Over-50

Circling Back to Counterculture Ethos of Enoughness

Already, McDermott Will and Cadwalader in the law firm niche had matched the Milbank scale for salary raises for 2022.

Essentially that had been a $10k boost for very junior lawyers and a $20k one for more experienced ones.

Now, as Bloomberg Law reports, Fried Frank has also bellied up to that reality in the war for talent. It is matching Milbank.

MONEY NOT SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION

However, watchers of the war are not optimistic that throwing money around is a sustainable solution for recruiting, retaining, and motiving human assets in the law firm niche.

The counterforce is being called "soul suck."

Here is my analysis of that force field which is driving lawyers, both associates and partners, out of the practicing law and onto new career paths. The latter range from retraining for hands-on healthcare to opening a bed-and-breakfast. 

Soul suck is being experienced in not only the legal sector. It also has been overtaking all of professional services. 

MINIMALISM

The flight out of law and other professional services usually entails lower income.

However, that can be embraced through adopting a minimalist lifestyle.

Smirk, just look at what Leon Black's $10.4 billion got him. His mistress turned on him and his former partner allegedly orchestrated a smear campaign. 

Chasing after maximizing income, through work and passively, could become the new very uncool.

The ethos could circle back to counterculture having-just-enough. At that time the economic system of the coops was: Take what you need, leave behind what you don't. Free clinics provided comprehensive healthcare including psychotherapy.

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Professional Services & Career Shifts - Getting Back the Pieces of Ourselves That We Had Lost

According to the American Bar Association, 24% of those who passed the bar in 2000 were not practicing law in 2012.

SALARY WAR OF 2022

Meanwhile, the Salary War of 2022 has kicked in with the Milbank boosts. Already there has been a match by McDermott Will.

But likely that game of throwing money at lawyers has already reached the point of diminishing returns. And, sure, the PPP is increasing in most elite firms but that is no guarantee that they will not only not stay but even remain in the legal profession. Yes, partners are also doing career changes. 

SOUL SUCK

In Reuters Legal, Jenna Greene describes the "soul suck" which has been a force field disappearing lawyers from law to other ways of making a living. Those range from retraining for being hands-on in medicine to operating an inn. The chief two motivators for the exit are: impossible workload and stress. 

To many, reaching the goal of making partner worsens those two. The gallows humor about that is winning a pie-eating contest and then being forced to continue proving oneself by eating the pie. The pie could be the pile-on of time-consuming committee tasks. Yes, you could be overseeing the summer program and then be evaluated by the participants. That could have been the flashpoint for Sidley partner Gabe MacConaill when he was managing the complex Mattress Firm bankruptcy. He committed suicide in the Sidley parking lot. 

THE AMBIGUITY OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Law isn't alone in soul suck. Professional services, documents the Bureau of Labor Statistics, has a higher level of those who leave that career path than other lines of work.

Obviously, all professional services are open-ended in their demands. Clients define the contours of the work situation.

Yes, get on the plane at 6 A.M. to have the client tell us what he or she "really wants" in a speech or for an opinion-editorial for The Wall Street Journal. The mood is usually tense. The first time around that client hadn't invested enough time in deciding what was the message. The first draft bombs badly. We communications consultants are shattered. 

NO MORE IMPOSSIBLE CLIENTS

About 18 months ago, I pivoted to fewer of those kinds of assignments for my marketing communications boutique and more in industrial trades. The owners and managers in the latter know, from the get-go, what they want and they tell me that. 

What helped me get there had been this: Paul Weiss Chairperson Brad Karp had taken an interest in my writing. The pieces of myself which I had lost came back together again. I am whole.

LESS MONEY (and that's okay)

As plays out for most of the lawyers who leave law, my shift from "impossible" clients has reduced my income. But there is that Ah-Ha moment: We can downsize expenses. It's nice to sleep through a whole night. And do that on a regular basis.

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.

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.

Boomers, So Here We Are, the Same Space We Were in during 1961

The Steven Spielberg version of "West Side Story" is amazing.

That includes the decision not to provide subtitles for the Spanish used.

After all, the acting is brilliant enough to transmit the emotional content. There's no ambiguity about Maria's determination to engineer a fresh start in America when she tells her brother he's not her boss. 

But that message of what extreme hate does to a society is, unfortunately, as relevant in 2021 as when it had been first produced in 1961.

Back then, as in the mean streets of pre-gentrified Jersey City, New Jersey, there really were rumbles. Yes, they did use chains. Only guns weren't commonplace.  

Then as now hate of some group provided an individual and communal platform for identity. 

The people in my old downtown neighborhood (Bay Street is currently gentrified) were not gang members. But they had so little going for them financially and in social status that they had hate down cold. We children were socialized to hate a growing list of categories of human beings. We had to talk and walk that part, at least until we were liberated from that force field by going out of state to college. God bless how the GI bill helped make college universally accessible in America. 

Most of America has mutated into that lacking-a-sense-of-self old neighborhood. Aside from the very wealthy no one seems to feel good about herself or himself.

Yes, wealth has become a kind of public nuisance. Perhaps the plaintiff firm specializing in that litigation - Motley Rice - should persuade a liberal state attorney general to file a public nuisance lawsuit against those on the wealth-messaging front lines. 

So obvious: The reality of what wealth is all about gets rubbed in by the legal media.

Bloomberg Law headlines what was supposed to be a let's-get-up-to-date interview about Paul Weiss with the expected PPP of $6 million.

Even in my good years as a communications strategist/content-provider, I stay stuck in six figures. Of course, I feel like sh_t. Hell, don't we all. The universal mea culpa for not having achieved great wealth is palpable. 

More recently the legal media outlets have been consumed with the bonus wars. Paul Weiss kicked that sort of thing off early a few months ago with its special bonuses for the "committed." Idealistic law school students probably are getting the message to ditch that set of values. Status, influence, and power in practicing law are about the funny money of millions of dollars, isn't it. Wake up and smell the money. 

It doesn't take a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist to explain that when people don't feel good about themselves they will grab at what will relieve that feeling, quickly. It could be drugs. It could be the hardening of hate. 

The legal media is just the tip of the iceberg on featuring wealth. The rest of the media also defaults that way. So do all the moving parts of society in America. After one very good year in earnings from my communications boutique the usual tax-preparer treated me with deference. Smirk.

Meanwhile, law firms, which have such reach into the global values (just read the UK's RollonFriday) should cool it on branding in terms of PPP and associate compensation. 

Bring the conversation back to the intellectual stimulation of practicing law and the satisfaction of creating effective solutions for clients.

There had been an inspiring anecdote floating around that the ethos of law firm Jones Day had been an analogue to the selfless labor of medieval monks laboring on behalf of a higher cause.

For that reason, compensation was not discussed in the firm. At the time that provided a kind of not only justification for but also a celebration of the black-box culture. Could Jones Day be onto something? It owns the litigation space. Its lawyers are tireless in preparing for trial.

Perhaps other law firms can adopt that kind of value system. That's emerging in some corporations which are retrofitting themselves to be purpose-driven. I create some of their marketing material. And the outreach containing that purpose (beyond generating wealth for shareholders) has been measured to get the best outcomes. That ranges from an uptick in sales to recruitment of talent.

It's not unthinkable that the notion of having a vocation will return. Law schools could require a 250-word essay on How Will Law Be Your Vocation?

In the present moment, yes, doing business via the blockchain can establish a new kind of level playing field. As blockchain's operations become more mainstream people might feel they are getting permission to just be ordinary human beings. That's okay. Live your little lives. 

Boomers recall that had been the vision of the counterculture. It could happen for real now, giving the technology of the blockchain. 

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.

Aging & Drinking Too Much? Maybe Get Religion (so to speak)

"According to a Rand Corp. survey of 1,540 adults, the number of days in which Americans drank rose 14% during a month-long period in the spring of 2020, compared with the same period in 2019. In a February American Psychological Association poll of 3,013 adults, 23% reported drinking more to cope with stress during the pandemic." - anne Tergesen, "A Sober Curious Movement Builds Online, Targeting 'Gray Area' Drinking," in The Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2021.

Like any pleasurable activity, such as downing Doritos in front of the screen, drinking alcohol can become a habit tough to shake.

If determined, just as with those who were once chubby and now aren't, that can be done. But most will probably be stuck in euphoric recall of the satisfaction of the experience and head back into indulging in a bit of boozing. Or a lot more than that.

The danger, of course, is the habit can become a compulsion. Then, we're talking about a drinking problem. Those tend to escalate with aging, especially after retirement. 

Some who recognize they're in that danger zone stop on their own. They realize at risk could be their earning capacity, family life, and health. 

On the Eastern European side of my family, which seems to have a gene for alcoholism, most members had that moment of clarity and stopped the disease DIY.

Others such as myself sought out a 12-step program. That was way back in 1981. There wasn't much else available. It was effective. But the approach is inefficient. Currently I would seek out something less time-consuming and less embedded with orthodoxies. 

Today, of course, as the WJD discusses, there are alternate treatment modalities. And a number of them are available online. 

This is strictly anecdotal. In consulting with experts in alcoholism and with being a sponsor of those starting out on their recovery journey this is often considered a key variable in success: belief in the process. The approach didn't matter all that much. What did was, well, blind faith. That's why it can be counterproductive to present a newbie with "evidence" of the flaws in a program. 

Maybe that's why so many sobering-up stories contain phrases like "getting religion" or "a spiritual experience."

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Pre-Retirement/Semiretirement Jitters - I Lost Plenty Today in Stock Market

Aging has the usual challenges, of course. Those range from losing family and friends to having to get serious about nutrition and exercise. 

But added to that is the reality that we could outlive our money - at least enough to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.

Today that reality turned brutal. If you are like me you watched the numbers in your investments going down. That could mean that I will have to continue to take on more communications/coaching assignments over the next four years than I had planned. 

Actually that scheduled retirement date might have to be shelved. I may never be able to hang it up. 

All this uncertainty seems analogous to when I finished my formal education. I had no idea what was next. That shook me to the core. Obviously, I did find my way to a career path. But the memory remains vivid of how awful it felt not to have solid ground under my feet. 

If you want to share your story of navigating these strange times, please send it to janegenova374@gmail.com. You can submit it with your identity or anonymously. It will be posted on this blog. 

The Great Resignation - Hey, We Baby Boomers Were There Before in the Counterculture

"During the pandemic, many knowledge workers have been embracing career downsizing, voluntarily reducing their work hours to emphasize other aspects of life." - Cal Newport, "Why Are So Many Knowledge Workers Quitting?" in The New Yorker, August 16, 2021.

First, let's get something straight.

What's being called The Great Resignation represents just one movement in America.

Simultaneously, BigLaw firm Latham & Watkins has been able to hire 274 lateral associates to crank out the overload of client demand, putting in 100-hour weeks.

Goldman Sachs and Jeffries have boosted their compensation for entry-level jobs to $110,000 (with only a BA or BS) so that there will continue to be takers for the same 100-hour weeks.

And, new money is taking over the Hamptons. 

But, The Great Resignation or career downshifting is a movement. It has traction.

To accommodate the fewer hours knowledge workers are willing to put in, some are adopting what is called a "minimalist lifestyle." For example, a former BigLaw paralegal I had coached had traded off purchasing top-of-the-line brands for not waking up in the morning with a knot in her stomach. As yet, she hasn't found another way of earning a living. But she figures that won't be hard because she isn't looking for big money. 

There is that adage: Nothing is new under the sun. No, this movement isn't new.

Baby boomers like myself recall the same renunciation of too-demanding careers, embrace of cheap living (including dumpster diving), and the focus on personal pleasure in the counterculture. Before we were legal to drink alcohol, we had burned out from all we had to do to "get into good schools," get excellent grades, and make it our business to marry spouses useful for upward mobility. 

Also, way before the counterculture, as author of the New Yorker article Newport emphasizes, there had been the ethos of Henry Thoreau. He had his followers in the 19th century, as well as liberal arts students up until the present time. 

Where could this all be leading? That could be the creation of The Great Divide. Two kinds of careers.

Reasonable ones, like the kind Jim Anderson on "Father Knows Best" enjoyed. He was not only home for dinner every night. He was also emotionally there.

There will also be the unreasonable ones. The paralegal told me the story of the wife who comes to the law office to talk with her husband. He's not there. He had flown to London on business, with no time to let the family know.

Both groups could become smug about their choices. 

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Back in the Counterculture, No, We Didn't Do the Math

Adam Neumann's super-octane pitch to constituencies ranging from employees to clients renting office space from WeWork was this: You are being part of something important.

That something important was that WeWork had created a holistic approach to living.

It was that instead of the old work/balance cliche work would be totally integrated into a life. The model established by WeWork made that happen. People would work side-by-side, socialize, grow from their interactions and not be in-silos such as the traditional offices and cubicles. The cool term Newmann used for that was "community."

That same force field of being part of something important could be driving youth to law school. After all the profession is a game-changer. At Sanford Heisler, David Sanford has put employers, including law firms, on notice to treat all kinds of employees without discrmination. The work lawyers do make headlines. Both the prosecution and the defense in "U.S. v. Elizabeth Holmes" will be household names when jury selection begins on August 31st. And, from "Perry Mason" to Dick Wolf's new series "For the Defense," legal matters are pillars in pop culture.

For the opportunity to do something important, the JD Class of 2024, which is overbooked in 55% of law schools, will likley pick up $145k in student loan debt. In 2019, their average annual salary will be around $80k. Do the math. That isn't great, especially since interest keeps increasing. 

But we human beings don't do the math we we feel we are doing something important. Members of the military work for peanuts. During the countculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s, I operated in the front lines w/o payment. And, mothers never expect compensation. 

The tragic irony, as with those who looped into WeWork, is that all too often the something might not be important. Actually, it could be a con. Mankind seems to be Myth-Making Animal.

We Baby Boomers Who Weren't Ambitious Enough - Maybe That Is Becoming OK

"In a Hybrid Office, Remote Workers Will Be Left Behind - It may not be fair, but in-office employees will get more attention—and more promotions. Blame it on human nature." - Peter Cappelli, The Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2021

Articles on the career drawbacks of WFH usually miss the boat: They don't get it that there are many who just want to make a living - on their own terms. That is, they want to do the work. And do it well enough to keep the job or the assignment. No, they don't aim for anything higher - or even different. They have families. They have hobbies. They like watching "Law & Order" reruns while they do their tasks. End of story.

No, not everyone is an ambitious careerist. However, at this time, we who are essentially craftspeople who love what we are doing and don't want to "climb the ladder" are an enigma in American capitalism. "They," probably even those close to us, don't understand us.

Yet, the reality is that professional life often becomes the corridor of pain. Needlessly so. 

That associates in a law firm making all the supposed right moves, including getting the attention of management, don't make partner. I have yet to coach any of those who could shake that trauma.

Wouldn't they have been better off if they simply approached practicing law in a large elite law firm as a way to make a good living? Not make partner? Then transfer that background to another career path?  With that mindset, they can opt for a total remote arrangement, get the money, get the experience, and than go on from there. In these volatile times we are all going on from there. 

What could play out from this global upheaval of versions of COVID is a rethinking of ambition. The extreme kind.

Not unthinkable is that a shift could become standard at the top of organizations. Instead of businesses considering raw ambition as a plus, they develop the norm of recruiting and even developing those who are quite satisfied to do the job well. Not rise in the ranks. After all, the ambitious can be a pest in the workplace. Compulsively they are scanning the horizon trying to catch up with opportunity. Also, they could be planning a coup to grab the positions of superiors.

The cliche memes about reaching for the stars could be replaced by: Making a living at what won't kill you or turn you mean. Soon enough WFH will lose all stigma. And the WSJ won't deliver stern warnings about how it holds a career back. Anyway, Willis Towers Watson projects the end of careers. They will be replaced by developing a portfolio of portable skills and experiences. 

 Disclosure: Since 1987, I have been WFH.

Let’s talk about success. On your own terms. How can you boost that in your own career and the trajectory of your business? You owe yourself a complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail (no selling).

Baby Boomers - Remember Our Dumpster Diving in the Name of the People!

This does not underestimate the brutal need of the current poor who can only survive through dumpster-diving. Some of us try to make their daily runs easier by leaving outside the dumpster what they could use. That frees them up from digging through or even having to leap in.

But, that's only one version of dumpster diving.

Another is the political. 

During the counterculture we who abandoned a suburban ethos for a minimalist lifestyle dumpster dived as a political statement. The objective was to send the message that you didn't need a job in General Motors (our base in the revolution was Ann Arbor, Michigan) to meet your basic needs. In addition, we participated in operating coops: Take what you need, leave what you don't. Donate a couple of bucks. As for other necessities of life such as medical care and psychotherapy (we were the first therapy generation) there were free clinics. 

Habits die hard. What was placed outside dumpsters in this small town I have picked up to furniture my new home. The finds range from a high chair for my elevated meditation table to a few lamps (they work). No political statements, this time around. Just a quick eye for what is free to take. Should I feel guilt that I might have denied the really-down-and-out what they could use? 

Where politics has taken on a social-networking signature is with the dumpster diving in Mahattan of influencer Anna Sacks. The Guardian covers her daily trash walk. Her activist message is that we are a throw-away culture. A subtext is how much organizations waste. She videos her journey and collections and posts them on social networks such as Instagram.

Will Sacks be able to accomplish ESG Moments and encourage business to recycle rather than toss? For example, she showcased a hairbrush that, if sterilized, could be given to those who need one.

Sacks is a hero of our times. But, unlike the era of the counterculture, her activist message might not have reach.

Let’s talk about success. How can you boost that in your own career and the trajectory of your business? You owe yourself a complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail (no selling).