Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP is pleased to announce that Reagan G. Sauls and Beth F. Morris have joined Parker Poe’s Atlanta office as counsel. Sauls and Morris will join the recently expanded Education Law group and further highlight the firm’s commitment to adding top legal talent and serving clients in the education industry throughout the Southeast.

Sauls has represented school districts in Georgia for more than 15 years. She handles a variety of matters, including personnel matters and hearings, responding to Department of Education complaints at both the state and federal levels, addressing allegations of discrimination through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, special education litigation, and advising boards of education on policies and procedures. She previously was part of a Georgia-based law firm, where she handled all legal matters related to education.

Morris has represented school districts in Georgia for more than 17 years. She handles matters involving state and federal litigation; personnel matters; transactional matters; and administrative complaints involving the Department of Education, the Office for Civil Rights, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her practice also focuses on issues involving children with disabilities. Morris also serves on the executive board of the State Bar of Georgia’s Child Protection & Advocacy Section. She previously practiced at a Georgia-based law firm, with a focus on all education-related matters.

“We are thrilled to have Reagan and Beth join our Atlanta office,” said Nina Gupta, partner in Parker Poe’s Education Law group in Atlanta. “Their dedication to our clients in the education industry, particularly the schools throughout Georgia, is unwavering. Their combined depth of experience will continue to elevate our Education Law group and service to our clients.”

Sauls earned her law degree from American University Washington College of Law and her undergraduate degree from Georgia Southern University. Morris earned her law degree from the University of Georgia, where she graduated with honors and served on the Moot Court team and executive board. She earned her undergraduate degree with honors from the University of Georgia.

About Parker Poe

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP has more than 275 lawyers in eight offices in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. The firm provides legal counsel to many of the largest companies and local governments in the Southeast.
Parker Poe is a member of two leading international legal networks: TerraLex and the Employment Law Alliance. TerraLex and the ELA have chosen Parker Poe to help guide clients through global business challenges.
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“A federal judge approved a deal Wednesday for Maryland to settle a long-running lawsuit over the state’s treatment of its four historically Black universities with $555 million in extra funding over 10 years, clearing the last major hurdle to end a legal battle launched in 2006,” reports Bryn Stole in the Baltimore Sun’s Politics.

“The lawsuit, filed by alumni and supporters of the schools, argued the state systematically undermined the institutions even after the end of legal segregation and made it difficult for Bowie State University, Coppin State University and Morgan State University in Baltimore, and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, to compete with the state’s other public universities for students and resources.”

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“Maryland has finalized a $577 million settlement to end a 15-year federal lawsuit relating to underfunding at the state’s four historically Black colleges and universities, state officials announced Wednesday,” reports Brian Witte in ABC News’ U.S. News.

“The Maryland Attorney General’s Office signed the agreement with attorneys for the plaintiffs to settle the case. Lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year to set aside the money, and Gov. Larry Hogan signed the bill last month.”

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“The former co-chairman of a major New York law firm has been suspended from practicing law for two years after pleading guilty and spending time in prison over his role in the U.S. college admissions scandal,” reports Nate Raymond in Reuters’ U.S. News.

“Gordon Caplan, who had been co-chairman at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, avoided disbarment despite his efforts to avoid “getting caught,” according to a Thursday decision by a New York appellate court imposing the suspension.”

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“Legal Innovators, an alternative legal services provider focused on innovative talent management solutions, and Orrick, a global law firm known for talent innovation, are collaborating on a pilot program through which two Legal Innovators lawyers will join Orrick’s incoming class of law school graduates as ‘Orrick Legal Innovators’ Fellows.’ In addition, a larger group of diverse lawyers joining Orrick this year will participate in a Legal Innovators-led training program,” posts Legal Innovators in their News.

“Through this collaboration, Orrick’s Legal Innovators Fellows will be fully integrated into Orrick client teams while continuing to receive the support of Legal Innovators’ unique training and mentorship program. After their second year with the firm, the Fellows may be offered full-time associate positions.”

“Under the pilot, five new Orrick associates also participated in the Legal Innovators training program, which helps lawyers develop analytical, writing and business development skills. The Legal Innovators’ training program was designed by David Cruickshank, Principal at Edge International and the former head of Professional Development for Paul Weiss, and Legal Innovators co-founder and Chairman, Jonathan Greenblatt.”

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“An appellate panel ruled Elizabeth’s School Board must pay roughly $260,000 in damages after findings its in-house counsel was improperly fired midway through a three-year contract,” reports Nikita Biryukoy in New Jersey Globe’s Local News.

“The school board fired Kirk Nelson after he was arrested in April 2013 as part of an investigation into the school board’s administration of the National School Lunch Program.”

“The body received several state and federal subpoenas on its administration of the program in 2011 and 2012 that led to criminal charges against several of its members.”

“Nelson told the court he was arrested because he failed to produce a document in response to a subpoena.”

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“Approximately 1,000 former ITT Tech students in South Carolina were part of a $330 million settlement for debt relief after a lawsuit against the for-profit school,” reports Tony Fortier-Bensen in ABC 4 News.

“Attorney General Alan Wilson said the 1,000 South Carolina students were able to receive $8.6 million. Across the nation, 35,000 students will share $330 million.”

“According to a press release, the settlement is with PEAKS Trust, a private loan program run by the college. ITT Tech filed for bankruptcy in 2016 after investigations into their federal student aid.”

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The Big Five Personality Factors are a well-researched and effective framework to examine normal personality functioning. The core Big Five factors are:

• Introversion (high to low)
• Openness to New Experiences (high to low)
• Agreeableness (high to low low)
• Neuroticism-Creativity (high to low)
• Conscientiousness (high to low)

In this article, we will focus on how hiring authorities can use the Big Five Personality Factors as a framework for hiring.

Openness to New Ideas

Of course, Conscientiousness as THE most important personality factor to consider when making hiring decisions in law.

It is rare to find an experienced GC who cannot come up with at least one horror story involving hiring a candidate with excellent academic credentials, great job interview skills, and low conscientiousness.

Why does this happen?

Employers assume that the U.S. education system weeds out students who are low on conscientiousness.

That assumption may not be valid. You can be highly intelligent from an IQ perspective yet low on conscientiousness. There are pressures on professors to pass students and pressures on administrators to reduce student drop-out rate.

In this article we want to focus on what we consider to be the second most important Big Five personality trait when GCs hire legal staff: Openness to New Ideas.

Use LinkedIn Before the Candidate Meeting.

Before meeting a candidate for the first time, is it possible to speak with people you know who might know the person? LinkedIn is an excellent resource for identifying such people.

Below is a suggested question:

“On a scale of 0 (never) to 10 (always), give me a number that reflects how open this person is to new ideas?”

Once a number is given, ask the person to explain why that number was assigned.
Before meeting the candidate, do a Google search to find out if the candidate writes blogs. Do the topics focus on expansion, growth, and new ideas? That suggests high openness to new ideas.

Perhaps the blogs focus on reduction of risk/uncertainty. That might suggest low openness to new ideas.

Structuring the Employment Interview

The following interview questions will help confirm a candidate’s openness to new ideas:

“Tell me a story about a time when you questioned the commonly accepted wisdom at your company or team?”

Since we are dealing with personality factors, it is acceptable if the person does not use a business example. Stories about sports or family are fine.

Candidates high on openness to new ideas will resonate when your interview resonates with words like “growth,” “innovation,” “new,” and “exciting.”

Suppose You Want Low Openness to New Ideas

A general company culture may be one of growth and transformation, yet you may still seek to hire legal professionals who are relatively closed to new ideas.

These are people who resonate with words like “consistency,” “reliability,” and “predictability:”

Compliance Officer within a hedge fund
Completion of SEC regulatory filings.
Patent applications.

Below is a question you might ask during the employment interview:

“Tell me a story about a situation that began in chaos, but you helped it become orderly.”

They will resonate to words like “stabilize,” “control,” “predict,” “measure,” “consistency.”

If your candidate is relatively closed to new ideas and you are relatively open to new ideas, there is going to be a conflict. Focus more on the requirements of the job. Make personality compatibility a secondary consideration.

Another option for GCs who score high on openness to new ideas: surround your legal team with people who also are open to new ideas. Outsource the more compliance-oriented issues to attorneys who love to wade into the administrative details.

GCs should consider the “Brand” that the GC has with the CEO. If the CEO considers the GC “Dr. No” and considers the legal department as the place where “good idea go to die,” then it might be prudent for the GC to surround herself with attorneys high on openness to new ideas.

Summary and Conclusions

The Big Five Personality Factor framework as a well-researched framework to look at personality factors of high functioning “normal” adults.

General Counsels make a mistake in placing too much emphasis on hiring people with certain academic credentials or years of relevant industry experience. This emphasis often comes at the expense of not paying enough attention on personality/culture fit.
In ninety days most lawyers will learn enough about your industry to do the job at a fully competent level.

Skills can be learned.

It is far more effective to hire the right personality type at the front end than to hire the wrong personality type and spend time/money trying to change it.

References

S.G. Matz, M. Kosinski, G. Nave and D. J. Stillwell. 2017 “Psychological targeting as an effective approach to digital mass persuasion.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, http://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2017/11/07/1710966114.full.pdf

Stybel, L. and Peabody, M. 2018. “Attention Job Candidates and Recruiters: your most important question.” https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/platform-success/201805/attentio…

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Stybel Peabody provides companies with “leadership and career success” for valued senior level talent. Core services include retained search, leadership development coaching, and executive-level outplacement.

The readers of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly voted Stybel Peabody Associates “The Best Outplacement Firm” of 2020.

lstybel@stybelpeabody.com

“Law grads have had employment offers rescinded at 49% of the law schools surveyed by the National Association for Law Placement,” reports Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal’s Latest News.

“Hardest hit were graduates of schools in the Southeast region, where 57.5% of the schools reported rescinded offers; and schools with more than 750 students, where 61% reported rescinded offers. ”

“Rescinded offers were most common in private practice. Among schools that reported rescinded offers, 85% said private sector employers had done so.”

Read the article for more findings.

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“Judge Darleen Ortega has spent 17 years on the Oregon Court of Appeals and she’s learned a thing or two about the bar exam as she’s watched from her judicial perch. So when Oregon opted to join Utah and Washington in granting emergency diploma privilege in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and she saw mainstream outlets write the usual jeremiads about the “danger” to the public of a world without a bar exam, Judge Ortega let everyone know exactly what she’s learned about the bar exam,” reports Joe Patrice in Above the Law’s Law Schools.

“It’s pretty much useless.”

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“A historic settlement reached between the state and Detroit students calls for $94.5 million in future literacy funding, a $280,000 payout among seven plaintiffs and the creation of two Detroit task forces to help ensure a quality education for students,” reports Jennifer Chambers and Beth LeBlanc in The Detroit News.

“News of the agreement came after the Detroit students were locked in a nearly four-year legal battle with the state for better school and learning conditions. The lawsuit was brought by seven students who argued they were deprived access to literacy because of a lack of books, teachers and poor building conditions.:

“Despite the state’s position to defend itself against the students’ accusations of inequality over literacy access, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Thursday she has maintained that every student, no matter where they come from, has a birthright to a quality public education.”

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“The Ohio State University announced today details of a $40.9 million settlement reached with 162 survivors in 12 lawsuits related to sexual abuse by Richard Strauss, a university-employed physician from 1978 to 1998 who died in 2005,” was reported in Ohio State News.

“An independent investigation launched by the university determined in 2019 that Strauss abused students during his time at Ohio State and the university administration failed to appropriately respond at the time.”

“In March, Ohio State announced a monetary settlement with nearly half of the individuals who brought claims against the university related to Strauss. All have now signed on to the terms of the settlement.”

“Ohio State continues to participate in good faith in the mediation process with the survivors involved in the remaining lawsuits, and remains committed to a resolution with plaintiffs, including a monetary resolution.”

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Please join us for our webinar “The Benefits of Preparation: Employee Benefit Plan Considerations When Reopening Your Business.” This program will be a multi-speaker discussion focused on benefit plan issues employers should be considering when employees return from furlough or are rehired. The issues discussed will include practical considerations for retirement, health and welfare, and executive compensation plans.

We will cover the following topics and related questions:
•Recent extensions to the deadlines for COBRA, special enrollment periods, benefits claims/appeals, employer notices, and other disclosures.
•The impact of reopening on 401(k) and other defined contribution retirement plans (including 403(b) plans), as well as defined benefit pension plans, including eligibility and vesting.
•The impact of reopening on health and welfare plans, and cafeteria plans, including discussion of Affordable Care Act waiting periods and break in service rules.
•Executive compensation issues, such as the impact of recent pay cuts and considerations for deferred compensation plans and stock options

During registration, registrants will be prompted to provide the questions that are top of mind for them. We will spend a portion of this webinar addressing the questions submitted during registration and during the live webinar.

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In this webinar, we will address

•Disaster relief through grant making, including to for-profit businesses
•Proper handling of direct disaster relief to individuals
•Designing compliant employer-sponsored charitable disaster relief funds
•Options for providing disaster relief to your own employees, including PTO donation programs

Register

Please join us for our “California Reopening: Returning to the Workplace & Employment-Related Issues” webinar. This program will be a multi-speaker discussion on some of the upcoming challenges employers face as they transition their work forces back into California workplaces.

Topics Include:
•How to manage health screenings and address privacy concerns.
•Re-hiring laid off employees and returning furloughed employees.
•Returning and remote worker wage and hour issues.
•Status of AB 5 and other classification issues related to reopening the workplace.
•Navigating city, county, state, and department of public health orders during reopening.
•Approaches to lawfully address situations such as requests for “hazard pay”, safety concerns, and other potentially concerted activity, and employees who refuse to return to work.
•Frameworks to comply with COVID-19 laws and guidance that are:
o hyper-localized (state, county, city, public health departments issue shutdown orders and workplace guidance),
o heavily-regulated (every agency has something),
o industry-specific (agencies have targeted guidance to industries), and
o frequently-updated (the guidance websites change daily/weekly).

During registration, registrants will be prompted to provide the questions that are top of mind for them. We will spend a portion of this webinar addressing the questions submitted during registration and during the live webinar.

Register

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“An East Bay school district has agreed to pay $665,000 to settle a free-speech suit by a former student who was suspended from a leadership class, and briefly barred from serving as student body president, after posting a video that showed him as a James Bond hero fighting off terrorists, the youth’s lawyers said Tuesday,” reports Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The video by Nathaniel Yu was a parody, and the supposed terrorists were played by two of Yu’s Muslim friends, his lawyers said in announcing the settlement with the San Ramon Valley Unified School District. They said district officials falsely described the production as hate speech, and that the ensuing publicity led to threats of violence against Yu.”

“In an apology that was part of the settlement, the district said the video was not hate speech and that it ‘egrets the negative consequences associated with mischaracterizations regarding you and the content of the video.’ But Mark Davis, a lawyer for the district, said the apology was only for the harm that Yu suffered, and the settlement does not include any admission of violating the youth’s rights.”

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Immersive technologies are moving beyond entertainment applications and are on track to gain mainstream acceptance in a range of areas including healthcare and remote workforce training, according to the Fourth Annual Augmented and Virtual Reality Survey conducted early this year by Perkins Coie, leading industry group, the XR Association, and industry venture capital firm, Boost VC.

Results of the survey signal an upward tick in market confidence, lower costs for consumers, expanded enterprise applications, and mainstream acceptance for immersive, XR technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Furthermore, respondents are bullish about expanding avenues for monetization.

The survey of nearly 200 professionals representing startups, enterprise technology firms, and investors indicated boom times ahead for the industry. While immersive technology’s strength in gaming and entertainment will no doubt continue, survey respondents are excited about XR’s potential to spatially visualize data, prepare and practice for real-world scenarios, and conduct remote, real-time training and collaborations.

Expansion of smart city programs, led by cities in the United States. and Asia, and the rollout of 5G networks are also reasons for optimism in the eyes of respondents. Nearly 40% expect immersive technology to be mainstream in the next two years, and more than three in four say that will happen within five years.

Though this vision is on track with results from the previous three surveys, respondents still acknowledge that obstacles remain before full adoption. Nearly half (46%) say lack of an established market is a barrier to funding. Making devices smaller, sleeker, more fashionable, and more comfortable are improvements that respondents said will most impact consumer adoption.

Confidence in Growing Monetization

In one of the survey’s biggest findings, respondents will increasingly seek to diversify monetization strategies and expand revenue channels for immersive technology compared with 2019 levels. The fact that monetization channels across the board—including sales of subscriptions (48% to 61%), in-app purchases (41% to 51%), product placement (30% to 47%), and advertising (39% to 46%)—saw significant increases above 2019 levels signals growing industry strength.

Compared to previous years’ surveys, 2020 respondents expect to increasingly pursue sales of products or subscriptions, in-app purchases, product placements, advertising, and events. Across each category, the percentage of respondents indicating they are currently monetizing or plan to do so in 2020 increased by an average of 13% over 2019 responses, with some revenue channels, like product placement and live events, jumping 17%. These increases in the span of a single year are dramatic and indicate a business sector coming into its own and a maturing, loyal consumer base that is more willing to accept such revenue models.

Spotlight on Healthcare and Workforce Development Sectors

Healthcare is the sector garnering the most attention, investment, and interest. When asked which sectors would be most disrupted outside of entertainment in the next 12 months, 38% ranked healthcare first, followed by education (28%), workforce development (24%), and manufacturing (21%).

The global AR/VR market in the healthcare industry is expected to grow quickly in the next few years, partly driven by an increasingly large array of immersive technology applications, like simulated surgical training for doctors and nurses, palliative hospice care, pain management, and 3D visualization of diseases at the molecular level.

Across a range of industries, respondents expect immersive technology to increasingly improve day-to-day operations, enhance efficiency, and improve outcomes. Seven out of ten survey respondents said businesses will focus on workforce training and development when it comes to immersive technology implementation within the next 12 months. A possible reason for this is that the ROI of the upfront investment, payback period, and resulting impact to the bottom line are easily quantifiable.

Of note, the Fourth Annual AR/VR Survey was conducted at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak, before the pandemic gripped the global community. The use of immersive technologies to provide critical health care and remote work options may become even more important for companies in the weeks and months ahead.

US, Asia Lead in Smart City Development

Smart cities are generally defined as places where new technologies like cloud computing, advanced analytics, and blockchain are deployed to improve the delivery of services and quality of life. Immersive technologies are increasingly becoming a part of the urban landscape in many of these pioneering municipalities around the world.

When asked which were leading the way, survey respondents chose a cluster of U.S. cities and Asian regional hubs. Some were more obvious like New York City, which 29% of respondents selected. However, size wasn’t the only reason for a higher ranking. While Austin, Texas, is only the 11th largest city in the country, it’s a burgeoning hub of technology, and therefore ranked second at 28%. Only one European city, Barcelona, cracked the top 10.

Remaining Questions on Legal Issues and Market Readiness

In the 2019 survey, 61% of respondents cited consumer privacy and data security as the top legal risks for developing immersive technology applications and content. This year, that percentage dropped to 49%, which likely stems from companies’ decisions to proactively address and update privacy policies and disclosures regarding consumer data. In fact, more than half (54%) said they were doing so this year, compared with 47% in 2019. This could be driven by new regulatory schemes around the world.

Historically in times of global crisis, technological progress tends to leap forward. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic when social distancing is the priority of the day, immersive technologies are poised to accelerate development and mainstream adoption.

“Higher education is facing a tsunami of litigation. In addition to the standard docket of lawsuits claiming that a university discriminated against applicants who were denied admission or that a faculty member was unfairly turned down for tenure, a wave of high-profile cases have resulted in universities offering large settlements or having multi-millon dollar verdicts returned against them,” reports Michael T. Nietzel in Forbes’ Education.

Thirty small “colleges reported they had hired someone to be General Counsel or to fill that role, but with a different title. In most cases, the position focused exclusively on legal representation, but in some institutions, the job was combined with additional responsibilities like Executive Director for Risk Management and Legal Affairs or Chief Policy Officer/General Counsel.”

“Smaller institutions may worry about the added costs of hiring a general counsel, but Coyle and Neal argue that going in-house ultimately results in substantial savings in contracted legal work. Because college general counsels often are able to resolve issues themselves, many proactively, they can be more conservative in their use of external counsel and the amount an institution spends on them.”

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“Cynthia Marie Rodgers, the Capital University School of Law graduate who got dinged on her Ohio character and fitness application for having almost $900,000 in school debt—and seemingly no clear plan to ever repay it—can sit for the bar exam, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled March 5,” reports Stephanie Francis Ward in ABA Journal’s News.

“The court based its finding on Rodgers being candid about her financial situation and complying with the terms of her student loan repayment plan.”

“Rodgers’ current student loan payment is zero because her income is so low, according to the Ohio Supreme Court’s board of character and fitness report. She became disabled after a 2001 tree-trimming accident, and she can’t work a 40-hour week, the report stated. Rodgers’ school debt is consolidated with her husband’s, and he also is not making loan payments because he’s semi-retired and seeking disability, according to the report.”

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