Friday, March 31, 2006

Following the Publication of Julie Triedman's Article, Why Is Paul Weiss Firing People?

4/02/06- Good Job, Mr. Youngwood! This weekend I spoke to one of the people that you fired. This person was smart, engaging, and well-credentialed. By firing this individual (and many others like him/her), you did your clients a huge disservice. As a fellow poster recently said:

Firing JD's is a token resistance that will only result in negligence, malpractice, and professional embarassment for any firm using such tactics.

Wake up! Paralegals cannot make substantive legal judgments regarding responsiveness and privilege. Do you really think defense firms are going to risk producing reams of privileged documents to hungry plaintiff's firms? Or not producing documents they are required to produce under procedural law. Paralegals are simply not equipped to understand the substantive distinctions between responsiveness and non-responsiveness, especially in cases involving complex legal issues and hundreds of thousands of documents. A competent plaintiff's firm would benefit immensively from sloppy discovery work. Privilege judgments are extremely important and associates routinely blow privilege calls and produce privileged documents, even smoking guns, that should not be produced. How much worse would it be with paralegals doing the first level reviews?

Have some repect for the skills required to perform your job.

The question is will Mr. Youngwood have respect for our work?

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3/31/06- Today, I received the following e-mail. It is from a source with a verifiable/proveable identity. Apparently, the e-mail was written by a Paul Weiss Supervisor:

Hi {name removed for privacy reasons},

{removed for privacy reasons}. We also wanted you to know that it was not our fault that you were let go from the project. That happened from way on high, because of Tom the Temp and his blog/news article. Since the article said the JD's were coding documents ours was the team that got hit... All the JD"s are now gone and we have to retrain all non-JD people to replace them. It all sucked big time!

Anyway, {removed for privacy reasons}. Good luck with the job search, I am sure if you don't already have something that you soon will.

Take care and keep in touch.

{name removed for privacy reasons}

Wow! What an admission. Could it actually be the case that Paul Weiss is firing people for speaking to the media about safety and ethical violations? Need I remind Alfred Youngwood that whistleblowing is a legally protected activity?

The only way to deal with these problems is by improving the working conditions/raising the pay of temporary employees, and by reducing fees/providing better value to clients. The answer will not be found in mass-firings.

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

you are lying -suddenly convenient notto mention names...start telling the truth, it will set you free. THOU SHALL NOT LIE

Anonymous said...

lol, TTT you got them by the balls. Unbelievable.

Anonymous said...

paul weiss is apparently firing the attorneys because it is super duper embarrassed that it is using attorneys and billing them out as attorneys but paying them peanuts. in order to continue to pay what they are paying (instead of just raising the bar all the way around -- notch, paying the going rate and getting "what you pay for"), obviously they can only hire non-JDs to do the work. their clients must have caught on that they were being HOSED.

so rather than raise the bar, paul weiss is acting like a spoiled child on the playground that got caught cheating: "i don't want to play with you anymore".

you go, tom.

Anonymous said...

Smoking gun. Can anyone say lawsuit?

Anonymous said...

Good job TTT. They are feeling the heat!!!!!!! Keep up the good work. How is Anita doing by the way?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

they are disgusting. Why don't you guys take this to the bar and ethics committee?

Anonymous said...

In 2004 there were about 100 "jd paras" crammed into 2 concourse level basement rooms. One had aboout 6 inches of space on either side before rubbing up against the next person. Maany of the people in those rooms were licensed attorneys,

The big firms want to reap the benefit of billing us out as attorneys but do not want to classify us as attorneys within the firm so they can pay us less and increase revenues and profits.

The point of the whole big law caste system is to keep you down and beaten so as to fatten up the bottom line for the partners. The associates are willing tools within this system.

Do not believe in the caste system. This awareness is the first step in reforming the lcurrent abor environment. The dissemination of this knowledge is the second step. This situation will not go on in perpetuity and its rotten, unethical underpinnings are beginning to crumble.

They keep us in fear because they need us and actually fear the prospect of our solidarity.

Keep up the pressure.

Anonymous said...

Ok - now I am confused. Is document review for privilege attorney work? Or is it work that can "legally" be done by attorneys and non-attorneys? I recall that privilege was a big part of the MPRE and Professional Responsibility Class in law school. What was the point, if anyone can do it?

Anonymous said...

dont see why priv review can't be done by "paralegals" - if the privilege is questioned, the attorney will have to defend it

this should result in less billing to the client and less money to the temp agency and the JDs, which is nice :)

Anonymous said...

I am sure that the people who allegedly got fired because of your blog really appreciate your fight for the little guy who can only make about six figures a year doing doc review. They may not have a paycheck next week, but their pride is intact. Way to go Tom. PLease continue the good work so you can get us all fired.

Anonymous said...

TTT - is going to make sure all law firms choose a non-JD labor source. Pehaps then he start a blog about how bad the government is and how dare they only pay JD's $....how unfair, blah, blah. The lawyers got fired because JT article qoutes some moron who enjoyed a saying he gets paid for slacking off.

10:55
"lol, TTT you got them by the balls. Unbelievable."

do you really think that, a lot of us will end accepting even lower paying jobs because of this blog. I will be lucky to fnd a job as a paralegal. Thanks Tom!

Anonymous said...

Wake up! Paralegals cannot make substantive legal judgments regarding responsiveness and privilege. Do you really think defense firms are going to risk producing reams of privileged documents to hungry plaintiff's firms? Or not producing documents they are required to produce under procedural law. Paralegals are simply not equipped to understand the substantive distinctions between responsiveness and non-responsiveness, especially in cases involving complex legal issues and hundreds of thousands of documents. A competent plaintiff's firm would benefit immensively from sloppy discovery work. Privilege judgments are extremely import and associates routinely blow privilege calls and produce privileged documents, even smoking guns, that should not be produced. How much worse would it be with paralegals doing the first level reviews?

Have some repect for the skills required to perform your job.

Firing JD's is a token resistence that will only result in negligence, malpractice and professional embarassment for any firm using such tactics.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, you just got a whole team of people fired while you still have your cushy job. If you have so much balls, why don't you stop being anonymous? I know, because you want to keep working. So do the people at Paul Weiss who got fired. You're not going to accomplish anything except getting more people fired, getting the rates reduced for working temps and have non jd's do the work that we're doing. Why don't you get a girlfriend or more appropriately for you a boyfriend and kepp yourself busy by some other means. I work with you on the "Anita" project and you're no kind of crusader or hero. Believe me, if people found out who you are, you wouldn't be cheered, you would be slapped. HARD.

Anonymous said...

Will the ass kissing temps please shut up with the obedient hard-working righteous temp crap. It's people like you who gratefully cower and scurry for direction and morsels that have devalued the temp market, not someone like TTT. When temps start refusing to work ridiculous conditions for ridiculous wages, en masse, then some real money will be able to be made. It's the suck-ups who agree to take $25/hr jobs and espouse their pride at doing so, abuse and all, who devalue the entire legal market for the rest of us.

Get a backbone, stop asking questions like “when can we go to the bathroom” or “is it ok if I make a phone call” and stop looking at other people’s timesheets. Grow up and participate in the real world, there are no teachers here to kiss up too anymore, just cold heartless exploitation and yourself. Stop blaming other temps for your miserable lives. You know who I’m talking about!

Also, if you are a bitter paralegal or overworked associate appalled by any call for civilized treatment by a lowly "Temp." Tough! Your comments amuse me : )
Remember, in temp world, law firms are commodities to temps just like temps are commodities to law firms, both are easily replaceable, so get off your high horse and deal with your cheapened status, it was your choice to begin with!

Anonymous said...

nice, TTT pretending he is someone else. What a loser, please for all of our benefit go out and get laid for a change. I'm sure some nice dude would be willing to go for you Tom, you're a somewhat average 30-40 year old white male (Surprise, surprise we know who you are). Keep posting and someone is going to blow the whistle on you
:-)

Anonymous said...

"Keep posting and someone is going to blow the whistle on you"

Sounds like a threat! Good work TTT. You are finally getting to them!

Anonymous said...

TTT is doing a great service. Some of you are such suck ups...TTT is contributing to a change in the system and that's good. Remember no pain no gain.

Anonymous said...

We all know what is going on here.

Any individual that complains about conditions in the temp industry is immediately removed and blacklisted.

This strategy no longer works as more and more people are beginning to complain because of the article.

Youngwood's response was to do a mass-firing in order to spread fear and divide the temps! Now, he has his cronies coming on the comments section and spreading pro-firm propaganda.

The simple fact remains that at a few firms temp conditions are horrific. They can't stop this from coming out.

Anonymous said...

Geting under someone's skin are we? Good! I love it, now go back to your porn, at least you can pretend to be accepted there in fantasy, temp voyeur, get a life! Your hostility is entertaining.

Imagine, someone other than a temp, spending all their free time prowling a website about temps, caling temps losers!

Please, keep posting, you amuse all of us. I can't even imagine what a hideous recluse you must be.

Awaiting your next response and indication of what a lonely wretch you must be. Also, from your statements, it is clear that you are a sexually repressed homophobe and under the unvalidated impression that TTT is a man.

Fool!

Anonymous said...

Okay "Tom", should I reveal that you are slighly overweight and have a recdeding hairline? I work on the project with you and I'm tired of your bullshit. If you don't like the situation, go work for legal aid if you're such a crusader. If you want to stand up for equal rights, be a man about it, don't be a pussy and get other people fired while you still get a check. Other people have mortgages and obligations so they need to work and can do well as temps. If this industry is regulated, do you think we're still going to get 35/ hr + time and a half? No, rates will go down and so will the number of hours we can work. Everyone temping knows the rules of the game, including you. All you're doing is driving firms to look for another option besides hiring JD's. Everybody on ou project is sick of your self righteous bullshit that has gotten people fired. Coward.

Anonymous said...

"Everybody on ou project is sick of your self righteous bullshit that has gotten people fired. Coward."

If you are so brave, why don't you reveal your name as well, instead of of jotting down anonymous ass-kissing smears.

Hypocrite.

Anonymous said...

5:55 pm hold it darling, I work on TTT's project and I am NOT sick of TTT "self righteous bullshit." I think the issues he raise are very important and needs addressing. Are you suggesting that if TTT with his "self righteous bullshit" did not exist people would not get fired? That's absurd of course. Thus I urge you to speak for yourself just as I speak for my self in saying that I am NOT tired of seeing these issues brought to the forefront.

Anonymous said...

I must have hit a nerve! Did I make you look in the mirror and reexamine your life? Feeling ugly are we? good! Your hostility is my reward, your crushing loneliness is your burden to bear.

And by the way, my hair is long and luxurious and my figure is to die for. You'll never touch an ass like mine loser boy. Go back to your porn, your make believe girlfriends are waiting.

Anonymous said...

I'll go back to porn when you get that lamp off your desk
(The jig is up).

Anonymous said...

So blind, so foolish, so pathetic.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Tom is the skinny guy in his late 30's. Not the guy with the lamp - he's a mole.

Anonymous said...

Way to go tom - in any fight, there are losses along the way, the question is, what will be gained in the long run? So far, exposure, that is a good start.

Anonymous said...

Paul, Weiss is feeling the heat because the temps, and soon the public will begin to realize that their employment of temps is purely a financial investment as we all know.

See Nation v. Secretary of Dept. of Health and Human Services, 1992 WL 223866 (1992) (held that a $250 per hour rate is reasonable for an attorney involved in "such matters a file review, document organization")

Canon 8 of the New York Code of Proffesional Responsiblity states that a Lawyer Should Assist in Improving the Legal System.

"By reason of education and experience, lawyers are especially qualified to recognize deficiencies in the legal system and to initiate corrective measures therein. Thus they should participate in proposing and supporting legislation and programs to improve the system, without regard to the general interests or desires of clients or former clients."

"Since lawyers are a vital part of the legal system, they should be persons of integrity, of professional skill, and of dedication to the improvement of the system. Thus a lawyer should aid in establishing, as well as enforcing, standards of conduct adequate to protect the public by insuring that those who practice law are qualified to do so."

Ok, so Alfred Youngwood and his his esteemed partner colleagues are facilitating this cause by assigning newly minted lawyers to review documents in a basement with no concern of their skill level, development, esteem?

Discuss.

Anonymous said...

TTT, you have em squirming.
Let the de-Kulakization begin!
Liquidate the lot of 'em!

Anonymous said...

i like pencil pusher

Anonymous said...

Pencil Pusher--you spelled "douche" wrong again. It is I, the grammar queen--for the last time I am not Tom the Temp.

Anonymous said...

Silly Pencil Pusher: In certain jurisdictions, the production of documents otherwise subject to privilege acts as a waiver of said privilege.

Anonymous said...

I may be a lowly Temp JD Para, but I know that it's bad to produce privileged documents, regardless of whether they can use it in court or not. What firm do you work for, so I don't ever refer clients there...

Anonymous said...

Well, it sure as hell ain't good!

Anonymous said...

pencil pusher: where did you get the word "deusche"? did you make it up? sound it out?

fyi, the term "douche bag" is deragatory because it refers to a hygiene product for, well, you know, down there. it is not a fancy german purse. clearly you didn't even know what the term refers to.

oh, and it's "Sybil". did you sound that one out also?

pencil pusher -- you are really gross.

Anonymous said...

Thank God for the internet so that Pencil Penis (i mean pusher) can gets the attention he craves.

Anonymous said...

The 12:01 poster made many good points. Incidentally, 12:01 is not the Grammar Queen. As an addendum, the movie Sybil deals with dissociative identity disorder, or multiple personality disorder. Schizophrenia is a completely separate disorder not coterminous with multiple personality disorder. Rather, schizophrenics suffer delusions of grandeur . . .hmm sounds like someone we know, ahem Pencil Pusher.

Anonymous said...

You obviously haven't litigated in the District of Columbia, Pencil Pusher. Maybe you should leave lawyering to the lawyers and concentrate on learning to spell by using the real dictionary and not the urban dictionary.

Anonymous said...

Excuse me, but are you not a blogger?

Anonymous said...

In re Columbia/HCA, 293 F.3d 289 (6th Cir. 2002).

Anonymous said...

pencil pusher:

urban dictionary? you must be kidding. did you look it up there before using it in your original blog? do you work at an urban law firm that allows the use of the urban dictionary? or maybe you just listed it in the urban dictionary yourself so that you could prove yourself right (although you did spell it in your original posting differtly than it is listed in the urban dictionary). too bad dictionary.com doesn't take suggestions.

oh, and it's "overpaid", not "over paid". one word, not two.

you get off on having "dominion" over other people at work? now, that's what life is all about: controlling temporary workers. wow, you are so cool. great cocktail conversation.

and i'm not the grammar queen, whoever she is.