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    Author: wheolis

    Wendeen Hosts WFNY Dine-around

    The Women’s Forum small dinners are reason enough for accomplished women to want to be part of this organization.  It is filled with leaders and trend setters who share empathy, enthusiasm and desire to achieve more.

    Tonight’s dinner was a salon style affair featuring women’s stories of transformative travels around the world.

    Chief Judge Loretta Preska’s Send-Off

    At a private reception in her chambers, Chief Judge Loretta Preska (S.D.N.Y.) hosted fellow members of the New York branch of the International Women’s Forum.  Having arrived with a suitcase at her door, the uniquely touching Loretta later sent me off to my flight for Madrid with a doggie bag in hand.

    All be it a short visit, Loretta’s words of wisdom and genuine embrace of her new “sorority”, reminded me of why women committed to leadership in their fields are so at home in this group.  As Alair Townsend, the former publisher of Crain’s Business once told me, “The best reason to be part of the Women’s Forum of New York (and the International Women’s Forum) is because it is a great group of women.”  Greater today for Loretta’s inclusion in its ranks.

    Prince Albert Is Thoroughly Charming

    Prince Albert was the consummate host at his private reception during the Monaco iGaming Conference of 2010.  A pet project of the prince, the conference attracted attention in the worldwide gaming community.

    As moderator of a panel on iGaming-“Future Winners in America”, I predicted that major Nevada casinos would most likely be the primary beneficiaries, but that no palpable progress would be made until 2011.

    The prediction was correct, but the reality of 2011 progress comes with a twist that neither the debonair Prince nor I contemplated during our chat at the Monaco Igaming Awards Ceremony. See Eolis Commentary of March 28, 2011.

    Madame Secretary Shares Strategies

    Long before Hillary Rodham Clinton proved to be the consummate team player as our Secretary of State, she had proved her mettle in my eyes as the loyalist we all want in our lives—fully focused on big picture objectives.

    At a Renaissance Weekend in South Carolina, the 25th anniversary of this intellectual retreat, I had my first encounter with her.

    At this private and protected enclave, leaders from a multitude of industries and disciplines let their hair down, sharing information as well as their dreams and hopes.  She was inspirational on the stage and even more mesmerizing during our initial tete a tete.  She is a role model for women who are unstoppable in their drive to excel.

    Newt Gears up for 2012

    Chatting up former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich at a small Washington reception, I realized quickly that he and I share one common denominator—the commitment to exceptionalism.

    Always the consummate politician, when it comes to morals and family values he segues seamlessly from one side of the equation to the other. But I’m not here to judge the Senator, but rather, to learn from him. We came to quick agreement on one key issue: if we want to get back to being a country of American exceptionalism, through the right policies and the right values we can create dramatically more jobs with dramatically higher incomes.

    BROTHERS DON-TRUMP AND MCGAHN

    While the public hears, daily, from media and political pundits about the new President’s contingent of advisors in the West Wing– the name Don McGahn, Chief White House Counsel has yet to evoke a serious riffle.  But it is McGahn, who is likely to be in the center of any firestorm over conflict of interest issues effectively hoisted against  President Trump. Mr. McGahn has quietly charted the course of sticky legal wickets that have confronted the president since the inception of his campaign. He landed perfectly in the fray over efforts to keep Mr. Trump from getting on the ballot in the 2016 New Hampshire primary, back in the days of January 2016. Indeed, at that moment  he opted for a policy of discrete determination rather than a bombastic show, as any self-respecting Jones Day lawyer might be expected to do.

    President Donald Trump and Attorney Donald McGahn, connected only from afar until a year ago, at this point look like two peas in a pod on a mission. Mr. McGahn may prove to be the President’s most important and most impactful relationship in the West Wing of the White House. Stay tuned for a further report.

     

    LAYOFFS DESERVE DIGNITY

    No matter the improved fortunes of companies and law firms this past year, pruning, streamlining and all around tough love continue to mark the management style of modern day employers. Security is nonexistent, gratitude for prior good deed are irrelevant, and financial pressures of employees summarily sacked figure less and less into today’s business equations.

    Where are we going from here? Such gloomy thoughts are best overcome by acts of kindness. This is my New Year’s resolution, I’m keeping a diary and plan to report come Christmas time next year.

    MOROCCO BECKONS

    At the annual cornerstone meeting of the International Women’s Forum in Morocco last week, corporate, civic and political leaders from thirty countries convened to assess the state of affairs in the Arab world.

    Morocco sees itself as setting a valuable example, exempting itself from the Arab Spring.  With considerable pride, our Moroccan sisters praise their enlightened king who saw the need to modernize and adopt a process which led to elections and newly bifurcated power between the king and a newly elected prime minister.

    That said, there remains in Morocco a continuing but slow evolution of respect for women.  An invitation from His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco to visit his palace morphed into a grand and beautiful reception at one of his palaces outside the capitol.  His wife, Princess Lalla Salma, presided without the king at her side.  Her Serene Highness is the first wife of a Moroccan ruler to have a royal title conferred.

    The esteemed women speakers from around the world were gracious in recognizing Morocco’s forward thinking accomplishments, while direct about all that is left to do in bringing true equality to women in Arab countries—Morocco included.

    TRADING ON THE TRAVAILS OF DEWEY & LEBOEUF

    More than 25 percent of the firms’ New York partners (as of January 2012), have bolted from its ranks, many with hair-raising stories of a firm in all manner of disarray. This sad state of affairs is a bonanza for recruiters and trade journalists.

    The firm’s misfortunes become opportunities, gossip is easily treated as gospel. For all of us who are in the legal community, it is worth noting that hundreds, if not thousands of lawyers and staff remain uncertain as to their work and/or economic future.

    And, while the finger-pointing is rapidly moving in the direction of the chair, we operate in a country and a profession in which innocent until proven guilty ought to be words we take seriously.