Stop Legal Outsourcing on Facebook. Join Now!

Locke at Shilling Me Softly has alerted us to a new Facebook page and their mission to stop legal outsourcing. If a Facebook group could get Betty White on Saturday Night Live, I think a good number of lawyers and supporters of keeping American jobs at home can come together to take on this serious issue via Facebook.

If you are an aspiring lawyer, it would behoove you to understand the text of ABA Formal Opinion 08-451, Lawyer's Obligations When Outsourcing Legal and Nonlegal Support Services, which Locke explains in his latest post.

If you have a Facebook account, please join Stop Legal Outsourcing now and tell your friends!

ShitLaw Primer: My Life and Your Experiences

Have you ever felt really alone?  I'm not talking about the loneliness you feel when you're in a room by yourself.  No, I'm talking about the loneliness you feel when no one understands how bad you have it at your job.  Part of why I endeavored--with Hardknocks--to publicize the law school scam, was to show people they are not alone in being unsatisfied with their lack of job prospects and the amount of money that they owe.  I'm trying to reach out to a different crowd now.  I'm reaching out to the shitlaw associates. You know who you are.

You graduated from law school during a recession, much like myself.  I graduated during the dot.com bubble burst.  But you managed to find a job.  It's a small firm. You won't be earning much money.  You're not going to have health care.  But your mother is beaming because you are going to be a real attorney.  You know the job isn't forever, but you're happy to have an opportunity to gain experience under the wing of a talented and experienced solo practitioner.  You are one of the lucky ones and you're not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.  

This is how I felt when I got my first job out of law school (post-clerkship).  I was earning $50K, which was not horrid at the time, but not terrific.  My boss hired me because we clicked and I was a good student from a good school and a "go-getter."  I am notorious for ignoring my initial gut feelings and trying to think with my head.  I had a bad feeling when my future boss said, "You must be in the office by 8:30 and you can leave the office at 7:30 p.m. and to go to court during the day, but not for lunch."  Hmmm. I thought.  That's weird. I thought I was a professional that was paid to accomplish tasks, not work by the hour.  But, I thought, this would be a nice place to work.  He said he would never ask me to work weekend, so long as I put in my 11 hours a day during the week.

Hourly Billing vs. Flat Fee

The WSJ poses the question, which type of case makes an attorney work harder?

I have done both types of cases before and I need to think about this one.

When I did a flat fee case, I would try to be effective, i.e. take as little time as possible to close the case.  My superiors would put pressure on me to complete the case as soon as possible because flat fee cases were considered low yield, and were only taken on as a means to get referrals for more lucrative cases, i.e. cases billed hourly. 

The goal of taking on any case was to do it in the amount of time it would take to remain on par with your billable rate.  For example, if you were doing a complicated real estate closing for $3000 and you typically charged $225 an hour--you had to accomplish the closing in 13 hours or you have lost money for your firm.  So, we still tracked the billable hours to measure profitability and as a means of putting pressure on an associate.

So, effectively, by keeping tab on the time it takes you to do a flat rate case--you are working harder and faster.  But I can't say that you're doing a better job.  After all, you're rushing and many mistakes happen when you are rushing.

Is a Temp the New Perm?

My dear friend Ivy sent me that pic and I let out a little gasp.  Is this my future?

While Obama is covering my health insurance, I suppose I can live on the horribly methodic, brain dumbing work--but is this present slowly turning into my future?  I read the article in Businessweek and I felt no better.  Upon evaluation, it is clear that I am now a Disposable Worker.

A "Disposable Worker": "no health insurance, no retirement benefits, no sick days, no vacation, no severance, and no access to unemployment insurance."

When it's put that way, doc review sounds pretty horrible, doesn't it.  Yet, piles of attorneys are being fleeced from law firms every day and dumped into document review projects; where you are no longer a professional.  You are an hourly wage worker. If you don't work, you don't eat. If you get sick, you suffer financially as well as physically.

"You know American workers are in bad shape when a low-paying, no-benefits job is considered a sweet deal."

I have received two offers of employment since being let go.  Both were laughable.  So, I continue to click away at document review.  Temp attorneys are made fun of constantly, but facts are facts. I may not have vacation pay or stability.  But , with a semi-decent rate, I will make more as a temp attorney than I will at either of the companies/law firms that offered me a position.  The only advantage a low paying job offers is stability, and even that is questionable. ""When I hear people talk about temp vs. permanent jobs, I laugh," says Barry Asin, chief analyst at the Los Altos (Calif.) labor-analysis firm Staffing Industry Analysts. "The idea that any job is permanent has been well proven not to be true." As Kelly Services (KELYA) CEO Carl Camden puts it: "We're all temps now.""

And when is this likely to change?  Or will this be life from this point forward?
"The forecast for the next five to 10 years: more of the same, with paltry pay gains, worsening working conditions, and little job security. Right on up to the C-suite, more jobs will be freelance and temporary, and even seemingly permanent positions will be at greater risk."

This gives me pause. I find myself thankful to be in a large urban center that offers temporary placements.   I definitely consider myself lucky.  I've landed on my feet, for now.