Over-50

Think Like a Lawyer: Don't Publish a Book

In all sectors, this used to be the rule: Publishing a book was the price of entry.

That mandate probably still holds for those running for public office. In fact, if someone has published a book, the buzz gets going that he or she will probably run for something. 

Currently, careerists can often get the same reach by having their public relations team land them a high-profile media placement. Then that content is repurposed in social networks, including TikTok, as well as a special event on the metaverse. And there you got it.

The reality is that often a tight, well-done article or a video interview can communicate the essence of what a book would have taken 250 pages to explain - or pontificate about.  

Another reality is that there are fewer people out there willing to take the time to read the book.

Gallup found that the average number of books (print, e- and audio) read annually has plunged from 15.6 in 2016 to the current 12.6. Also, the largest decline in reading has been among college graduates. My hunch is that after sizing up what has to be mastered for the test they get it that, no, you don't have to read a whole book to connect the dots on what's wrong with, for example, the bail system. 

Influential leaders in the legal sector have made it their business to be out there in the right media.

Dentons' Joe Andrew got his message communicated loud and clear about worker inequality through an essay in The Hill. The point was made. Anything more would have been a turnoff. Lot of other media outlets reprinted it. 

For Paul Weiss' Brad Karp, who was an early adopter in launching an ESG practice, the right placement was Corporate Counsel. That highlighted ESG trends for 2022. That was just enough and not too much for chief legal officers to digest. And the market segment for Paul Weiss' ESG practice are those in-house corporate leaders. What busy CLO is going to plow through a book on ESG ...

Sure, if a law firm chairperson is considering a campaign for U.S. Senator or Governor, do a book.

But the other ambitious law firm leaders, in addition to knocking out those articles/op-eds and appearing on "ABC," should also be doing this:  playing around with strategies for sponsoring forums, tutorials, and even business-development pitches in the metaverse.

With their profits from 2020 and 2021, they actually can afford to buy a parcel of property in the Decentraland or Sandbox. Location, as with brick-and-mortar real estate, counts for a lot. The best location is Downtown Decentraland. But those parcels are going fast. They have to do the buying now.

Tokens.com's founder and head Andrew Kiguel plans a gala fashion show staged on his Decentraland property. You bet the media is continually interviewing him. Here is The Wall Street Journal video one. Kiguel has become the thought leader to consult about metaverse trends.  His following on LinkedIn Updates keeps growing. 

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

The GI Bill: Boomer Paradise Found Became Later Generations' Paradise Lost

Part of the specialness of America: The children of ordinary people could attend college.

That kicked in with the GI Bill.

Acquiring a college degree became embedded as part of the American Dream.

Guidance counselers for the public high schools in pre-gentrified Jersey City, New Jersey, in the early 1960s, shephered us first-generation Americans into college. In those days it didn't have to be a brandname institution of higher learning. 

For us boomers things turned out okay. The degree was necessary for a position in Corporate America. That was all-good. 

The legacy of the GI Bill, as The Wall Street Journal keeps hammering, later became an American tragedy.

The most recent feature on this by the WSJ explains how the way payment for student loans is structured is a factor in the monster growth of the amount owed because of interest. 

Everything changes, right. Yet, what hasn't changed is the blind faith in degree-getting, particularly those degrees beyond the college one. The lion's share of those advanced degrees from elite academic institutions had not produced the ROI which makes financial sense. Many of those degree-getters could have been earning a comparable or better annual salary without an advanced or even a college degree. 

For example, according to ZipRecruiter, the national average long-distance truck driver's annual salary is $64,210. Smart Trucking puts the CDL training between $3,000 and $7,000. Loans are available, but they are usually paid off quickly - unlike most borrowing for advanced degrees which now are often dragged along for a lifetime. There are also free rides on the training for those willing to commit to driving for a certain company for about two years.

Despite all the exposes by respected media such as the WSJ and the passing on of the individual loan debt horror stories, life lessons have not been learned. Youth is still bellying up to the bar of higher education to become intoxicated on participating in an old-guard rite of passage. Yesyesyes, they got into elite New York University. Yesyesyes, their professors are in photo-ops at the White House. Yesyesyes, their fellow students are so smart.

Then comes the descent into job-reality hell. The world isn't clamoring for them, not even with a prestigious internship at X or Y. The pay is relatively low. It isn't going to go up much. Unless they reset their credentials they will likely never earn enough for an adult lifestyle. A smart second move might be to train for a manager's position in fast food or a supermarket chain.

In contrast there are those who even bypassed college. No, they didn't opt for truck-driving school. Instead they calculated how much they would have spent on education and invested that in cryptocurrency. They are the ones, documents Jefferies, making up the new under-35 market for luxury goods, both purchased in brick-and-mortar, and in the metaverse. 

There are also the entrepreneuers. Even if they are matriculating at a college, they are focused more on starting up a business than achieving high grades.

It seems so misleading to hammer youth with the almost moral obligation to get top grades. Probably not immediately post-graduation but soon enough they will discover that the "C" students are the bosses of the "A" students.

When the grade-grubbers were booking it, those less focused on academic excellence were enhancing their social skills. They might have wound up almost failing a course because they were consumed with campaigning to be president of the student council. Even if they had lost they had learned plenty about how to influence. Ask any C-Suite executive about the most important professional skill. Most will answer: the ability to sell, be it an idea or the reason why the team should be pumped. 

I have a hunch that at prominent law firms Dentons and Paul Weiss the Chairpersons Joe Andrew and Brad Karp got there and held onto the job not primarily because they are cognitive powerhouses. They may be. But intellectual smarts, as Dan Goleman documented, has diminishing returns along most professional paths. Success increasingly is the result of emotional intelligence. 

Smirk: Remember how the higher ed bubble was supposed to burst ...

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

NFTs Open Political Fundraising to Mainstream

US Senate GOP candidate in Arizona Blake Masters is using "Origins NFT" as a fundraising tactic, reports Axios.

Masters contends purchasing it will give ordinary people a sense of ownership. Through the arrangement, Masters hopes to open donating to political campaigns to the mainstream.

The graphic for "Origins" comes from the original art work Masters used to persuade venture capitalist Peter Thiel to partner to write "Zero to One" in 2014.

That guide for entrepreneurs turned out to be a best-seller. Years later, it continues to rank high on Amazon: #914. For some the takeaway from "Zero to One" is that poignant anecdote: Two SCOTUS judges rejected Sanford JD Thiel for a clerkship. Had he been accepted, he might never have blossomed into an over-the-top entrepreneur.

Purchasing "Origins" costs a maximum of $5,800. Half will be put toward the primary. And if Masters is able to enter the general election there will be half put toward that. 

Since Arizona is a conservative state, Masters has a shot at being elected. Also, his association with the well-connected conservative Thiel extends his reach. He has already appeared on "Fox" with Tucker Carlson.

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

"The Matrix Resurrections" - Is the Evil Psychoanalyst Right?

"The Matrix: Resurrections," like "Spider-Man," is a success at the box-office.

Also, it is catching on in terms of memes.

Specifically, what is resonating is the metaphor of the blue pill, given by Thomas Anderson's villain psychoanalyst.

That has surfaced in the collective concsiousness as a symbol of mind control. That chokehold is in contrast to the red pill which opens the human being to the truths of existence.

Anderson makes the shift from blue to red. That one decision propels him through the door to his mission to change the world. His soulmate in that is his romantic partner Trinity. 

The messaging of the film is not simplistic. For example, what controls Trinity is the concept of the family. No, the family - and by extension any other system - is not in itself bad. The peril to individual autonomy and global values is set in play when that value overrides all others.

The analogy, of course, is this: Nothing wrong with working long dedicated hours in Big Law. What is wrong is embracing that ethos as the only one which makes sense for how to live a life. The bad effects are not simply the overwork. In addition, those knocked off the partner track could wind up broken. Their design for professional life had been too circumscribed - and determined for them externally. 

No surprise, that one-dimensional thinking in Big Law is reinforced with the gala rewards. That's the way the blue pill is coded to operate.

Take the dynamics at Kirkland and Ellis. There are the giant bonuses. More recently what had been added to the goodies is a more promising shot at partnership. K & E reduced that rite of passage by a year to nine.

However, even internally in Big Law viewing the practice of law through that tiny lens is being questioned.

In a Bloomberg Law interview, Paul Weiss Chairiperson Brad Karp, for instance, indicated a need to press down on the brakes on extreme work.

Interestingly, in the influential film "King Richard," the audience experiences the reverse of the driven helicopter parent. The father of Venus and Serena Williams insists that his children have a normal childhood. The road to stardom won't be non-stop exclusive practicing and entering competitive events. One afternoon, instead of practicing, the whole family packs it in and drives off to Disney. 

It's possible that "taking the blue pill" could replace "drinking the Kool-Aid" as the buzzphrase for caving to external sources of influence. 

The issue, though, is how seriously will society consider the implications of the blue pill?

The evil psychoanalyst smugly assesses human nature as eager to be controlled.

However, there may be a lessening of that force field with the decline of trust in institutions, ranging from government during COVID to Big Banking during the era of crypto. There may seem to be no choice other than making one's own decisions about values and then how to live them.

Way back in 2015, a Yale instructor William Deresiewicz warned about success-directed mind control in the book "Excellent Sheep." That detailed how willing ambitious youth in elite colleges are to buy into whatever was labeled as strategies for professional upward mobility.

More recently, some youth have opted out of that whole college pressure-cooker to invest what would have paid for tuition and living expenses in crypto. A number of them, documents Jefferies, have emerged as the new market segment to purchase lux goods, both in brick-and-mortar and in the metaverse.

Meanwhile, as The Wall Street Journal has been featuring for about a year, too many of those excellent sheep have wound up with staggering student loan debt and low-paying jobs. Yes, they opted for the blue pill. 

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

Literature - Remember That, In Time Way Back Before Avatars and Real Estate in Decentraland/The Sandbox

"Joan Didion, a resounding voice in American literature who insightfully captured the ’60s and California through observant and beautiful language, died on Thursday at home in Manhattan. She was 87 years old." - Emily Kirkpatrick, Vanity Fair, December 23, 2021

In an era before video games, avatars, and purchasing real estate in the metaverse near Snoop Dogg, this death probably would have set in play profound mourning. There could have been out-loud readings across the United State of excerpts from Didion's essay "Goodbye to All That."

That would have been then. 

And maybe it's not all that awful that there has been a goodbye to so much of that. After all, quality literary works are difficult to understand.

Before English/American Literature collapsed as a major, students struggled all those four years of college with deconstructing the way William Faulkner, for example, organized his works and the memes of Shakespeare's dramas. Was all that work worth it?

But, what has hung on is a reverence for language.

As in "Mad Men," marketers are spending billions of dollars crafting just the right words with the right rhythm. What about the Crypto.com commercial, narrated by Matt Damon:

"Fortune favors the brave."

In the 2021 film "The Matrix Resurrections," the evil psychoanalyst observes:

"Did you know that hope and despair are nearly identical in code?"

And, elite lawyers, even when off-duty from trial work, wrap themselves in eloquence. 

Here is an example, quoted in Super Lawyers, by the Chairperson of Paul Weiss Brad Karp. It's about his mentor Arthur Liman:

“Arthur was not only a fantastic lawyer, but also an individual with a large heart and an unquenchable belief in social justice ...  Arthur cared about everything and everyone to a degree I have never seen; he was passionate about the law, passionate about justice, passionate about the firm, passionate about fairness. His legacy is very much alive in our [that is, law firm Paul Weiss] halls today.”

Karp's measure of that legal mind and human being rings almost Kennedyese but in a different century.

What we can still celebrate about Didion is how she unleashed the magic of language. Even in this visual time that force field continues to dominate. 

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

The Entrepreneurial Dream of Owning a Franchise - Bring Your Lawyer Along, Check Out the Neighorhood

It was the entrepreneurial dream of blacks getting in on the lucrative opportunity of owning a McDonald's frachise. All constituencies in the loop, ranging from government to blacks themselves, were enthusiasitc about that.

In her book "Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America," Marcia Chatelain captures that optimism. Then she chronicles how quickly things started going very wrong for the black owners. Published a year ago, the book continues to rank high on Amazon: 86,273.

Influential Bloomberg tells that story today. The Bloomberg coverage includes the lawsuits.

The largest one is "Christine Crawford, et al. v McDonald's USA." Here is a copy of that complaint. The more than 50 former black franchisees contend that the fast-food's biased policies were a primary factor in their failure.

Not that operating a franchise is easy. As I analyze in this article pubished in ST Magazine, the skills required include those of management. Also, those opting for this kind of venture should bring their lawyers along. Contract law dominates the arrangement. That is usually on the side of the corporation. In addition, comprehensive due dilgence must be performed about the location. Key variables there range from competition in the area to crime. In addition, mid-course, overall demand could go poof. The craze could be over for X or Y product or service. 

What Bloomberg doesn't go into is what makes "Crawford" such a seminal lawsuit. Yes, Bloomberg does mention that McDonald's USA is being represented by former US Attorney General Loretta Lynch. But that isn't the story per se.

The story that matters is two-fold.

One, Lynch is  woman of color. If the lawsuit gets to trial there is the high-profile issue in the court of public opinion that this skilled lawyer is defending a giant corporation against blacks who struggled to have a piece of what America promised.

Is that morally right?

Of course it is just fine in the ethos of defense lawyering. 

The other issue is that Lynch is a partner in elite law firm Paul Weiss. It is headquartered in Manhattan. Recently Law360 Pulse rated Paul Weiss as among the top 10 prestigious law firms in the US.

The optics on this one are not good: The Goliath of a powerful law firm taking on the little people.

Should McDonald's USA have selected a low-profile local law firm to represent it?

One recalls the speculation that it was parachuting in a brandname lawyer like F. Lee Bailey to represent Pattty Hearst that resulted in her conviction and prison sentence.

In the Rhode Island lead paint public nusiance trial the clients of the three lawyers imported into town from brandname law firms were convicted the first time around. The client of the local lawyer from SmallLaw had been let off the hook.

When I interviewed that blue-collar jury, some indicated their praise for that local lawyer. When I covered the verdict I posited that it had been a strategic mistake for major corporations to have hired white-shoe law firms for that kind of trial involving harm to children.

Meanwhile, the decision to purchase a franchise has always been fraught with peril. Bias can do the owners in, yes. But so can myriad other realities. "Crawford" should be a cautionary tale for all considering this entrepreneurial dream.

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

Those Grandiose Narcissists - We Probably Have Been Managing That Difficult Personality at Work for Decades

"Using a sample of fully-employed adults (n = 270), we show that narcissism is correlated with a greater willingness to use tougher, more aggressive political tactics, an effect that is stronger to the extent that people are less guilt prone. Because research shows the importance of political skill for career success, our findings help account for why narcissism may produce more favorable career outcomes." - Charles A. O'Reilly and Jeffrey Pfeffer, "Organizational Power and Politics: The Narcissist's Advantage," in Personality & Individual Differences, November 2021.

The "in" term for the kind of narcissism which is quite effective in accomplishing career goals is "grandiose narcissism." 

Essentially, the defining traits of the grandiose narcissist are summed up by Charles O'Reilly and Nicholas Hall as:

"A substantial body of research has documented that grandiose narcissists are characterized by high self-esteem, a sense of personal superiority and entitlement, overconfidence, a willingness to exploit others for self-gain, and hostility and aggression when challenged."

A book published in 2020 goes into comprehensive detail about this kind of personality, one who usually makes it to the top of organizations, community affairs, and families. That's "The New Science Of Narcissism" by W. Keith Campbell, Ph.D. However, in this era of ESG, they are being unmasked and penalized more and more often. The business media outlets chronicle those falls from grace. This has become a matter of The Public Interest. A growing niche in law firms is conducting internal investigations.

In all lines of professional life we have encountered the grandiose narcissists. Usually, because they are so skilled in the art and science of human interaction, it might be years before we get that Ah-Ha Moment: That is, that we are being used and abused and without enough return on the relationship to have made what we have invested in energy, hard work, and loyalty worthwhile.

If we have options we, of course, can "get away." That's not easy, however, since they usually have goodies to dispense.

I stuck with one grandiose narcissist client for too long because, at the time, no other client I could land had such access to interesting high-profile work and ponied up way-above-average compensation. That was in my field of communications. 

In the field of law I was equally slow in reacting but for different reasons. Their branding as brilliant litigators and/or chairpersons who grew the firm dazzled me.

Actually, it took reading and thinking deeply about "The New Science Of Narcissism" for me to identify those kinds of lawyers whom I am dealing with in my syndicated blogging and marketing communications tasks. That awful moment of clarity came: I am being played.

Is the process of being "seduced" a form of gaslighting? That could be an apt way of describing what happens when grandiose narcissists cast their spells.

In VeryWellMinds, Sherri Gordon describes that process as:

" ... a technique that undermines a person's perception of reality. When someone is gaslighting you, you may second-guess yourself, your memories, and your perceptions. After communicating with the person gaslighting you, you may be left feeling dazed and wondering if there is something wrong with you."

For those who sense they have gotten a raw deal serving grandiose narcissists, there is abundance of evidence that the same traits such as risk-taking and overconfidence which got them to positions of wealth, influence, and power can also generate catastrophic consequences.

The legal media outlets report weekly on alleged grandiose narcissism gone very wrong. The partner is sued for inappropriate conduct and leaves the firm. The chairperson gets caught up in criminal activity and goes to prison. Investigative journalists document a conflict of interest that throws shade on the law firm.

The reality usually plays out as this: They go too far. That too-far gets the attention of those who have the authority and/sense of accountability to investigate. That happens throughout all professions.

The reversals of fortune or near-death-career experiences are especially common in the heady world of Wall Street. Some of that ugly underbelly had been exposed in the expose "The Caesars Palace Coup." That is by Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap. Published in March of this year, it continues to rank high on Amazon: 12,161. In addition, there had been spin-off articles in Vanity Fair and Insider.

Before the time of reckoning, though, grandiose narcissists can do extensive harm to the organization as well as people who are drawn into the force field. 

Recognizing the narcissist pull force is the first and most important step in managing this type of player. The spell cast immediately is broken. Poof. (And, we feel mighty foolish, but so ...) The pragmatic reality is, though, that we usually can work with them. For those experienced dealing with challenging personalities when earning a living, the rest seems obvious. We figure out the overall strategies and, on a daily basis, the tactics. 

In addition, executive coaches can train in effective tools for coping without alienating that power figure. Or the recommendation from the coach could be to plan an exit. 

Another source of help is Chapter 12 of Campbell's book. That's "Reducing Another's Narcissism."

Interestingly, Chapter 13 is titled "Reducing Your Own Narcissism." Perhaps the most efficient path for managing one's own grandiosity is observing what has happened to other narcissists. Even if they are not forced out the organization or wind up in prison or financial ruin when their career time is up they are usually without the comfort of relationships. Not personal ones. Not professional ones. 

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

Course Correction - How the Big Guns Do That

The most worn-out platitude in career guidance and life-coaching is this: It isn't what happens (or how you screw up). It's how you handle it.

That ancient adage currently goes by the moniker "course correction."

And course correction is or should be the new core competence in Big Law.

That once-staid institution is being hit with the same headwinds that corporations are struggling with. They include aggressive media scrutiny, ambitious authors putting out book exposes, ESG values, upstart competition, technology, strained labor relations, and revolutions in marketing.

Paul Weiss and more recently Cravath provide living case studies on the fundamentals of course correction. 

For Paul Weiss, the high-profile aspects of that date back to 2019.

That's when The New York Times did a feature on how the new partner class of 12 consisted of 11 white males and 1 white woman. Incidentally, that 1 white woman didn't look like so many of us. The message I got: Women like me couldn't make it at Paul Weiss. 

A genius in putting together solutions, the Chairperson Brad Karp went about, yes, course correction.

And here we are today. A symbol of the effective Paul Weiss fix is that woman of color Loretta Lynch is a partner. She also has the prominent role of defending McDonald's USA in "Christine Crawford v McDonald's USA." That's a racial bias lawsuit in which more than 50 former black franchisees contend the discriminatory policies of that fast food giant caused them to fail. 

Another situation requiring course correction had been Paul Weiss' decision to abstain from awarding COVID special bonuses. The tone of that internal memo (which predictably was leaked to the media) was leadership-self-involved.

However, so much has changed since then. Karp positions and packages his public statements with human touchpoints. Paul Weiss recently had been the first mover in special bonuses. And today it matched how Davis Poll approached seasonal bonuses.

Still resonating in the gossipy industry of practicing law has been the infamous expose in book form "The Caesars Palace Coup." There was plenty of Paul Weiss in that.

The book gave birth to mini exposes in Vanity Fair and Insider. How the tongues wagged.

In response, Karp managed to conjure up the kind of media coverage which distracted from the reputational carnage set in play by the book and the articles. In those interviews the persona was the futurist. Who isn't quite interested in seeing their industry through the lens of a seer whose partners were on their way to $6 million PPP for 2021?

Turns out that Cravath has also embraced course correction. A Reddit thread last June had referred to it as overrated and irrelevant.

So, can Cravath return it to the glory days of being the overall standard-setter in Big Law? Probably not. In that hyper competitive industry, others have already gained key first mover branding in everything from innovation (Wilson Sonsini) to associate professional development (Sidley).

Cravath's latest course corrections include being the first to announce seasonal bonuses and ending partner lockstep compensation. 

However, there is hope for Cravath if it can think and behave in provocative ways. For example, it can follow SmallLaw firm Grungo Colarulo into the metaverse. That can take the form of buying a plot of land in the metaverse Decentraland.

Course correction will evolve into a multi-purpose tool for Big Law. Not only can it put back on track what derailed. It can reset the law firm for new kinds of success. 

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

3 Million Retired Early - Now What?

"The Covid Retirement Boom." That's what Miguel Faria e Castro at the Federal Reserve in St. Louis called his research. What that uncovered is this: 3 million of you retired early during COVID.

This may have happened because:

• Layoffs. Business might have gone sour during the pandemic. The first to go are usually the higher-paid. That is, older workers.

 

• Fear of contracting the virus. Therefore, you opted to not go into work and retired.

 

• Reaching the magic number in investments. The market, after initially plunging, was good. So, you calculated that you could retire. 

The implications of retiring early are huge.

For one thing, there is a labor shortage. And since it involves you there's a loss of much needed skills. When you left that industry, you left a hole. (Yes, they might want you back. Tap into the grapevine and find out if they are hiring back former employees as contract workers.)

For another, if you decided you want to return to the labor force, you could find it very difficult to re-enter. And, according to the Federal Reverse, one-third of you are boomeranging back from retirement to earn income from working. Mostly it's to make ends meet. There will likely be more of that because inflation is brutal. It's at a 30-year high.

Not all of you will need to or want to exit retirement and start earning money again. But the odds are you will consider it. If you do, don't assume it's impossible. For instance, as I indicated, your former employer might be recruiting among you retirees for part-time or gig assignments. 

Here, free to download, is my guide to getting, holding, and moving on to better work, despite your age Download Outwitting ageism.

The major takeaway is this: Be willing to start "at the bottom." Change your mindset from expecting to earn income the way you had during your career. The opportunity could be part-time/full-time at a call center. That could even be structured remotely for you to do at home. The good news is that if you prove yourself you could be promoted to supervision. This is especially likely because of your excellent work ethic and the shortage of workers.

The same thing could apply to delivering eats. Soon enough you could be appointed as the dispatcher.

Another route is to go for low-cost certification in a much-in-demand field such as Google AdWords. Or, if you have compassion for those addicted you can gain credentials at the community college or online for counseling in the field of substance abuse. Training could also be in obtaining a commercial driver's license. For long-distance hauls, there are even free programs. They require you to work about two years for that company. Currently there is an extreme shortage of long distance drivers.

It's becoming more typical for the aging to leave, return to, and again leave the world of work. Usually bouncing back is triggered by that Ah-Ha Moment that savings are being depleted too quickly. Then, there is a build-up of a bit of nest egg and again there is the decision to retire.

How to gear up to be ready to change and keep changing? Here, free to download, is my book on shaking loose from your comfort zone. 

You may live into your 80s, 90s, and beyond. As long as you have your health you have a shot at working - and loving it. Incidentally, there is such a thing as late bloomers. At age 60, I mastered digital communications.

Intuitive guidance about your next. Drop your story line and open to extreme possibility. Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment for a complimentary consultation at janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Baby Boomer Leon Black and His Tribe

Perhaps Leon Black's return to a public presence was not only premature. It could have been a major strategic error in the big job of reputation restoration. Recently, he exited his no-profile existence post-scandals and had attended Mike Milkin's annual financial pow-wow. 

That visibility could have made him again a sitting duck for media attack and more. We don't know the facts. But given how guilt by accusation operates, facts don't matter. Alan Dershowitz made that clear in his book by that title. Here it can be ordered from Amazon.

What we are told is what respected journalist Gabriel Sherman has published in Vanity Fair.  He reports - and the Black spokesperson denies:

"The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has opened a criminal investigation into Black, according to two sources briefed on the probe. Sources said prosecutors are examining allegations in court documents that Black raped and sexually assaulted the two former models. The allegations were included in former Russian model Guzel Ganieva’s civil lawsuit against Black. Ganieva and a woman identified in court documents as 'Jane Doe' ..."

Sherman goes on to say that the two women had met with the authorities about this and that the investigation is in its early stages.

The DA's office did not comment.

However, lots of others will comment. Just when interest in Black seemed to be dying down, again a perfect storm of negative attention blew in. The New York Post features this story. Once again Black has been caught up in a force field of accusations. 

Good lawyering can't reduce the intensity of that. He has had and still has the resources to hire top legal minds. It had been those at Paul Weiss which got him off on criminal charges about $158 million in fees paid to Jeffrey Epstein. And smart lawyering probably had him file a countersuit to Ganieva's original lawsuit. Countersuits signal innocence. Later, Ganieva filed an amendment. Black denied again what had been alleged.

If Black will have a comeback, this latest development delays it. 

Who else is affected are those who had been or are still on Black's network. And, by extension all of Wall Street. After all, Black is a financial player.

After Black stepped down from heading giant Apollo, long-time executive Marc Rowan took over. In terms of financial performance and in strategies for the future, Rowan has been doing well. In addition, he had repositioned Apollo for ESG (Environmental Social Governance).  Recently Apollo hired a Chief Sustainability Officer and acquired a portfolio of wind and solar energy assets. All that puts the firm on the side of the angels.

But with the possibility of criminal charges for rape for the former founder again Apollo might have to battle itself back to positive branding. That isn't a certain. But it is a possibility. 

There are also all the lawyers and law firms associated with Black. No longer does the "everyone deserves a right to the best defense available" tune play so well.

David Boies took a body blow and still hasn't been able to stand up right after there had been guilt by association for representing Harvey Weinstein and startup Theranos. Boies' brand could take another hit if he testifies at "US v Elizabeth Holmes." E-discovery has retrieved plenty of communication between defendant Elizabeth Holmes and himself that is not protected by attorney-client confidentiality. Obviously, that provides a peek into how Boies operates. 

Another bit of fallout from Sherman's article: The cloud hovering over Wall Street since the publication of the expose "The Caesars Palace Coup" could darken. By Sujeet Indap and Max Frumes it conjures up a take on Wall Street as a cabal of greed and behavior on the far edge of ethics. Incidentally, Big Law is also vilified. The allegations that the authorities are interested in Black for rape reinforces that the tribe he is from assumes it can impose its own rules. That could trigger an outcry for government to check out what's going on at the reservation. 

Yes, this is all bad. An earlier Vanity Fair article by William D. Cohen had created plenty of bad publicity for a lot of the tribe. They ranged from Black, of course, to his and Apollo's legal counsel Brad Karp of Paul Weiss. To some observers, that had fizzled out. Since its publication, there have been fresh accomplishments and good deeds. For some, that blew away much of the stink. All seemed back to normal on the reservation. Now, there could be scrambling on how to manage this latest narrative and the solutions might not be effective. The future of that tribe could be in play.

No, let us not praise famous men. What they put together is so fragile in a media era.

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