Not Being So Careful in Communications - Elie Mystal Landed Big Success That Way

 Of all the Original Gang of Five at Abovethelaw, Elie Mystal has been the most successful. At least on a career path in communications. (David Lat, ATL founder, might be making more money as a recruiter at Lateral Link).

In addition to being a paid legal and political analyst all over the place, Mystal has a best-selling book "Allow Me to Retort." Its rank on Amazon remains high: 1,949. 1,021 reviews have come in. They are giving the book a 5 rating (out of 5). Since it's one of those can't put it down books, I pulled an all-nighter with it.

From the get-go when Mystal was a mere columnist on ATL (before he become editor-in-chief) he stood out. There was no cautious hedging in what he published. It was all out there. You bet he disliked the Federalist Society. And, like Holden Caulfield in "The Catcher in the Rye," Mystal was out to expose what was phony. Or, at least according to his point of view. His voice had been so fresh, even for an iconoclastic venue like ATL. Lat played it safer.

Meanwhile, at ATL, now that he and Lat are gone, there have been additions to the Gang of Three left. The site is still a useful read. But no longer is it a necessary one. For opening the hood on the legal industry and poking around there is now competition. That's from Subreddit Big Law.

The edge Reddit has over ATL are the comments to an observation or a question. No longer does ATL have a comment section. Therefore there is no feedback on the ATL site to what it posts. 

The Reddit comments are usually large in number, provide expert information, and are well-thought out. For example, as I report in this blog post, there is comprehensive perspective provided to the summer balking about having real work to do and so much that coming in weekends is necessary. A few comments are blunt: That's Big Law, buddy. Maybe that's the wrong career path for you. 

I piggyback on the Reddit discussion of real work with my own balking. It circles back to April and May of this year. That's when I was a communications retainer vendor to Paul Weiss. No, I didn't have real work.

As Mystal might put it, I wound up saying the hell with all that. I yanked the plug on the retainer after two months.

Mystal in his ATL days might have smirked about this: Because Luke Ferrandino at Paul Weiss didn't create a NDA for me to sign (strange, yeah) I can jaw-jaw about My Two Months With Paul Weiss forevermore. The NDA could have silenced me, as I would have expected since I had worked full-time for the Fortune 50 and been a consultant to them for decades. 

No, my Paul Weiss balk doesn't include its chairman Brad Karp. I like the guy. So, I continue to cover what he's up to. Here is my article on his innovative idea, published in Fortune, about stopping the gun carnage.

Well, back to the ATL - Reddit competition. The acid test of which has the more influence - ATL or Reddit - could come with layoffs in the legal sector. That is, if they happen. The recent one at Redgrave might have been an aberration. Or, it could have been a sign of what's to come. How much value can each venue create for lawyers and legal staff if the job situation unravels? 

Of course, Mystal will prosper more and more. His communications ability goes beyond talent to genius. 

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com. Conjure up magical results in your communications.

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