Book Reviews

• Objection Overruled: Overcoming Obstacles in the Lawyer Job Search
• Game, Set, Match: Winning the Negotiations Game
• The Revenge of Brand X
• Fair Disclosure and Insider Trading Reforms: Reg. FD, Rule 10b5-1 and Rule 10b52
• World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies
• To review a book

Many books give advice on how to get a job, where to look for jobs, and how to figure out what kind of job you really want. The best career advice books are written with the knowledge that all good advisors should have: one size does not fit all. Kathy Morris clearly had this truism in mind when she wrote Objection Overruled. Morris is an experienced career counselor who previously headed Northwestern University School of Law's Placement and Career Counseling Center, founded a private career counseling company, and currently directs the ABA Career Resource Center. Morris presents common mistakes, fears, and barriers concerning the job search process (the objections) and then overrules the objections with sound career advice and real-life questions and answers.

Each of the 10 chapters is an objection. As an example, Objection #2 is, "I'm Working Too Hard to Find Time for a Job Search: The Reality Obstacle." Morris gives tips on finding time, advises keeping the search confidential, and identifies the pitfalls of too much time and procrastination. The second half of each chapter contains questions and answers. Morris has adapted these from her "Career Questions" column in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, where she has answered questions since 1992.

Morris believes that attorneys are hampered in their career search by their training. Because law school and practice train legal minds to predict the future with certainty and do their best to maintain objectivity, legal job seekers apply these thought processes to the job search, often resulting in frustration and failure. Morris sets up simple, often common-sense, ways to beat the legal mindset.

Morris spends only limited time on technical areas of the job search and focuses instead on the psychological and emotional aspects. She spends some time on resumes and cover letters, addressing flaws in a job seeker's approach. Practitioners in search of nuts-and-bolts information should consult this book first, overcome flaws in approach, and then find other resources to hone their presentations.

Because Morris pays attention to the theory of the job search, her book might be more accommodating than others. One of the ABA's resources is Morris herself, and given what she can do with a relatively short career book, job seekers might consider consulting her in person.

This is the type of book for which you must roll up your sleeves because you are going to get just a little bit dirty examining the nuts and bolts of the game of negotiations. Written primarily for the uninitiated, this book gives just enough in-depth study to the different phases of negotiations. It also makes a good desk reference for those experienced in negotiations. Prof. Kramer views negotiations as a game and outlines very nicely the groundwork needed to understand not just the fundamentals of negotiations, but also planning, an often overlooked, yet important, aspect of negotiating.

The practical and useful "tips, tricks, and traps" throughout the book distinguish it from a writing that is more theoretical or academic in its approach to analyzing negotiation strategy. The specific technique the author uses to convey his message is to take a particular component of the negotiating game, explain it fully, and then add an easy-to-understand application of that concept. The tips, tricks (which actually turn out to be treats), and traps can be applied to almost any negotiation setting. These tidbits are the book's most helpful aspect.

Each chapter is full of examples that are written in a "mini-hypothetical" format. These examples are short, usually five to seven sentences, and quickly get to the point. Some of the examples may be too simplistic for a seasoned negotiator. Simplistic or not, these examples paint an accurate picture of the behind-the-scenes happenings of playing the negotiating game and what occurs when mistakes are made.

The stages of the traditional bargaining process are discussed in chronological order. For the tenderfoot, reading the book cover-to-cover probably would be the most useful. For the veteran, a more practical approach may be to keep this book close at hand and refer to it during actual bargaining. As another tool of the trade, this book is very helpful and easy to understand.

The Revenge of Brand X

By Rob Frankel (Encino, CA: Rob Frankel, 2000). 272 pgs. $39.95. Order, www.revengeofbrandx.com.

Reviewed by Gordon Shea

When the NASDAQ plummeted earlier in 2001, old-school investment wisdom suddenly was new again. Maybe it really does make a difference, this wisdom goes, whether the dot-coms turn a profit. Within days, however, the NASDAQ recovered without any discernible shift in the dot-com business paradigm.

Why? Rob Frankel's The Revenge of Brand X: How to Build a Big Time Brand on the Web (or Anywhere Else) doesn't answer this question. What it does do, however, is force readers to rethink both old and new conventional wisdom about valuation in the Internet age - if not of stocks, then at least of some trademarks.

This book does not read well cover-to-cover. Frankel writes in the conversational style of the many "do-it-yourself" books that clog bookstores these days; a better subtitle for this might have been "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Internet Branding."

Frankel provides good advice about how businesses can create positive associations in consumers' minds, and about how the Internet can help this process. At Frankel's best, he can be a thought-provoking iconoclast - convincingly arguing, for example, that Coca-Cola and Microsoft, two of America's most recognizable businesses, are also two of America's worst brands. Frankel drives home such points with pithy chapter subheadings, lists, appendices, and useful checklists at the end of each chapter.

Frankel's smarmy and self-reflexive voice, however, nearly buries his points. The author doubtless had fun writing this book, but the result is a read that is often painfully off-key. The same irreverence that allows Frankel to doubt Microsoft's brand name, for example, becomes borderline offensive when it uses the images of a crucifix and the American flag to illustrate general points. Perhaps just as unforgivably, this book contains some major editing gaffes of punctuation and grammar.

The Revenge of Brand X works on the level at which it probably was meant to be read: by busy businesspeople in a few hours. Although targeted to businesspeople, attorneys or firms interested in establishing a unique Web presence, for example, could get something from this volume. Intellectual property and corporate lawyers also could use this book to provide clients with fresh ideas on beefing up Web strategy or on differentiating the client's goods and services from those of competitors.

Perhaps there is no better testimonial for Rob Frankel's ideas than this book itself. Though this book too often is sloppy and facile, both of its covers feature glowing pro-Frankel blurbs and glossy author photos. The book's dedication page thanks "FrankelBees" (presumably rabid fans of the author), and the back cover prominently displays the author's eponymous Web address, along with a phrase defining the concept of "branding" that the author apparently trademarked personally. Rob Frankel's branding strategy certainly seems to work - even if only for Rob Frankel.

This is essentially a guide for inside corporate counsels' use in advising those within their companies who are providing information about their companies to outsiders. Regulation FD follows logically from the rules previously adopted on insider trading and insider tips. Regulation FD sets forth the rules prohibiting unfair selective disclosure and encouraging broad public disclosure about the company and its activities. Prior to the establishment of Regulation FD, information frequently was given to selected analysts and other persons who could use the information to make trades or otherwise benefit themselves before the general public became aware of the information. Analysts who had failed to provide favorable data about companies could be selectively excluded from receiving that information, a process that caused conflicts of interest and pressure to report favorably about particular companies.

The book first discusses the purposes of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the need for the regulation. It also describes exclusions from coverage for certain disclosures and the reason for these exceptions. The actual regulation follows, and the largest part of the book consists of discussion by the SEC staff of the need for the rule and the intent behind it.

The book lacks discussion of some rather important issues, such as decisions by some companies to simply not make any disclosures to avoid running afoul of the regulation. This unintended result of the rule limits the available information about companies, contrary to the SEC goal of getting information to investors. The authors point out that this rule forces analysts to actually talk to customers, and do some of their own work rather than relying on company news. While Regulation FD has resulted in open webcasts and conference calls to which investors are invited, it has resulted in at least as many situations in which companies have decided to release information only under very formal circumstances. This book is a worthwhile read for lawyers who advise their corporations, and is similar to CCH tax guides in format.

The author considers several intriguing questions raised by the antitrust suit brought by the Department of Justice against Microsoft: Has the historical legal notion of a monopoly become obsolete in today's fast-changing Information Age? Is a company guilty of antitrust violations if there is no evidence that consumers have been harmed by its behavior? Did Microsoft's decision to integrate its Internet browser with its Windows operating system cross the line between accepted business practices and illegal, anti-competitive behavior? Auletta, an esteemed journalist, considers these and other issues that lie at the crossroads of law, technology, and economics. Regardless of the conclusions drawn by the reader - including whether Microsoft is a villain or victim - the story of the trial is absorbing, largely because it is populated with colorful characters.

The book dissects Microsoft's trial strategy, including its decision not to call Bill Gates as a witness. As a result of this strategic decision, the judge and the media were left with the impression of Gates in his pre-trial video deposition, which was described as generally more damaging than helpful and showed Gates as evasive. The government's hired gun, celebrated trial attorney David Boies, took every opportunity to play the video for the court. Auletta also concludes that Microsoft backed itself into a corner, and irritated Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, by refusing to acknowledge that any of its business practices were intended to capture Netscape's market share. Although this book will engage the general reader, trial lawyers in particular will find the detail paid to the motivations behind the strategies worthwhile.

Auletta has written the definitive account of the antitrust proceedings against Microsoft.

Wisconsin Lawyer