Uncategorized – Gentlechances https://gentlechances.org/ Wed, 03 Jul 2024 14:15:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 Pay for Lawyers Is So High People Are Comparing It to the N.B.A. https://gentlechances.org/pay-for-lawyers-is-so-high-people-are-comparing-it-to-the-n-b-a/ https://gentlechances.org/pay-for-lawyers-is-so-high-people-are-comparing-it-to-the-n-b-a/#respond Wed, 03 Jul 2024 14:15:47 +0000 https://gentlechances.org/?p=72391

Hotshot Wall Street lawyers are now so in demand that bidding wars between firms for their services can resemble the frenzy among teams to sign star athletes.

Eight-figure pay packages — rare a decade ago — are increasingly common for corporate lawyers at the top of their game, and many of these new heavy hitters have one thing in common: private equity.

In recent years, highly profitable private equity giants like Apollo, Blackstone and KKR have moved beyond company buyouts into real estate, private lending, insurance and other businesses, amassing trillions of dollars in assets. As their demand for legal services has skyrocketed, they have become big revenue drivers for law firms.

This is pushing up lawyers’ pay across the industry, including at some of Wall Street’s most prestigious firms, such as Kirkland & Ellis; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Davis Polk; Latham & Watkins; and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Lawyers with close ties to private equity increasingly enjoy pay and prestige similar to those of star lawyers who represent America’s blue-chip companies and advise them on high-profile mergers, takeover battles and litigation.

Numerous people compared it to a star-centric system like the N.B.A., but others worried that higher and higher pay had gotten out of hand and could strain the law firms forced to stretch their budgets to keep talent from leaving.

“Twenty million dollars is the new $10 million,” said Sabina Lippman, a partner and co-founder of the legal recruiter Lippman Jungers. In the past few years, at least 10 law firms have spent — or acknowledged to Ms. Lippman that they need to spend — around $20 million a year or more to lure the highest-profile lawyers.

One hiring partner at a law firm said $20 million pay packages were usually reserved for those who could bring in more than $100 million in annual revenue for a firm.

Last year, six partners at Kirkland, including some who were recruited during the year, each made at least $25 million, according to people with knowledge of the arrangements who weren’t authorized to discuss pay publicly. Several others in its London office made around $20 million.

One partner at a law firm said pay for top lawyers had roughly tripled in the past five years.

The take-home pay of some top lawyers is now approaching that of big bank chiefs. Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, made roughly $36 million last year. David Solomon of Goldman Sachs earned about $31 million over the same period.

At the center of the action is Kirkland, a 115-year-old law firm founded in Chicago that made an early play for private equity clients when few rivals saw them as big moneymakers. About a decade ago, Kirkland began poaching heavy hitters at rival law firms — many based in New York — who had longstanding relationships with the biggest private equity players.

That inspired fierce competition among top law firms, including Simpson, Latham, Davis Polk and Paul, Weiss. Some have changed their compensation structures or stretched their budgets to keep stars from leaving. Others have countered by raiding Kirkland to build their own private equity businesses.

“Firms do not feel like they can only think about being defensive with respect to their talent,” said Scott Yaccarino, co-founder of the legal recruiting firm Empire Search Partners. “They have to be on the offense, too.”

Lawyers have earned multimillion-dollar pay packages for more than a decade. When Scott A. Barshay, one of the industry’s pre-eminent mergers-and-acquisitions lawyers, left Cravath, Swaine & Moore to join Paul, Weiss in 2016, his pay package of $9.5 million created a stir in the industry. (Mr. Barshay’s compensation has risen significantly since then, two people with knowledge of the contract said.)

But the recent jump in pay has happened at a dizzying pace and for many more lawyers. Coupled with the fierce poaching, it is swiftly reshaping the economics of major law firms. Kirkland has even guaranteed some hires fixed shares in the partnership for several years, according to several people with knowledge of the contracts. In some instances, it has extended forgivable loans as sweeteners.

Last year, Kirkland hired away Alvaro Membrillera, a noted private equity lawyer in London who counts KKR as a key client, from Paul, Weiss for around $14 million and a multiyear guarantee, according to two people with knowledge of the contract.

White & Case recently hired O. Keith Hallam III, a partner from Cravath with private equity clients, for roughly $14 million a year, according to a person with knowledge of the contract. The firm also hired Taurie M. Zeitzer, a private equity lawyer at Paul, Weiss, for around the same amount, another person with knowledge of the contract said.

To some, the changing landscape represents a more meritocratic system in which partners can expect pay based on talent rather than seniority. Cravath, a storied, 205-year-old firm, long followed the so-called lock-step system linked to seniority, but modified it in 2021. Debevoise & Plimpton is one of the few remaining firms that continue to follow the lock-step model.

“Law firms have gotten a lot more commercial in how they run themselves,” said Neil Barr, the chair and managing partner of Davis Polk. “Firms are operating like businesses rather than old-school partnerships, and it’s led to more rational business behavior.”

Kirkland’s early bet on private equity has paid off handsomely. Globally, private equity firms managed $8.7 trillion in assets in 2023 — more than five times what they oversaw at the onset of the financial crisis in 2007, according to the data provider Preqin. Blackstone alone manages more than $1 trillion in assets, and other firms, including Apollo, Ares, KKR and Brookfield, collectively oversee trillions more.

As the private equity business took off, Kirkland’s clients began directing hundreds of millions of dollars in business its way each year. In 2023, Kirkland made more than $7 billion in gross revenue, according to The American Lawyer’s annual ranking, making it the highest-grossing law firm in the world.

A single firm like Blackstone or KKR can generate legal work from the constellation of companies, banks and others in its universe. For instance, even though Blackstone’s main law firm is Simpson, it paid Kirkland — one of its secondary law firms — $41.6 million in 2023, according to a regulatory filing.

“The private equity clients of these firms — they mint money,” said Mark Rosen, the chief executive and chairman of the legal recruiting firm Mark Bruce International.

Simpson, an illustrious Wall Street firm with roots in the Gilded Age and one of the largest private equity practices, has been a particular target of poaching by Kirkland. One person with knowledge of the rivalry called the firm Kirkland’s “farm team.” Kate Slaasted, a spokeswoman for Kirkland, said in an email: “As a firm, we have the highest regard for Simpson Thacher.”

At least seven top partners from Simpson, including Andrew Calder and Peter Martelli, have jumped to Kirkland in the past decade. Kirkland also poached Jennifer S. Perkins, a star lawyer from Latham who has represented KKR on some of its deals, to join its private equity practice.

Mr. Calder and Jon A. Ballis, the chairman of Kirkland, were among the partners who made at least $25 million last year, according to three people with knowledge of the compensation details. Mr. Calder and Melissa D. Kalka, also a partner at Kirkland, work closely with Global Infrastructure Partners, the private equity firm that recently announced a deal to sell itself to BlackRock for $12.5 billion.

In 2023, Paul, Weiss — which counts Apollo Global Management among its top clients and is aggressively building its private equity business — poached several Kirkland lawyers to build out its London office. The firm also hired Eric J. Wedel, whose clients include Bain Capital, KKR and Warburg Pincus, away from Kirkland, and Jim Langston, another private equity-focused lawyer, from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

Simpson has altered its pay structure in the past year so that it can be more competitive with Kirkland and other rivals. “We intentionally made the decision to adjust our compensation structure to attract and retain the best talent in strategically important practices across our global platform,” Alden Millard, chair of Simpson’s executive committee, wrote in an email.

One sign of the frenzied nature of hiring: the use of multiyear compensation guarantees to attract lawyers. These fell out of favor after Dewey & LeBoeuf filed for bankruptcy in 2012, unable to meet millions of dollars in fixed payments and bonuses it had promised partners. Now, a different type of guaranteed payment has become popular.

Some firms are awarding new hires a number of shares in the partnership for a set period, typically in the range of two to five years. Such offers are attractive because they ensure a specific share of a firm’s profits irrespective of its annual performance.

This frenzy has meant that even lawyers without private equity connections have seen their pay rise. Freshfields — a big British firm that is building a beachhead in the United States — has recruited lawyers in the range of $10 million to $15 million, and provided additional pay guarantees to some, according to three people with direct knowledge of the compensation details.

“Law firms want people who are going to be motivated based on culture,” said Ms. Lippman, the recruiter. “But at some point if you have this big difference between firms, everyone has a price.”

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AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile Users Hit by Service Outage in Europe https://gentlechances.org/att-verizon-and-t-mobile-users-hit-by-service-outage-in-europe/ https://gentlechances.org/att-verizon-and-t-mobile-users-hit-by-service-outage-in-europe/#respond Fri, 28 Jun 2024 11:02:54 +0000 https://gentlechances.org/?p=72387

Many travelers from the United States lost a crucial tool to check maps, make reservations, use ride-hailing apps and more because of a cellular data outage that began affecting users of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon on Wednesday.

The affected travelers, mostly in Europe, posted on social media, seeking answers about what caused the outage and how long it would last. Some reported being unable to make phone calls, send texts or use online services without Wi-Fi for as long as 24 hours. It is unclear what caused the outage, which appeared to extend from Britain to Turkey.

An AT&T spokeswoman said that the carrier’s network was operating normally, but that some customers traveling internationally might be experiencing service disruptions because of an issue outside the AT&T network. The company said it was working with one of its roaming connectivity providers to resolve the issue.

Verizon told some of its customers on social media that it was also aware of the issue and that its teams were working with local providers to resolve it.

A T-Mobile representative said the carrier was one of “several providers impacted by a third-party vendor’s issue that is intermittently affecting some international roaming service” and was also working to resolve it.

George Lagos, a 70-year-old real estate developer from Dunedin, Fla., who is visiting the Greek island of Crete with his family, noticed on Wednesday that his T-Mobile cellular data was not working. For about 24 hours, he said, he was not able to reach the people he had made plans with, though luckily, they had already gone over the details together.

“You know it’s an inconvenience, but it wasn’t a disaster,” said Mr. Lagos, whose service appeared to be restored by Thursday evening. “I didn’t miss a flight. I didn’t have a taxicab looking for me or anything.”

But there was a more serious concern: His wife’s mother has been sick and Mr. Lagos’s wife could not reach the person who was helping take care of her.

“That probably was the worst thing,” Mr. Lagos said.

Major U.S. carriers all offer some version of an all-inclusive international data plan that allows travelers to use their phones much as they would in the United States.

Though the current disruption appears to be easing, travelers affected by such outages have other options to connect. Swapping out a physical SIM card — for phones that still have one — can allow you to connect to a local network. (These typically come in pay-as-you-go or prepaid packages.) For newer phones, apps like Airalo provide relatively inexpensive electronic SIM card packages in many international destinations. And of course, you can always seek out a secure Wi-Fi network.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024.

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N.F.L. Ordered to Pay Billions in Sunday Ticket Lawsuit https://gentlechances.org/n-f-l-ordered-to-pay-billions-in-sunday-ticket-lawsuit/ https://gentlechances.org/n-f-l-ordered-to-pay-billions-in-sunday-ticket-lawsuit/#respond Fri, 28 Jun 2024 10:58:51 +0000 https://gentlechances.org/?p=72384

The N.F.L. must pay almost $5 billion in damages for artificially inflating the price of Sunday Ticket, a subscription service offered by DirecTV that showed out-of-market games, a federal jury in Los Angeles decided on Thursday.

The verdict, which capped a monthlong class-action trial and almost a decade of legal wrangling, includes about $96 million in damages for the bars and restaurants that subscribed to the service, and more than $4.6 billion for roughly 2.4 million residential subscribers. Damages in antitrust cases like this are tripled by law, which means the league may have to pay more than $14 billion.

The jury’s damages were most of what the plaintiffs lawyers were seeking. “It’s a great day for consumers everywhere,” said Bill Carmody, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

The N.F.L. is expected to appeal the verdict.

“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the N.F.L. Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” Brian McCarthy, a league spokesman, said in a statement. “We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”

Judge Philip Gutierrez, who openly admonished the plaintiffs’ lawyers during the trial in U.S. District Court, will hear post-trial motions next month. He could, in theory, decide that the jury reached an improper verdict. An appeals court could also alter the size of the damages.

Still, the verdict poses a substantial risk to the league, which is a $20 billion juggernaut in large part because of its media deals.

“Juries are inherently unpredictable, but any time there’s a ruling against a sports entity, it’s significant because leagues rarely take these cases all the way to trial,” said Gabriel Feldman, the director of the sports law program at Tulane University.

The civil case cut to the heart of the league’s media distribution strategy, which for more than a half-century has been based on negotiating contracts with networks on behalf of all the teams. More than 90 percent of N.F.L. games are shown on free over-the-air television in the markets of the teams in the games, and many other games are shown in prime time on national networks. The league’s contracts with CBS, Fox, NBC and other broadcasters generate more than $10 billion a year.

Sunday Ticket was a unique product because it packaged out-of-market games already being shown by CBS and Fox and resold them to fans for about $300 a season. The plaintiffs argued that the price was deliberately inflated to limit the number of subscribers. The plaintiffs’ lawyers pointed to an email to N.F.L. executives from ESPN that said the cable sports network was willing to offer Sunday Ticket for only $70 and sell single-team packages.

The league spurned the offer and stuck with DirecTV until 2022, when it struck a new deal with YouTube TV.

During the trial, the league acknowledged that CBS and Fox would be hurt if Sunday Ticket attracted too many subscribers. Commissioner Roger Goodell, who testified last week, said the service was priced as a premium product.

The jury — and many fans — contended that the league could and should offer its games at a lower price, and with more flexible options, like team-only packages. Feldman, the Tulane professor, said the N.F.L. would most likely on appeal restate its case that while it negotiated contracts collectively, it was pro-consumer because it offered so many games over the air for free.

The N.F.L. will argue that “we are not like Coke and Pepsi — we are more like Coke and Coke Zero,” Feldman said. “We are part of the same company and part of the same goals.”

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CDK Global Cyberattack Disrupts Car Sales in U.S. and Canada https://gentlechances.org/cdk-global-cyberattack-disrupts-car-sales-in-u-s-and-canada/ https://gentlechances.org/cdk-global-cyberattack-disrupts-car-sales-in-u-s-and-canada/#respond Thu, 27 Jun 2024 07:47:05 +0000 https://gentlechances.org/?p=72381

Thousands of auto dealers across the United States and Canada are suffering disruptions to their operations as a result of cyberattacks on a provider of critical software and data services used in auto retailing.

The provider, CDK Global, said it was targeted in two attacks on Wednesday, prompting the company to shut down its systems to prevent the loss of customer data and to allow testing and other measures to restore its services.

“We are assessing the impact and providing regular updates to our customers,” CDK Global said in a statement. “We remain vigilant in our efforts to reinstate our services and get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible.”

CDK provides services to more than 15,000 retail locations. Its dealer management systems store customer records and automate much of the paperwork and data involved in selling and servicing cars and trucks.

Dealers said the outage had slowed sales and forced them to find alternative methods to produce the titles, contracts, leases, registration cards and other forms that must be delivered to customers, banks and state motor vehicle authorities.

“It is definitely annoying, no doubt,” said Brian Benstock, general manager and vice president of Paragon Honda in the New York borough of Queens. “But we’re still open for business. We’re still selling cars.”

He said his franchise had other systems to retrieve customer data. “We can produce contracts,” he said. “For customers, it’s pretty seamless.”

The disruption has come at a critical time for dealers as they head into the final two weekends of the month, typically a busy time for new-car sales. Many are also preparing for Fourth of July sales and other summer promotions.

Dealers said that in some cases they were reverting to writing contracts by hand, or asking customers to wait a few days to take delivery of their vehicles.

They have less leeway in servicing or repairing vehicles, when customers often expect their cars back within a few hours, but the lack of access to customer data in most cases won’t prevent technicians from performing repair work.

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$3.34 Trillion https://gentlechances.org/3-34-trillion/ https://gentlechances.org/3-34-trillion/#respond Thu, 27 Jun 2024 07:43:04 +0000 https://gentlechances.org/?p=72378

It’s a number that kept going up, with few signs of slowing down.

Nvidia, the chip maker, became the most valuable public company on Tuesday with a stock market value of $3.34 trillion. With the close of trading that day, Nvidia’s valuation jumped ahead of Apple’s and Microsoft’s, continuing a meteoric rise that has been aided by the boom of artificial intelligence and, with it, high demand for Nvidia’s chips.

The company was in a good position to take advantage of the current A.I. boom. Jensen Huang, the Nvidia co-founder and chief executive, had predicted that the company’s chips, known as graphics processing units or GPUs, would be essential to the construction of A.I. systems.

Just two years ago, Nvidia was valued at $400 billion; last year, it was $1 trillion. This year, the company hit $2 trillion on March 1, before taking just three months to rise above $3 trillion.

Today, Nvidia controls more than 80 percent of the global market for chips used in A.I. systems, and companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google are now designing their own chips to become less dependent on Nvidia.

The company’s rapid ascent put it in a rare position: According to data on the S&P 500 going back to the 1920s, only 12 different companies have led the index by market valuation. Nvidia is the 12th. Its growth has been so rapid that some analysts have wondered how long it can last.

“The numbers have gotten so big so quickly,” said Stacy Rasgon, an analyst with Bernstein Research. “If the return on A.I. turns out to not be there, then the whole thing comes crumbling down.”

But Mr. Huang is doubling down on his company’s continued growth.

“We are one year into generative A.I.,” Mr. Huang said in a February interview. “My guess is we are literally into the first year of a 10-year cycle of spreading this technology into every single industry.”

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American Express Buys Tock Dining Reservation Service https://gentlechances.org/american-express-buys-tock-dining-reservation-service/ https://gentlechances.org/american-express-buys-tock-dining-reservation-service/#respond Thu, 27 Jun 2024 07:40:28 +0000 https://gentlechances.org/?p=72375

The credit card giant American Express has acquired Tock, a restaurant reservation and event management company, from the digital commerce platform Squarespace for $400 million, American Express said on Friday.

The purchase of the reservation system in an all-cash deal shows that American Express is continuing its pursuit of the market for dining-related services, especially after its acquisition in 2019 of Resy, a rival of Tock, which is based in Chicago. The credit card company is acting on insights that its customers are spending prodigiously on eating out, it said in a statement.

Restaurants were a growing spending category for American Express cardholders, reaching a “high watermark” of $100 billion in transactions in 2023, Howard Grosfield, president of the U.S. consumer services division, said in an interview on Friday.

“The passion and interest in dining and dining-related experiences just continues to grow,” Mr. Grosfield said.

Tock and Resy broker some of the dining world’s most coveted reservations.

Nick Kokonas, a former derivatives trader and an owner of the Chicago fine-dining restaurant Alinea, started Tock in 2014. With Tock’s ability to offer prepaid reservations and deposits, tasting-menu restaurants like Alinea flocked to the service.

Restaurants, bars and other customers pay a flat monthly fee to use the Tock platform, which takes deposits, helps manage dining room traffic, and organizes and advertises pop-up events. Customers can download the Tock app to peruse restaurants and make bookings.

Through the acquisition, American Express said it can give its card members the perk of access to hot dining experiences within the restaurant app’s network, as well as limited foodie experiences. For instance, Resy is brokering access this summer to Misipasta, a pop-up restaurant by the Michelin-starred chef Missy Robinson on Governors Island in New York City, and American Express card holders have privileged access to tables.

Tock was acquired by Squarespace in 2021, and its bank of restaurants, wineries and other venues has grown to about 7,000 participants, American Express said, adding that its Resy network includes about 20,000 eateries worldwide.

The credit card company “will be able to offer Tock and its customers access to a broader network of diners,” Matt Tucker, the head of Tock, said in a statement on Friday. “This is an important value-add to our restaurant partners.”

The dining reservation industry leader is OpenTable, whose network includes more than 55,000 restaurants, bars and other venues, according to its website.

American Express also said on Friday that it had acquired Rooam, a platform for contactless payments that is used in bars, restaurants, stadiums and other venues. It did not disclose the sum it would pay for the platform.

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DeSantis Vetoes All Arts Grants in Florida https://gentlechances.org/desantis-vetoes-all-arts-grants-in-florida/ https://gentlechances.org/desantis-vetoes-all-arts-grants-in-florida/#respond Thu, 27 Jun 2024 07:37:03 +0000 https://gentlechances.org/?p=72372

But since lawmakers did include the money in the budget they approved in March, arts organizations thought that funds would ultimately come their way. It took Mr. DeSantis several months to formally receive, review and sign the budget, for the fiscal year that begins on July 1.

Funding for some cultural organizations did survive, as projects put forth by individual lawmakers. In the past, leaders of arts organizations have been discouraged from seeking those earmarks and encouraged to apply through the grant program instead, Mr. Russell, of the Sarasota Opera, said.

Many people have moved to Florida in recent years, and cities like Sarasota and St. Petersburg, also on the Gulf Coast, have promoted the arts as part of their identity, becoming destinations for those looking for a lively cultural scene.

Even small towns have benefited from having arts groups anchoring cultural programming, said Grace B. Robinson, executive director of the Gadsden Arts Center & Museum in Quincy, a city of about 8,000 in the rural Florida Panhandle.

“We attract people who improve residential and business properties — many of whom will only move to communities with quality art organizations,” she said. The center had expected to receive a $50,000 grant, which would have amounted to about 12 percent of its annual budget, she added.

After Mr. DeSantis’s veto, the Florida Cultural Alliance asked its members how the funding cuts would affect them. Out of 108 organizations that responded to the survey, 73 percent said they would make adjustments and continue with their existing plans.

But 41 percent said they would have to cancel public events, 35 percent said they would have to cut programming for children and 31 percent said they would have to reduce their staff.

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Southwest Plane Begins Descent Too Early Over Oklahoma City https://gentlechances.org/southwest-plane-begins-descent-too-early-over-oklahoma-city/ https://gentlechances.org/southwest-plane-begins-descent-too-early-over-oklahoma-city/#respond Thu, 27 Jun 2024 07:34:28 +0000 https://gentlechances.org/?p=72369

A Southwest Airlines plane descended prematurely on Wednesday over Oklahoma City, startling residents miles from the airport, before regaining altitude and then landing safely.

After beginning a descent from 39,000 feet, the Boeing 737-800, flight No. 4069 from Las Vegas to Oklahoma City, was still nine miles short of the airport when it reached an altitude of about 525 feet, according to a report by The Associated Press that cited Flightradar24 data. The plane then ascended again to about 3,000 feet before landing successfully at its planned destination, Will Rogers World Airport, at 12:16 a.m. local time.

An automated warning was triggered by the low altitude, and an air traffic controller alerted the pilots, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

“Southwest 4069, low altitude alert. You good out there?” the controller can be heard saying in a recording from LiveATC.net provided to The Oklahoman newspaper.

The F.A.A. said it was investigating the incident.

The plane’s low point happened roughly over the city of Yukon, just west of Oklahoma City. Some people in the area said on social media that they were alarmed by the noise and low path of the jet.

“Southwest is following its robust Safety Management System and is in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration to understand and address any irregularities with the aircraft’s approach to the airport,” the airline said in a statement.

There is no indication that the incident was caused by any mechanical failure, but Boeing planes have been involved in several recent safety incidents.

Most notably, a door panel blew out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 jet in January, leading to the temporary grounding of some planes, a company plan to improve safety and an apology from the company’s chief executive, Dave Calhoun.

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How to Alienate a Colleague, One Coffee at a Time https://gentlechances.org/how-to-alienate-a-colleague-one-coffee-at-a-time/ https://gentlechances.org/how-to-alienate-a-colleague-one-coffee-at-a-time/#respond Thu, 27 Jun 2024 07:31:45 +0000 https://gentlechances.org/?p=72366 Introducing your new Work Friend: Anna Holmes.

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Landlords Have Started Using A.I. Chatbots to Manage Properties https://gentlechances.org/landlords-have-started-using-a-i-chatbots-to-manage-properties/ https://gentlechances.org/landlords-have-started-using-a-i-chatbots-to-manage-properties/#respond Thu, 27 Jun 2024 07:29:48 +0000 https://gentlechances.org/?p=72363

The new maintenance coordinator at an apartment complex in Dallas has been getting kudos from tenants and colleagues for good work and late-night assistance. Previously, the eight people on the property’s staff, managing the buildings’ 814 apartments and town homes, were overworked and putting in more hours than they wanted.

Besides working overtime, the new staff member at the complex, the District at Cypress Waters, is available 24/7 to schedule repair requests and doesn’t take any time off.

That’s because the maintenance coordinator is an artificial intelligence bot that the property manager, Jason Busboom, began using last year. The bot, which sends text messages using the name Matt, takes requests and manages appointments.

The team also has Lisa, the leasing bot that answers questions from prospective tenants, and Hunter, the bot that reminds people to pay rent. Mr. Busboom chose the personalities he wanted for each A.I. assistant: Lisa is professional and informative; Matt is friendly and helpful; and Hunter is stern, needing to sound authoritative when reminding tenants to pay rent.

The technology has freed up valuable time for Mr. Busboom’s human staff, he said, and everyone is now much happier in his or her job. Before, “when someone took vacation, it was very stressful,” he added.

Chatbots — as well as other A.I. tools that can track the use of common areas and monitor energy use, aid construction management and perform other tasks — are becoming more commonplace in property management. The money and time saved by the new technologies could generate $110 billion or more in value for the real estate industry, according to a report released in 2023 by McKinsey Global Institute. But A.I.’s advances and its catapult into public consciousness have also stirred up questions about whether tenants should be informed when they’re interacting with an A.I. bot.

Ray Weng, a software programmer, learned he was dealing with A.I. leasing agents while searching for an apartment in New York last year, when agents in two buildings used the same name and gave the same answers for his questions.

“I’d rather deal with a person,” he said. “It’s a big commitment to sign a lease.”

Some of the apartment tours he took were self-guided, Mr. Weng said, “and if it’s all automated, it feels like they don’t care enough to have a real person talk to me.”

EliseAI, a software company based in New York whose virtual assistants are used by owners of nearly 2.5 million apartments across the United States, including some operated by the property management company Greystar, is focused on making its assistants as humanlike as possible, said Minna Song, the chief executive of EliseAI. Aside from being available through chat, text and email, the bots can interact with tenants via voice and can have different accents.

The virtual assistants that help with maintenance requests can ask follow-up questions like verifying which sink needs to be fixed in case a tenant isn’t available when the repair is being done, Ms. Song said, and some are beginning to help renters troubleshoot maintenance issues on their own. Tenants with a leaky toilet, for example, may receive a message with a video showing them where the water shut-off valve is and how to use it while they wait for a plumber.

The technology is so good at carrying on a conversation and asking follow-up questions that tenants often mistake the A.I. assistant for a human. “People come to the leasing office and ask for Elise by name,” Ms. Song said, adding that tenants have texted the chatbot to meet for coffee, told managers that Elise deserved a raise and even dropped off gift cards for the chatbot.

Not telling customers that they’ve been interacting with a bot is risky. Duri Long, an assistant professor of communication studies at Northwestern University, said it could make some people lose trust in the company using the technology.

Alex John London, a professor of ethics and computational technologies at Carnegie Mellon University, said people could view the deception as disrespectful.

“All things considered, it is better to have your bot announce at the beginning that it is a computer assistant,” Dr. London said.

Ms. Song said it was up to each company to monitor evolving legal standards and be thoughtful about what it told consumers. A vast majority of states do not have laws that require the disclosure of the use of A.I. in communicating with a human, and the laws that do exist primarily relate to influencing voting and sales, so a bot used for maintenance-scheduling or rent-reminding wouldn’t have to be disclosed to customers. (The District at Cypress Waters does not tell tenants and prospective tenants that they’re interacting with an A.I. bot.)

Another risk involves the information that the A.I. is generating. Milena Petrova, an associate professor who teaches real estate and corporate finance at Syracuse University, said humans needed to be “involved to be able to critically analyze any results,” especially for any interaction outside the most simple and common ones.

Sandeep Dave, chief digital and technology officer of CBRE, a real estate services firm, said it didn’t help that the A.I. “comes across as very confident, so people will tend to believe it.”

Marshal Davis, who manages real estate and a real estate technology consulting company, monitors the A.I. system he created to help his two office workers answer the 30 to 50 calls they receive daily at a 160-apartment complex in Houston. The chatbot is good at answering straightforward questions, like those about rent payment procedures or details about available apartments, Mr. Davis said. But on more complicated issues, the system can “answer how it thinks it should and not necessarily how you want it to,” he said.

Mr. Davis records most calls, runs them through another A.I. tool to summarize them and then listens to the ones that seem problematic — like “when the A.I. says, ‘Customer voiced frustration,’” he said — to understand how to improve the system.

Some tenants aren’t completely sold. Jillian Pendergast interacted with bots last year while searching for an apartment in San Diego. “They’re fine for booking appointments,” she said, but dealing with A.I. assistants instead of humans can get frustrating when they start repeating responses.

“I can see the potential, but I feel like they are still in the trial-and-error phase,” Ms. Pendergast said.

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