October 27, 2017
This week produced a few stories that left my head shaking…
Bill O’Reilly – latest development in his never-ending sexual harassment saga is a report that he paid $32 million to settle a sexual harassment claim. According to the report, the individual’s complaints “included allegations of repeated harassment, a non-consensual sexual relationship and the sending of gay pornography and other sexually explicit material to her.” Specific details are not available, but my question is, if true, what the hell did he do that he was willing to pay $32 million to keep his victim quiet? Sexual harassment is of course a terrible thing, and people who are subjected to it should be compensated, and compensated well, for having endured the bullying and humiliation they are subjected to by these creeps. But $32 million? I cannot imagine any jury awarding, let alone any appellate court upholding, an award of $32 million, or a number even close to that, on a case with these reported facts. Makes me feel like O’Reilly, who has built his entire career and reputation on being a supposed tough guy who will not be bullied or shaken down, must have some serious stuff he is trying to hide to have paid that amount to settle something he now claims never even happened. Freaky…
Boy Scouts – in one of the weirdest moves I’ve ever seen an organization take, the Boy Scouts are now going to admit girls into their ranks. Why? Seems to me that the Boy Scouts are desperate to salvage what once used to be a gold-standard brand that has been fatally tarnished with many allegations of sexual abuse, but with this latest act of political correctness they just seem foolish. Unlike the Girl Scouts (who have no intention of changing their female-only policy), the Boy Scouts have now lost the entire purpose of their existence, and should just stop calling themselves the Boy Scouts. While I believe that male-dominated organizations (such as the military) have been made better with the inclusion of females, the Boy Scouts should remain a group for boys only, and its focus should remain on helping young boys grow up to be respectful and productive men (perhaps a better focus would be on finding qualified men to lead the organization who can teach boys how to be respectful toward women, rather than trying to have young women come into an obviously dysfunctional culture). Growing up with two sisters and no brothers, I can tell you that the time I spent as a young Scout was critical, because it gave me a safe place where I could go to learn about all the things young boys experience, and witness others going through those same things, without the social awkwardness that comes when you mix the sexes at that age. The Boy Scouts should have instead worked with the Girl Scouts to collaborate and have joint events so that young boys can learn how to integrate appropriately with young girls. Now they just look silly and my prediction is that if they continue down this path they are going to lose what little support they have remaining (if any).
AROUND TOWN
Last week was a busy one here at CMM…
Last Tuesday, we had our second episode of “CMM Live,” featuring Kevin O’Connor, my friend and CEO of Bridgehampton National Bank. We discussed many things during the episode but what really struck me was his continued commitment to the bank’s customers to remain hands-on even with BNB’s tremendous growth, and his reluctance to grow a formal workout group and instead keep the bankers who made the loan directly responsible for their accounts, even the ones in default. To me that is a brilliant value proposition as compared to many of the larger banks, who quickly ship a customer off to the workout department when that customer hits a snag. After spending an hour with him, it was not hard for me to understand how under his leadership the bank has grown from $600 million in assets to more than $4 billion. He also happened to be celebrating his 10th anniversary with the bank, so we talked a bit about those 10 years as well. You can check out the full interview here.
Also on Tuesday, we continued to make progress moving the Tesla Science Center expansion project forward. For those who are unaware (and until recently I was one of them), Long Island has the only remaining laboratory of Nikola Tesla. Once I learned about this I just knew it was something that we needed to be involved in, so I have actively been involved in trying to help the center raise funds for its capital project. Happy and proud to say that my good friend Eugene Sayan of Softheon felt the same way about Tesla and the center, and generously pledged a very large donation over the next four years to help its expansion. More to come on this exciting project.
On Wednesday, we had our internal quarterly review with our attorneys. I look forward to these meetings as it gives me a chance to meet with all attorneys at once and discuss the firm’s performance and plan going forward. I like to make sure that these meetings are informative, entertaining and efficient (remember, we do sell time!). Managing attorneys is very challenging as they are all very smart and driven. I liken it to managing a professional sports team with the attorneys being the “players” who need to constantly perform at very high levels to garner as many “wins” as they can for our clients. A constant message and theme of mine is that we as lawyers need to treat our clients’ money like it is our own (meaning nothing should wind up on a bill to client that we wouldn’t be willing to pay for ourselves if we were a client). It’s a process…
On Friday, we had a “getting to know you” meet and greet with Al Giaimis and his team from Signature Bank. Al was introduced to me a while ago by Alan Sasserath, a friend and very talented partner at Sasserath & Zorian, CPAs. It took a long time for us to finally get together, but I think both teams enjoyed the meeting.
Over the weekend, I finally joined the 21st century and went to see Book of Mormon on Broadway. Understanding that satire (especially South Park type satire) is not everyone’s cup of tea, I personally found it incredibly funny and really thought provoking. I especially enjoyed the grouping of Hitler, Genghis Khan, Jeffrey Dahmer and Johnnie Cochran (of O.J. Simpson fame) to be the inhabitants of hell. Gotta love a good lawyer joke…
Also, this weekend I bought the book Scalia Speaks at the Amazon bookstore at Columbus Circle. I am a big fan of history and biographies, and have in my personal library all books the current/recent Supreme Court Justices have written (or that are written about them). What really piqued my interest about this book is that the “foreword” was written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who used those pages to describe, quite eloquently, how much she loved and respected Antonin Scalia, notwithstanding their diametrically opposed views about how to interpret the constitution. I am firm believer that everyone should assess and evaluate all sides of an issue before taking a position on it, and reading her words really made me remember that we as a society are much better off attacking issues rather than people. I haven’t dived into the book yet, but her foreword is a “must-read!”
Capping off a fantastic weekend in the city, I dined at Per Se with my best man, Joe Zepf. It was one of the best dining experiences I’ve ever had (and by the look of me you know that I’ve enjoyed many dining experiences). Two thumbs up!
