Time to Get Fired Up for the Weekend!

Hey!  Where the hell are my Lobbyists????  That was my reaction when I read this article about how Sallie Mae is lobbying the shit out of the Government to counteract everything Obama seeks to do regarding Student Loans, as stated in the State of the Union.

"President Obama called the idea a “no-brainer” last fall, predicting it would take billions of dollars from the profits of private lenders and give it directly to students, and many colleges were already moving to get loans directly from the federal government in anticipation of the next move by Congress."


"But an aggressive lobbying campaign by the nation’s biggest student lenders has now put one of the White House’s signature plans in peril, with lenders using sit-downs with lawmakers, town-hall-style meetings and petition drives to plead their case and stay in business."

Who in the heck is going to sign a petition agreeing that students should be screwed because they irresponsibly went to school and incurred debt instead of becoming a compulsive gambler or shopaholic--let's say.  The Private Lenders are the evil middlemen... And the government would be in a better situation to give kids a break, than heartless Sallie Mae.  Reps of Sallie Mae probably attend your funeral to make sure you're dead before they stop calling you for your payments.

"Sallie Mae, a publicly traded company that is the nation’s biggest student lender with $22 billion in loans originated last year, led the field in spending $8 million on lobbying in 2009, more than double the year before, and other lenders spent millions of dollars more, according to an analysis prepared for The New York Times by the Center for Responsive Politics."

How many students' loan payments did it take to pay for $8 million dollars worth of lobbying efforts?  This is worse than buying sneakers made by child laborrrs in Indonesia.  At least the child laborers don't have a vendetta against you.  Sado-Masochist takes your money and flogs you with it until YOU DIE.

"The student loan industry, which would be forced out of the loan origination business if the proposal became law, is seeking to cast the administration’s plan as an ill-conceived government takeover that could put thousands of people out of work at private lending centers around the country at a time when unemployment is hovering around 10 percent."

For some reason, I don't give a shit.  I don't care if we put the producers of child porn out of business either.  Nor do I care if drug traffickers join the realm of the unemployed. If you are in an evil business that makes money off of the torture of innocent people, then you deserve to be out on your ass, joining the bread line.

“We anticipated this,” Arne Duncan, the education secretary, said of the lending industry’s lobbying efforts. “They’ve had a sweet deal. They’ve had this phenomenal deal that taxpayers have subsidized, and that’s a hard thing to give up.”

Bravo!  Calling a spade a spade.  The jig is up, fellas.  I hope to God your evil scheme of buying our legistlature doesn't make our elected officials blind to the fact that students are defaulting left and right and there is no where for people to go.

"At the same time, Sallie Mae and other lenders have staged a series of town-hall-style meetings at their job centers around the country to help mobilize opposition to the White House plan and collect thousands of signatures for a petition drive in support of their own plan."

WHO THE FUCK IS GOING TO THESE MEETINGS?  ARE THEY DEAF, DUMB OR STUPID???    This is not a socialist agenda put out by Obama.. this is Corporation that is on welfare from the government, screaming entitlement.  I wouldn't want to give up those perks either.  They are worse then big business, they are big business--minus risk.

Look, I don't like Obama's plan either.  But something needs a'fixin.  In fact, if my plan for education went through, it would be the end of education and lending as we know it. So, until my liberatarian principles are followed.. let's do something different, PLEASE!

India: A Success Story in Outsourcing!

I nearly fainted when I watched this... between concentrating and trying to understand their accents.  Thanks to a commentator for this lead. Holy Shit.  80K law grads in India a year?????  Dispatching Indian Attorneys to make appearances in American Courts?? I need out of this business. I'm heading of to Hustler's after work to see if I can pole dance or serve cocktails.

Comments from Youtube watchers are always insightful:

robw1031:
I believe American companies are making a mistake by outsourcing. They may think cheaper. But they don't think about their brand's value and name.

It may give you profit for a short period of time. But in the long run you lose your international brand value and name. Don't forget it. Any good businesspeople won't make that mistake.

Example: PriceWaterhouseCooper.


vrj40:

I have a relative who is a lawyer and is unable to find a job. The relative lives in DC by the way.
All that these companies think about are labor costs. They are not concerned about any other thing in the US. Sad!

and my favorite....

Unclesamslair:

and i thought lawyers were safe

One Word Answers...

[University of] San Diego May Be Classy, But Does It Need a Public Law School?

One Word Answer:  Princeton.

Is It Possible to Glamorize the Legal Profession with a Hollywold Starlet named Hilary that Most Closely Resembles a Skinny Little Boy?

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Hilary Swank, that is.  I an not fond of her.  Mostly because I think she looks like an ugly man--which may or may not be related to that movie she did about the cross dressing female who was beat to death.  So, it doesn't matter how glamorous she is dressed on the red carpet, I see a little ugly boy.  And, yes... anything is possible. 

Now I have a new reason.  As a reader of this blog, you surely know that loathe and dispise Hollywood's glorification and glamorization of the legal profession.  Well, apparently Erin Brokovich wasn't good enough.  We need another trailer trash slut taking on the machine when her brother is accused of murder.  Fox Searchlight is picking up Swank to play a high school dropout, single mom who fights the good fight for her falsely accussed brother by going to law school in the movie "Betty Ann Waters".

Although this is allegedly a true story, I find it funny that anyone in prison who is innocent would be best served by his high school dropout sister going to go to law school.  Just the idea of a law school grad helping to free an innocent man sans help is kind of funny to me. 

Never forget this... when you get out of law school, you know how to do NOTHING.  To use an anology, you know a bunch of theories of law, which are the bullets, but you've never been taught how to handle a gun, which is the procedure.  So, I can't imagine how this woman, Betty Ann, fumbled and bumbled through appeals--and was successful.  I actuallyu don't know if she was or not, because I don't want to spoil this movie for myself or anyone else.  I will eat crow if this movie is good, but it's just falsely empowering.  You can't typically take on huge important cases when you get out of school.  So, watch the movie and enjoy it.. but take it with a grain of salt.

You Are Not Alone: England Suffers Toooooooooooooooooo!

I've always been under the impression that the mainstream media in  England is a bit less partial than mainstream media in this country.  Especially during the election, and for the years that I followed the war, I would tune into BBC before Fox and CNN.  Actually, BBC was my home page for the longest time.  That being said, it's no surprise that this article was posted in a major English Newspaper--and I haven't seen anything nearly as honest and fact-filled in our papers.  Just as the British Tabloids are the first to expose the nasties on all the stars, I learned all sorts of dirty things about how legal outsourcing works.  I have to admit that I had NO IDEA that England was allowing for outsourcing to India as well.  There is no mention in the article, but I'd like to know when the British equivalent to the ABA agreed that outsourcing was a suitable alternative to hiring attorneys educated in England. I am really sorry that your ABA sold you out, my British readers. I thought ours was the lowest of the law--oops, LOW.  They must be happy to know that they have company down there in the lowest level of Dante's Inferno.

So, let's figure out what we are commiserating about.  In the article, I found out the following:

"...an army of young Indian graduates, most of them from the country’s top law and engineering schools, sits before a barrage of computer terminals. Many are working on legal documents digitally accessed from the servers of blue-chip Western clients via transcontinental fibreoptic cables. Others are engaged in research for upcoming litigation to be fought out in American courtrooms, or are analysing patent filings registered by British companies." [Emphasis added]

Wow.  So, until reading this, I had no idea that Indian lawyers could legally do anything aside from simple document review.  As it turns out, they are ready, willing and able to create legal documents, do legal research and, presumably, writing and patent law??!!!  So, why are doc reviewers the only ones that are up at arms?

I think that patent lawyers, general practitioners and transactional attorneys should join in on the march against legal outsourcing to India.  Will they be installing video telephones in courtrooms so that Indian Attorneys can make court appearances too????  This is the definition of a slippery slope and I can't say that any area of the law is safe any longer.

"Much of the work that Pangea3 and similar firms deal with, such as drafting derivatives contracts or conducting due diligence for mergers and acquisitions, was once the preserve of trainees and associates at big City law firms. Some of those firms racked up annual revenues of more than £1 billion during the boom years, in part by billing out teams of junior lawyers for up to £300 an hour for even the most routine tasks."  [Emphasis added].

As a side note, Pangea is owned by American Companies:
"The company's investors include Sequoia Capital, the same venture capital firm that once backed a little Silicon Valley upstart called Google. (Other big names in the legal process outsourcing -- or LPO industry -- include Clutch Group, CPA Global, Integreon and Mindcrest.)"


Back to the original discussion...

So, these Indian Lawyers aren't messing aound with pedley nonsense.  They are doing due dilligence and drafting derivative contracts??? Really?!!  I am shocked and appalled that Partners in big law firms in England, after years of only wanting the best graduates and training them through patience and mentoring, willingly throw work to Indian Lawyers living half a world away, of whom they know nothing.  That is definitely out of line with the boy's club model of lawyering which has been dominant in both England and the United States for decades.  I pray that they are hit with Angel's death curse... and the Indians screw up something extremely important and cost each big law firm millions more than British/American counsel would have cost.  From my fingertips, to God's ears!

"... in a drive to cut costs, are beginning to send that sort of work to cheaper jurisdictions, such as India, South Africa and the Philippines."

Once again, my jaw dropped to find out that South Africa and the Phillippines were also vying for outsourcing work???  How did we miss this????  We were so distracted by Indian Outsourcing Companies and Nigerian Lawyers who are notorious for seizing document review jobs, despite their lack of an American Legal Education--that we didn't even realize that there are a couple of other countries that are prepared to take what little work we have off of our hands!

"That sort of cost-saving has proved compelling in the wake of the economic downturn and is causing demand for Indian outsourcing providers to soar. Studies suggest that there are as many as 10,000 lawyers in the country working for outsourcing providers, and total revenues in the sector are expected to double this year to $1 billion (£613 million) and rise to $4 billion within five years." [Emphasis added].

Isn't it ironic that they have 10,000 gainfully employed attorneys in India, considering that nearly 2,000 lawyers were laid off from just the top 10 law firms in the country. The rest of the industry probably lost at least 8,000 jobs.  We just packed all of those jobs up and shipped them to India where 10,000 Indian Lawyers are prepared to do what we have done for hundreds years, for a fraction of the price and cost it takes to practice the law.

"The commercial legal market was badly shaken by the downturn and many senior partners expect that the double-digit growth of the boom years will not return for some time. Instead, the sector is reshaping itself. Some top firms believe that they will have to be leaner to retain profitability, with fewer associates for every partner. They plan to focus exclusively on high-end work for which clients will continue to pay top rates, while less valuable work will be farmed out."

I'll go ahead and say the obvious; if law firms reshape themselves into a top-heavy model where the work is farmed abroad and the partners focus on "high-end" work and rain-making, the quality will suffer.  There is very little supervision in Bangalore.  Senior associates are no longer valued, along with new grads--and they are the real workhorses of any law firm.  So, once again, the law firm model may implode because of the revamping in this economy.  Between outsourcing, laying off senior associates and charging flat fees, the PPP is sure to drop to the single digits.

So, thanks to ABA Un-Ethics Opinion 08-451, American Lawyers are suffering from the consequences of outsourcing.  It's good to know that England is too.  Not because I want the legal profession to fall apart in two countries, rather than one... but it's nice to know that you are not alone.

Nando on the Radio!

You may love him or hate him, but it's undeniable that he has something to say... and Nando of Third Tier Reality said it loud and clear on a Toledo Radio Station called "The Nookular Opton."  You can listen to his radio interview here--I think it starts at about 18:00.  He makes some really good points and covers everything from document review to NYLS to the ABA's outsourcing opinion.  Give it a listen when you get a chance!

Wall of Shame V: The National Conference of Bar Examiners Trying to Screw the Blind!

Lucky her.  Leave it to lawyers to try to screw over a law grad with disabilities by trying to deny her the necessary software to take the exam, as required as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act.  This story is so telling; it's apparent that the Legal Industry thinks it's above the law.  Anyways... she won. She gets to take the bar.  Then what?

This reminds me of a student that I once had as an adjunct professor.  I used to teach Legal Research and Writing in a Community College Paralegal Program.  The best student in the class by leaps and bounds was a blind guy.  Let's call him Howie.

When Howie started the program he could see as well as you or I.  But he was diabetic, and he didn't take care of his condition.  He would eat candy bars non-stop, thinking he was invincible.  So, at some point at the end of his first year (it's a two year program), he had an "attack." I'm not sure the name of it, but it was something like a stroke that left him blind and stuttering.  He was still brilliant though.  Even though he had a horrible stutter, he would contribute in class and, eventually, get his point across.  And we would take field trips to the local law school's library, and he had a seeing eye person that would help him with his research.

It struck me how the legal world was the last holdout in publishing books in braille.  Not one of the states published in braille.  Not one!  But Howie did his best.

My final exam was actually my moot court brief.  Yep, I had my paras write the moot court brief.  It was a challenging final, but they rose to the occasion.  My thought process was that it would be a plus if they could write like lawyers, and write like lawyers they!   Howie, using a voice recognition program, managed to put together a 45 page appellate brief.  His citations were nearly perfect and his use of the law was flawless.  I was very proud of him and, if he didn't get the best grade, he certainly got something close to that.

But what bothered me to the end, and even today, was his job prospects--or lack thereof.  I have had enough experience with attorneys to know that he would be discriminated against because the cost of accommodating him would be too high for a solo.  And BigLaw doesn't typically recruit from the ranks of a mere paralegal program.  Instead, they tend to recruit undergrads from Harvard, Columbia, Yale and Duke.  So, that leaves him with trying to find a job with solos and mid-sized firms.

Are lawyers to good to adhere to the standards placed by the ADA?  Well, considering that the National Conference of Bar Examiners tried to break this law--I can only say yes.  Or at least they think so.  And what will this blind lawyer do?  I hope she succeeds and that she will find a job wherein following the law is a non-issue.  Maybe she will help Americans with Disabilities in their struggles, being able to cite her own struggle against Lawyers--of all people.

Anyway, for that the National Conference of Bar Examiners deserves to be on the Wall of Shame.