SoHereWeAre

 "Fidelity funds cut Reddit to $39.65 a share from $61.79, where they had been valued for the previous nine months. Stripe shares were reduced to $32.05 apiece, the lowest since last March. The payments firm raised $600 million that month at a valuation of $95 billion, making it the most valuable US startup. Reddit was valued at more than $10 billion as of August." - Bloomberg, May 31, 2022. And the parent of popular TikTok ByteDance also got a haircut. The share price established by Fidelity is down 13% to $128.07. Meanwhile the media has turned from its gush era to hammering just about everything tech. One particularly cruel artice had been by Insider's Linette Lopez. Read it here and feel very Shakespearean about how vicious the mob can be. You bet, there's a downright stigma now associated with tech. Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com.

  Reddit, that amazing platform, has featured a fascinating issue. That's what's legal today (my, my, how the law does change) might not be so in two decades.   Here you can loop in and marvel. Of course, what's cited are those non-profits and supposed good causes which frequently only direct about 5% of donations to those featured in the promotions. I would add that illegal should be those layers and layers of administration in higher education. In time those could be ruled as fraud. Damages would be paid to all those students who wound up having to take out student loans to fund those layers. One peculiar situation comes up. That's parents who foisted their children on social networks as mini influencers. That could have happened through fads like the Mommy Blogs. In time, it's projected those offspring could be suing their parents for all that. You got it, the play-out is analogous to kids being pushed into becoming child actors or participants in beauty competit...

  Jennifer H. Wu , partner in litigation at Paul Weiss, has been saluted by  "Asian American Life" on CUNY TV. She is being recognized for two roles. One is as a high-achieving Asian-American woman. The other is for her trailblazing contributions to Asian-American communities. TARGETING OF ASIAN-AMERICAN WOMEN On a May episode of the monthly "Asian American Life" she chronicled why Asian-American women are targets. Attackers assume the stereotype of their being docile and submissive. So, they move right in. In addition during the TV presentation, she featured how Asian-American women are learning behaviors to prevent violence and, if set upon, how to defend themselves. Candidly she admitted that although she is a partner in an elite law firm, she knows she is as much a target as are all the other Asian-American females.   As we know: The list of victims keeps growing. Among the alleged hate crimes against Asian-American women have been Hoa Nguyen's being pu...

Lawyers with families tend to opt for living in the suburbs. That means a commute. Supposedly the best version of that is the relaxed trip in from, say, Greenwich, Connecticut to Grand Central in Midtown Manhattan.  However, that has many horrific versions of the commute. The lawyer might only be able to afford a house further up the line from Greenwich, such as in Norwalk, CT or even Trumbul, CT. And the law office may be in the Financial District, that is, Downtown Manhattan, which adds on a subway ride. Repeat all that late in the evening.  So, it's not breaking news that  The Wall Street Journal  reports that the major objection to RTO is the commute. There is a correlation between the number of those commuting who tend to commute into a location and the number of office vacancies. Those with a choice are opting not to RTO.  Eventually law firms might have to deal with this. Hybrid might not present enough of a solution. Is it in the future that more law fir...

  “The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked Texas from immediately enforcing   a new state law   that aims to prohibit large social-media platforms from suppressing users’ posts based on the content of their speech.” —   The Wall Street Journal , May 31, 2022. The ruling was 5–4, with dissents from two Justices associated with Samuel Alito and from Elena Kagan who penned her own separately. This “stay of execution” will give industry groups time to challenge the law in court. That law, which originated as  House Bill 20  would allow residents of TX to sue social media platforms if they are banned because of content. It would apply to social networks, ranging from YouTube to Facebook, which have at least 50 million monthly users. A similar law is on hold in Florida. It is well known that Elon Musk, who supposedly will purchase Twitter, is against censorship. He wants to loosen up content moderation on that platform. That could include inviting back Donald Trump ...

 "No companies or SPACs went public on U.S. exchanges last week, which Renaissance Capital reports is the first such week in more than two years. There's also nothing on the calendar for this week." - Axios, May 31, 2022. That slowdown in the IPO niche can blast a chill through some law firms' transactional practices.  But a warming effect can come from data about the value of the deals which are taking place in M&A. You bet, bypass the dismal numbers about the number of deals per se. Even megadeals are happening.  In its official report on M&A activity , law firm Paul Weiss presents recent highlights M&A activity. As a Wall Street law firm, Paul Weiss knows how the direction of dealmaking directly can directly impact most professional services firms, including law. Here are the developments of most interest: Positive Trends Yes, since March, the deal count continued to decline. That had been by 14%. However, in April for the first time in 2022, th...

 "An uptick in data breach litigation and skyrocketing costs tied to ransomware attacks and other cybercrime are making it more difficult—and more expensive—for companies to secure insurance policies that help them cover financial hits." - Bloomberg Law, May 31, 2022. Fitch Rating documents that premiums shot up 74% in 2021. In contrast, in P&C, the increase was 9%. That's the tip of the iceberg in this insurance niche which only accounts for only 1% of the market. But which is so critical. The other factors include: A changing insurance industry. That means much is in flux and there will continue to be myriad uncertainties.    Disputes about exclusions.    Two-way litigation. Companies may insist insurance covers the expense for fixing the hack - and payment of the legal expenses. Insurance companies go to court to shake off liability.   Stepped-up security standards in order to be able to purchase a policy. They range from endpoint d...

 "Soros' Money Manager [Dawn Fitzpatrick] Warns Recession 'Inevitable.'" - Bloomberg, May 31, 2022. Left out there for speculation: So, how severe will the downturn be and how long will it hang on?  LAW FIRMS MOST IN DANGER The most vulnerable law firms during a downturn? They include: One-trick ponies. At the top of the list are those which invested heavily in beefing up their M&A practices over the past five years. Litigation practices, which were beginning to rebound, could have a setback. Corporations tend to put on hold "elective" litigation. Remember, also, last year litigation funder Burford Capital had a net loss of $56.4 million . Big Law firms which haven't diversified beyond lawyering. The Wall Street Journal warns that becoming a full-service business vendor and launching other kinds of profit centers such as consulting about risk management are now necessary. That can help meet the competition from the Big Four. Among th...

  The Wall Street Journal, the bible of business, focuses on the revenue being generated through the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's 70 years on the throne. Yes, the celebration will be a gala event June 2nd through the 5th. That will unfold despite how Queen Elizabeth is portrayed in the film "Spencer." Here is a trailer . The setting is the traditional-bound Christmas holiday among the royals. After 10 years the marriage has moved beyond restoration to unremitting pain for Diana and seeming frustration for Charles. Yet, the Queen is total dour and no empathy for her daughter-in-law. The focus is on preventing more bad press.  A bit of emotional warmth might have centered Diana. Instead she unravels. Her sons bear witness to that. No wonder Harry outs so much internal turmoil.  Diana is dead. The Queen is not. Sure she has her aches and pains and physical limits. But there she is. Those of us haunted by the scenes of Diana's suffering in "Spencer" wi...

 "At age 34, Janell Tryon owes $250,000 in student debt. She only took out $150,000 of it — $100,000 for an undergraduate degree at New York University, and $50,000 for a masters degree in public health." - Insider , May 30, 2022. We have heard this before. Tryon's job when she graduated NYU paid $23k. Her monthly nut of student loan repayment was $700. Do the math. The ROI was lousy. The only new wrinkle in this same-old-story is that Tryon is back at it. The article notes that she is currently a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Usually doctoral programs provide some kind of compensation, usually in the form of teaching or research. So, Tryon may not be piling on more student debt. With a Ph.D. she may be able to earn enough to pay off the $250,000 more quickly than those without a Ph.D. But maybe not. Insider seems to have made a hobby of piling on these sagas. Are they clickbait or intended as lobbying for loan forgiveness? Connect wi...

Anointed geniuses such as Elon Musk are looking more and more like clowns. Has Musk, for example, been too distracted with Twitter and tweeting that he didn’t notice the severe competition from established vehicle players in the EV niche. Ford, for example, has quite the lineup such as the  F-150 Lightning.  Meanwhile, as  Yahoo Finance  reports, Tesla short-sellers made $8.2 billion this year betting against genius. Musk is just the tip of the iceberg in the exploding disenchantment with tech’s supposed wonderkinds. The shift now is to demand concrete data about revenue and profits. Skip the hype about growth. Talk like a “real” business, such as McDonald’s or Goldman Sachs. Also skip the platitudes about the public good. Was it part of the public good for Meta to  snatch back a job  as a recruiter a few days before the professional was to start? A lease had been signed. The same thing happened at Twitter. A lease had been signed. And with all the tech lay...

  In 2005, as   ESG Analytics   documents, the United Nations Environment Programme coined the term “ESG” (Environmental Social Governance). Until relatively recently the governance part of that had been a sleeper. The boards, for example, at Theranos and the first version of WeWork had been passive. That was then. PROXY BATTLES – EXPECT THEM Now public companies should anticipate proxy battles.  On April 22, 2022,  Forbes  reported: “Ahead of McDonald’s annual shareholder meeting … investor Carl Icahn has doubled down on his effort to overhaul the chain’s animal welfare, sending a letter to investors … and urging shareholders to vote in favor of his two activist board members.” PROXY BATTLES – PUBLIC CORPORATIONS CAN WIN THEM Icahn lost. That should embolden corporations to push back. Wall Street law firm Paul Weiss had represented McDonald’s. Paul Weiss has a formal  Governance Practice. WHAT WENT DOWN As  Paul Weiss  brings us up-to-date, ...

 "Supreme Court may soon expand gun rights amid roiling debate" - The Hill , May 30, 2022 The case is " New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen ." Essentially it's about the right to carry a concealed weapon in New York state. Watchers on this don't expect delay in issuing the ruling - which is expected to be pro-gun-rights - despite the national turmoil generated by recent mass shootings. Any delay could be to give time to justices to insert recent information about gun activity, such as in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas. This reality of what is going down as a result of such a strong and united conservative mindset on SCOTUS might bring us back to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's decision not to retire. There had been legal media such as Abovethelaw which saluted her tenacity. After all, she had a number of health challenges. And her workout to help her keep going was considered cute. Actually it became iconic, with her personal coa...

 "Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, was arrested this weekend on suspicion of DUI in Northern California, police records showed Sunday." - Politico , May 29, 2022. The sad reality is that most who land themselves in DUI charges didn't get into the car feeling impaired. Alcohol's impact is to influence judgment. Pelosi likely felt fine to drive. But the tragedy is that drunk driving, documents the NHTSA , kills 32 human beings every day in crashes.  Technology could provide a solid solution. Vehicles will come equipped with alcohol-content tests to take before they can be started.  Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com.

 "...headline hyperbole has taken an explosive turn"- Jonathan Bouquet, The Guardian, May 29, 2022. In the attention economy , which operates more and more on clickbait, headlines are high-value currency. Early in the digital game, when I began blogging in 2005, I got it: An article not receiving many page views could get a second life if it was reposted with a different (read that "more catchy") headline. Usually that was effective. And if the article was popular it could get a third life by being posted later with another catchy headline. As competition keeps increasing for attention, it's become a dog fight. You bet I focus on how I can create THE headline which will grab, hold, and grow attention. Incidentally it was partly because I was so skilled in the headline game that AOL had hired me as contract career columnist. If something wasn't attracting eyeballs, then slap on another headline.  We will continue to juice the headlines. That will be the ...

  Short Short Fiction By Jane Genova “I will keep this up for two more weeks.” That’s what Roger E. Smith said to himself. The “this” was threatening the life of the law firm chairman J. Edward Adams. That this became his brainchild during the gala for equity partners in Paris, France. The non-equities like Smith were left back in the Chicago, Illinois office. There, they were “treated” to a feed of the gush speech Adams delivered, praising the equity partners – their inventive minds, tenacity, and more. That did it for Smith. His soul drifted back in time to the ultimate high of his life. That was boarding school where he pulled pranks that had never been traced back to him. Classmates revered him, never cracking when interrogated by the power structure. His legacy was "The Shadow."  “I could have been the leaker at that Court of the Pompous Asses,” he decided that humiliating day when equity partners were saluted in magical Paris and that salute foisted on the working ...

 "Facing competitive pressure from professional services firms and from clients that want to solve more business problems in one stop, law firms—among the most venerable American business institutions—have begun to branch out." - Richard Vanderford, The Wall Street Journal , May 28, 2022. Essentially that constitutes a disruption from being stand-alone powerhouses which deal with legal issues to providing full-service business solutions. Consequently that requires both changing how cases are managed and parachuting in experts from non-legal disciplines. They range from professionals in data to those in psychology to the front lines of public relations. This can counteract the invasion of the Big Four (accounting firms) which are using cross-selling to suck away market share from law firms. Their clients trust them with their financial matters so it is easy to pitch allowing the accounting firm to also handle their legal issues.  As the WSJ article hammers: Lawyers have to ...

  Of course, Elizabeth Holmes is back - that is, through her lawyers. The stakes are so high for when she's sentenced on September 26th. Each of the four fraud-related charges carries a possible sentence of 20 years in prison. Also, there is a possible $250,000 fine.  Insider  reports: "Elizabeth Holmes has pleaded with a judge to overturn her conviction for wire fraud, with her attorney saying there is 'insufficient evidence' for any 'rational juror' to proceed with the conviction ..."  In July, the court will hear the appeal. It looks like the focus will be primarily about defrauding investors. Recall that even a savvy estates lawyer from Cravath -  David Mosely  - fell for the Holmes' agenda for changing the world and invested. Lawyers for Holmes argue there is no evidence of a conspiracy to defraud investors by Holmes and Sunny Balwani, another executive at Theranos. Balwani has been on trial for similar charges. Material from his trial might be us...

 The global values revolution has reached beyond corporations and non-profits to the law firm. DAVIS POLK TODAY, BEFORE THAT MAYER BROWN Today, the Asia chairperson of Davis Polk Martin Rogers didn't speak, as originally scheduled, at a Hong Kong forum on the national security law. As the Hong Kong Free Press reports, the law firm had been hammered for planning to participate in what was perceived as supporting a violation of human rights. Earlier, Mayer Brown also had been a target of global censure for representing Hong Kong University in its initiative to remove the Tiananmen Square memorial. It went through the wringer. A MAJOR MEDIA STORY So, it's no surprise that what lawyers at major law firms are doing for social justice is receiving sustained media attention. An example are the partners and chairperson at Paul Weiss. LORETTA LYNCH AT HARVARD LAW SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT As Reuters Legal reports, in delivering the commencement speech at Harvard Law School, Paul We...

 The subreddit Big Law provides broad-based objective and comprehensive information and insight on aspects of careers in the legal profession.  Recently, there was a query from TheCustardPants if anyone regretted a career in Big Law. 25 responses came in - all well-thought-out. None flip in an attempt to be witty. The insights ranged from how useful on a resume even a short time with Big Law could be to the reality that no grass is ever greener. All the queries receive that kind of experienced perspective. Yes, subreddit Big Law provides mentoring online. Therefore, there is this question: Does this platform provide competition - the stiff kind - for another platform targeted at law students and junior lawyers? That's Abovethelaw. Once an innovation in legal media, it is getting, well, long in the tooth. Also its humorous spin (e.g. the Morning Feed) and its continual attempt at wit can seem out of touch in these chaotic times. One more thing about Abovethelaw: Big La...

  Jon Hamm's range of talent is well beyond the tormented creative genius he played on "Mad Men." However, the role of by-the-book Vice Admiral Cyclone Simpson in "Top Gun" was not a fit. And, fans like myself wonder if it will hurt his career. Simpson is, well, a jerk. He is assigned to oversee Pete Maverick Mitchell in preparing the Top Gun pilots for a dangerous mission. In that capacity he makes myriad errors of leadership and management judgment. In contrast, Maverick looks smart, courageous, and caring of the team. Tom Cruise, who does Maverick perfectly, comes out of the film looking great. Hamm not so. Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com.

 The two hours and four minutes engrossed in "Downton Abbey: A New Era" lets us time-travel out of the current ugliness.  The ethos in that Grantham ecosystem is social cohesion. That blurs the boundaries among socio-economic classes, generations, genders, occupations, and nations. How uplifting from this period of economic, political, and social extreme fragmentation.  Then there are the old-fashioned values and behavior. It is against Mary's code to do what she wants - start a romance with the film director. So she dosen't and that's that. In addition, there are the good manners. Those include the lack of expletives. Right now the "F" word is mandatory to express a strong feeling. And all feelings are strong these days. Even if they are about the long line in a fast-food drive-thru. I am a boomer who grew up amidst Eisenhower conformity and the wild optimism of the Kennedy Administration. It was a different time. We felt we knew the rules and each o...

 “The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged BNY Mellon Investment Adviser for misstatements and omissions about Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations in making investment decisions for certain mutual funds.” – Editorial Staff, Traders Magazine , May 24, 2022. Essentially the SEC order found that between July 2018 and September 2021 BNY Mellon Adviser had stated or implied that the funds had undergone ESG quality review. That was not accurate. There was a $1.5 million settlement penalty. SO HERE IS THE SEC NOW The SEC’s proposed amendments to Form ADV, issued May 25, 2022, are meant to prevent such violations. The mission is that investors will have consistent, comparable and decision-useful data. Here is the SEC’s own press release on that. There had been the joke that an ESG investment is anything the investment advisers declare It is. As flagged in this article I published in O’Dwyer’s Public Relations , overall there are no standards or criter...

  Mergers, as all of us know, can be brutal on the manpower. Common is being designated as "redundant." Also, the whole category of a kind of job can disappear. That's exactly what's playing out in the UK as BLM merges into Clyde & Co. RollonFriday  reports that at the new entity there is no role which is compatible with the present job of salaried partner at BLM. At BLM there are about 140 salaried partners, as well as 40 to 50 equity ones. The function of Clyde & Co. salaried partner is different. The deal will be done on July 1st. So, the major challenge for current BLM salaried partners is to apply, if they want to stay in that game, for opportunities at Clyde & Co. There are several options. One is become what is called "Legal Director."  Mergers are a monster to navigate even in the situations which can be favorable to employees, at least some of them. The latter can land a big break. This particular one seems like a horror. Of course, it i...

 The purpose-driven business – that is, going beyond Milton Friedman's doctrine of maximizing shareholder value - is not a fad. And it’s not restricted to the US. Public relations powerhouse Edelman conjured up a special version of its annual Trust Barometer. That’s its " Geopolitical Business" one, which you can read here. The data has been derived by interviewing 14,000 in 14 nations during April and May 2022. The finding is unambiguous: 77% on average believe that improving societal issues is a primary business function. That reality has introduced new risks for business. For instance, trust in the enterprise is directly at stake. Edelman provides the concrete example of doing business with Russia. Those which continued with that experienced a 38% falloff in trust. Those who halted relationships gained a 31% uptick in trust. So, Edelman confirms what has been the undertow in business leadership and management since the term “ESG” (Environmental Social Governanc...

 "There were 662,000 fewer undergrads seeking four-year degrees during the spring 2022 semester compared with the same period last year. Even graduate programs — where enrollment had continued to trend upward in spite of COVID — shrunk by 1%, begging the question of whether these are long-term declines." - LinkedIn News, Updated May 27, 2022. Comments coming into that LinkedIn Newsflash essentially are in consensus: At one time - call it Baby Boomer time - a college degree was necessary to gain access to good job. And that was that. We bought the product. That mandate then extended to graduate school. The conventional wisdom was that a Master's degree or more gave the edge. That was then, of course. More and more brandname businesses such as Apple don't require a college degree to apply for a job. It's cool to drop out of college like Mark Zuckerberg and become a billionaire. When we over-educated (Me & My Unmarketable Doctorate Degree) were starving durin...

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 In Morgan v Sundance on May 23, 2022, the US Supreme Court unanimously upheld that arbitration-specific procedural rules are not compatible with the Federal-Arbitration Act (FAA). That is even when those rules purport to further the FAA’s federal policy favoring arbitration. BACKGROUND, AS DERIVED FROM SCOTUS DOCUMENTS AND PAUL WEISS’ ANALYSIS Let’s look at how this came to be. Here is SCOTUS’ Summary of the Certiorari , along with its ruling. And, here is Paul Weiss’ Client Memorandum which presents the points of law and the implications, including unresolved legal matters. I combined the two for this summary. Robyn Morgan was an hourly employee at a Taco Bell franchise owned by Sundance. As is frequently required, Morgan, when applying for the position, signed an agreement for arbitration of disputes with the employer. Despite that, she went on to file a nationwide collective action alleging that the employer violated federal law pertaining to payment of overtime. Interes...