a partner defection in antitrust. Yuni Yan Sobel is leaving for Weil. Her track record, in addition to antitrust, has been in M&A, merger control and Hart-Scott-Rodino Act issues. Af...

  Sure, we all know about the 32% of young people who never move out of their parent's home. Can't afford to, not even with jobs.  But the really soul-wrenching saga is this: professionals losing their jobs and returning home. Reddit bares witness to that current tragedy. Here's a snippet: "My kid is 30 and was totally derailed when he lost a very good paying job. Took him over 9 months to find a new one. We are good. He can live with us for free until he saves enough to move. No rush and no pressure on him. It’s hard." That story has a happy ending. Many others who boomerang home don't. The decision usually is shame-based. They give up independence which erodes a sense of self and with that the confidence to put together a soldi next. The location might be devoid of opportunity. Proximity to the network can go poof.  Get it: The price for affordability might be way too high in terms of again earning a good living. This is anecdotal. During the Great Depressi...

HIGHLIGHTS: Driverless trucks already on the road in two dozen states California Teamsters sue, contending 200,000 jobs to be lost in that state Blue collar not insulated from automation Guidance industry has to get humble *******************************************************   In the comments  to The Wall Street Journal article on driverless trucks there are jokes about other blue-collar lines of work which have also gone poof. That's because of technology.  They include saddle makers, elevator operators and switchboard operators. (Regarding the latter, Ernestine the Operator probably had to take early retirement.)  And that was fast. Yes, autonomous trucks have actually become a reality. So much so that the California Teamsters is suing the California DMV for allowing this to happen without adequate research into the economic impacts. The lawsuit contends 200,000 big-rig driving jobs in the state eventually will be lost.  Just about six years ago I was adv...

  Thanks to the creation of platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi it's now possible to bet on the outcome of jury trials. The Wall Street Journal reports on the wagering for the Lindsay Clancy murder trial. Of course, that generates plenty of issues about ethics, insider-trading kind of sharing of information among family members and the integrity of the whole justice system. But, the reality is that prediction markets are only a new wrinkle on the almost infinite type of betting that takes place in the legal sector. For example, I recall an article by David Sanford of Sanford Heisler explaining the criteria for the law firm's accepting a case. That's about betting that it could achieve a positive outcome. Sure, the firm tends to be altruistic. But come on, it's a business. In addition, the firm has a branding for wins to protect.  Some may recall how much had been at stake in 2011 when the class action "concussion" lawsuit was filed against the NFL.  Shou...

  It looks like a good day ahead for Boomers who keep looking and looking at their financial state of affairs. Dow Jones E-mini Futures Future 52,487.00 +377.00 +0.72% But a hardening situation is this: the inability to spend.  There's even a new acronym for that. It's FORO, standing for Fear Of Running Out. Actually, up to 30% experience angst, not elation, when spending money. As The Atlantic puts it, there's been no blowing funds on bucket-list items. Not been around the world? Probably never will be.  All this is so understandable. After all, the 100-year life has become more common. Rupert Murdoch, Warren Buffett and William Shatner are all in their late 90s and active.  I'm among them the FORUs. The oldest of the Boomers I get it that I have become my running around shutting off the lights Depression era parents. I add the microwave, which didn't exist for most of them. Unplugging it when not in use prevents what's known as vampire power draw. That sa...

  The largest law firm in the world Kirkland & Ellis made headlines when announcing it would no longer disclose financial data.  The buzz was that move was generated by increasing client discontent with high legal bills.  Smirk. The reality should have always been that it was nutty for a law firm - that is, not a public company primarily accountable to investors - to crow about metrics such as Profits Per Equity Partner. Any business-savvy client would start connecting the dots and maybe begin comparison-shopping. Sure, a law firm should be signaling growth, but not through the PPEP lens.  Yes, on the one hand, a firm had to be  positioned and packaged as in a high-growth mode. Way back in 2021, Paul, Weiss partner/thought leader Brad Karp hammered in Bloomberg Law that firms not on a growth trajectory could actually go out of business. The categories for that include the number of star partners, international expansion and creation/scaling of practices al...

Professional anonymous network Reddit used to be the classic play-out of misguided empathy. Typical had been the post: The rug was pulled from under you. You lost your job. And you've been jobless so long that unemployment compensation has run out and soon enough will be your savings. Bro, we feel for you. Recently there's been a paradigm shift to raw pragmatism. Here is the  Reddit post on the question of whether to take a pay cut. And here is the kind of collective response: "It is not a pay cut if you are currently making zero. Bring in some money while you look for other opportunities. Adjust your budget to get rid of any expenses that are not absolutely necessary." Get it: Since you aren't making any money now and haven't for too long, there's no pay cut per se. There's the reality of a low starting salary at a job. If you're a hustler and alert to opportunity, that should be on short time. Here's a comment which received 78 upvotes, so f...

  For those of us servicing the legal sector (I coach/provide tarot readings for lawyers) there was a posting on LinkedIn which seemed a must-read. It was by Reuters Legal reporter Sara Randazzo. It referred to an article  she had researched and written. It was about how giant corporation AT&T is leveraging AI to reduce its use of outside law firms. How would this impact hiring/job security at law firms?  Yes, Randazzo did provide a brief summary of the published article. For more, we had to click the link. Horror. The article, like so many on LinkedIn and other platforms, was behind a paywall. A subscription was required.  Put it bluntly, is this kind of rollout of information/perspective a kind of bait and switch. There is an enticing headline. There is a summary drawing us in further. And then, we can't access the coverage without paying the "toll."  Sure, we should pay for content. Media is a business, not a charity. But few of us, especially the self-em...

  Way back in the late 1960s, activism took the form of telling us Boomers not to pay our bills. Those doing the telling were hairy types like Abbie Hoffman , the bills not to be paid were utilities. That was supposed to send messages about the Viet Nam war, non-engaged higher education and, yes, greedy landlords. Here in 2026, the tellers, reports The Wall Street Journal , are Influencers. The bills not to be paid or delayed tactics used are the medical ones. The statement, obviously, is that the whole healthcare loop, from insurance to treatment, is way too expensive.  What's going down is this, details the WSJ: "In just the last three months, there have been more than 426,000 mentions across X, Bluesky, YouTube and Reddit of medical bills, advice not to pay them, tips on negotiating bills lower, and related topics ... " A year ago, there were only a bit over 1,000 mentions. The folks adopting this activist point of view aren't just the ones who can't afford so...

A few years ago angst on Reddit Big Law about AI wiping out lawyers' jobs was usually downvoted. Also, a year ago, there was Paul, Weiss partner Brad Karp's prediction on Lawyer Monthly that AI would 1) significantly reduce demand for junior lawyers and 2) turn certain practices into commodities. That generated some discussion, but, again, no real angst. More recently, there has been a psychic shift. I know that from the lawyers I coach and provide tarot readings. In addition, the tone and content about AI on Reddit Big Law has transformed to almost radical acceptance . The general meme is this: Human lawyers will have an increasingly hard time competing with AI. In about 10 years, forget it. AI will win. You can bear witness to that in this Reddit post.   On that Reddit post lawyers admit that two or three years ago AI was nothing to worry about. However, it has been a surprisingly fast learner. On Reddit, a lawyer using Claude Fable 5   reports: " ... from the ti...

Kirkland & Ellis, the largest and most profitable law firm, has made this bombshell announcement : It will no longer disclose to media details of its financial performance. So, the legal and business worlds now wonder if other highly profitable law firms will also go silent about those kinds of metrics. K&E offered no explanations why. It only stated that such quantitative details provide no meaningful insight about the quality of its services.  Well, well. One source to Bloomberg Law  made this observation: "The decision had been in the works for multiple years, according to two people. One of the people said firm leaders were wary of client response to reporting on the firm’s equity partner profits, which were $11 million in its latest reporting." Also for years the K&E model has been imitated by other law firms eager to boost their own Profits Per Equity Partner. So. it's not unthinkable that Paul, Weiss, for example, which seems to have grafted on pieces ...

  The three top players in M&A recently have been Kirkland & Ellis, Latham and Wachtell.  That means that Paul, Weiss' Scott Barshay, whose signature is M&A transactions , needed a win. Yes, a high-profile one. Ever since he took over the chairmanship job in a February 2026 coup, Barshay has been closely watched. Can this guy lead that major law firm in this disruptive time in the legal sector? Sure, he can lawyer. Sure, he can manage. But leadership is a whole different job function. Well, the win came. Along with Paul, Weiss partners Laura Turano and Cristina Barshay handled the sell-side legal issues associated with US software company PTC. It is being acquired by French engineering Schneider Electric SE. The transaction is all-cash: $22.6 billion. Driviing the transaciton is the need to bulk up with AI capability. Major competitor Siemens is already immersed in AI. Debevoise is the legal advisor for Schneider.  A risk for Schneider is that the strategy ...

Probably the last generation in America to have it "easy" was us Boomers.  The post-WWII economic boom was kicking in. College opened up to us and was cheap. Investing, not just surviving, was doable. And we became the wealthiest generation in America. At least so far. Members of Generation Alpha - born between 2010 and 2024 - could outdo us. A recent PwC survey found two things: These kids are entrepreneurs from the get-go. 86% earn their own money. They are one with technology. It's like breathing air for them. 38% use AI tools for fun. But much could go wrong along the way.  As CNBC cautions, pareents have to guide Alphas to invest the money, not get caught up in consumerism. For big spenders even something as basic as financial security - never mind acquisition of wealth - has been unbundled from high earning power. Up to 40% of those grossing $300k - $500k annually live paycheck to paycheck. Also, despite the myriad grim warnings about the unmarketability of m...