You may have been one of the people affected by the problems when Zoom was down for a few hours yesterday. Inc. magazine lauded Zoom’s apology, taking responsibility for the problems and promising to fix them, Zoom Just Failed Its Biggest Test. Its Apology Is an Extraordinary Example of Emotional Intelligence. After incidents of “zoombombing” … Continue reading Zoom Apologies
Washington Post columnist and honorary dispute resolution expert Alexandra Petri provided a highly nuanced analysis of non-apology apologies recently illustrated by the grand master, Rep. Ted Yoho, who called his colleague, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a “fucking bitch” (pardon my French). (Careful readers will recall my thrilling two-part series on non-apology apologies beginning here as well … Continue reading Master Class in Non-Apology Apologies
Yesterday, Jen wrote an insightful post analyzing Judge Kavanaugh’s problematic apology to Senator Klobuchar. Interestingly, he committed the same offense with Senator Whitehouse – arrogantly responding to a question about his drinking by asking the senator about his drinking – but didn’t apologize to him. This post provides a few more observations about this remarkable … Continue reading More Observations about the Kavanaugh Hearing
Our field aspires to promote restorative justice and healing when one person has wronged another. This can truly happen only when the person committing the wrong takes responsibility, typically reflected in an acknowledgment of having done the wrong and an apology. Forgiveness can help people restore themselves as morally acceptable members of society as seen … Continue reading An Example of The Power of Apology and Forgiveness
I have written a lot recently about apologies (and non-apologies), most recently a post focusing on Louis C.K.’s apology (which links to prior posts). Today, the New York Times ran a piece entitled “Mea Culpa. Kinda Sorta.” in which several writers parse the language in the apologies of Charlie Rose, Al Franken, Louis C.K., Kevin … Continue reading Mea Culpa. Kinda Sorta.
Since the recent publications about Harvey Weinstein’s alleged serial sexual misconduct, there has been a wave of stories about others who have allegedly committed sexual misconduct. The comedian Louis C.K. is one of the men who has been accused. He publicly acknowledged that the accusations were true and apologized. Political science professor Nancy D. Wadsworth … Continue reading Louis C.K.’s Apology
In my post, Non-Apology Apologies, Part 2, I briefly described Wells Fargo’s acceptance of responsibility but refusal to apologize for its fraudulent practices in creating accounts without customers’ authorization. This post focuses on a point in a New York Times article that provides fascinating background relevant to lawyers, law professors, and law students. Top executives … Continue reading Non-Apology Apologies, Ethics, and Lawyers
It seems that there are a lot of stories about questionable apologies in the news lately. I don’t intend to discuss all of them, but here are a few more thoughts about some of them. 21st Century Fox First, some updates about the 21st Century Fox apology. I thought it was bland but some commentators, … Continue reading Non-Apology Apologies, Part 2
The law generally doesn’t do much to promote apologies. They aren’t included in the panoply of remedies that judges can impose on unwilling parties. Even if courts could order parties to apologize, the apologies probably would be of the unsatisfying tell-your-sister-you’re-sorry variety. Professor Jonathan Cohen has written wonderful pieces on The Immorality of Denial, 79 … Continue reading Non-Apology Apologies – Part 1
