Description

Episode Summary

When extraordinary events cause extraordinary compensations to be made, Ken Feinberg is the man on the world’s speed dial for action.  Ken talks candidly about the emotional toll that comes with administering of some of the largest and most well-known compensation funds and how he established a career of being fair and objective in the face of extreme criticism in this episode of The Sydcast.

Syd Finkelstein

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Masters degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, whichLinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. 

Ken Feinberg

Kenneth R. Feinberg is one of the nation’s leading experts in alternative dispute resolution, having served as Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, the Department of Justice Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, the Department of the Treasury’s TARP Executive Compensation Program and the Treasury’s Private Multiemployer Pension Reform program.  In 2010, Mr. Feinberg was appointed by the Obama Administration to oversee compensation of victims of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Most recently, he has served as Administrator of the New York State Dioceses’ Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Funds (along with dioceses in four other states), the One Orlando Fund, the GM Ignition Switch Compensation Program, and the One Fund Boston Compensation Program arising out of the Boston Marathon bombings.  He has been appointed mediator and arbitrator in thousands of complex disputes over the past 35 years.

He has had a distinguished teaching career as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Harvard, Georgetown, The University of Pennsylvania, New York University, the University of Virginia and Columbia.  He has also taught as a visiting lecturer at various other law schools, including UCLA, Vanderbilt, Duke and New York Law School.

Mr. Feinberg was designated “Lawyer of the Year” by the National Law Journal (December, 2004).  He is listed in “Profiles in Power:  The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America” (National Law Journal, May 2, 1988; March 25, 1991; April 4, 1994; June 12, 2000; June 19, 2006).  He is the author of numerous articles and essays on mediation, mass torts and other matters and is the author of two books:  What is Life Worth?  The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11 (Public Affairs 2005); Who Gets What: Fair Compensation After Tragedy and Financial Upheaval (Public Affairs 2012).

Mr. Feinberg’s book detailing his work as Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund has been the subject of a major motion picture (to be released in Spring 2020). He is also the subject of a movie documentary, “Playing God,” released in 2018.

Insights from this episode:

• Details on the compensation formulas and distribution processes Ken has used to adminster funds from programs such as the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and the One Fund Boston Compensation Program.
• How to maintain professional objectivity and process the emotions that come with challenging assignments.
• Strategy for overcoming criticism when you are administering funds from controversial programs. 
• Benefits of being one of the nation’s best known names in dispute resolution when it comes to negotiating with companies in crisis.
• Details on how people have tied to their self-worth and identity to their careers and salary, making those values their only definition of self.
• Secrets to dealing with people who have suffered emotional trauma and financial loss.

Quotes from the show: 

• “You learn in these programs that the toughest challenge by far is the emotional context of doing this work.” – Ken Feinberg
• On facing challenges: “Brace yourself for what you’re going to hear and what you’re going to be asked to do.” – Ken Feinberg
• “The [September 11th Victim Compensation] Fund is now a part of American history rather than contemporary affairs but it [has] not lost its impact on the American people.” – Ken Feinberg
• “An entire generation will remember where they were when they heard about the [September 11th] attacks in the same way that a previous generation knew where they were when [President John F.] Kennedy was shot.” – Syd Finkelstein 
• “Nothing is more effective in challenging criticism of a program than by pointing to the generosity of the program, the speed of the program, the efficiency of the program.” – Ken Feinberg
• On working with so many challenging programs: “If you can handle the emotional part … the rest of it kind of falls into place.” – Ken Feinberg
• “We are in a crisis now with the level of [wage] inequality that exists in this country.” – Syd Finkelstein 
• On self-worth being tied with career compensation: “I would have thought that people have other anchors of self-worth; community church, community work, family love, it doesn’t work that way.” – Ken Feinberg
• On job as identity: “The identity that these people have, how they define themselves as human beings, is completely interconnected to their job even though our identity has so many other dimensions.” – Syd Finkelstein 
• Ken’s feelings towards his work: “I think what I do is not really fair or just, it’s mercy; mercy is what I’m dispensing on a financial plane.” – Ken Feinberg
• “You learn, in what I do, empathy is a valuable commodity.  The less you say the better.” – Ken Feinberg

Stay Connected:

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

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Ken Feinberg

LinkedIn: Ken Feinberg

IMDB: What is Life Worth

Website: feinberglawoffices.com

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This episode was produced and managed by  Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)