Special K
Once upon a time, there was a big second request at the basement of a top New York firm at the footsteps of the Statute of Liberty. The legendary Pillsbury review took place. 120 plus attorneys in the basement, with intense heat blowers, and a couple of viruses going around. Intense long hours, in which contract attorneys were assigned to go up to the cafeteria by rows to eat a subsidized meal. There, the stooges came to life and formed a fraternity. The lower level basement was run like a fraternity house. Raffled tickets to baseball games, to the World Series, barbeque sauce from Virgil (left overs of a communal meal), drinking in between boxes at the White Horse Tavern and the birth of the famous specialist Special K.
Special K was famous for sleeping a couple or more billable hours and for showing associates in charge the mistakes of fellow reviewers. Such was Special K's wicked behavior that he earned a full time position on the backs of the honest mistakes of many hard working contract personnel whom he embarrassed and back stabbed.
If you are called to go there find out if Special K is running the gig, if so, beware that he delivers low blows and acts out of fear. If you can, stay away from him.
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34 comments:
that mess sucks major..I know people say you gotta do what you gotta do...but not on the backs of others. Karam is a mo fo. Holla!
I was an S&C paralegal on Pillsbury. The sale went through and the Doughboy thanks all of you for your hard work.
I have no idea who the heck "Special K," "The Roving Eye," and others are. Why aren't their real names posted so I can avoid them?
Not to be picky, but I imagine the firm couldn't have actually been at the step sof the Statue of Liberty, because that's on an island. Can we assume it was in downtown Manhattan, near the Statue of Liberty?
I have no idea who the heck "Special K," "The Roving Eye," and others are. Why aren't their real names posted so I can avoid them?
Well, so Tom the Temp's website doesn't run the risk of getting sued.
but tom the temp gave out the complete names of the ep slime people, what up with that?????
Dude, it's time to let it go.
No, 4:27, 8 million potential readers on Manhattan have no idea about your insular little world of no-name law firms and 2-man agencies. We've heard of Cravath, Swain, for example. None of these tiny law firms that make no difference except to the poor-performing attorneys from third tier schools that are not fit to shine my shoes, let alone code documents for discovery.
If you want to complain, we are ready to learn but only about larger agencies and law firms, not fringe contract attorney projects that are mostly poor performers who never had any expectations of getting a job other than at McDonalds in the first place.
Like President Bush, you are unwilling to listen to your fans. See the comments to the above and previous posts. We're getting bored that you could not find your way home after work one day, or that you had to purchase your own lunch.
Um, S&C is not a tiny, no-name law firm.
Who knows what S&C is supposed to be the initials for? Sullivan and Cromwell? If that's the firm then someone should write it. Thanks for pointing out another of the blog's provincial failings here in the big city!
Who knows what "S&C" means? Lawyers.
Not this one. I only know some of the bigger firms.
11:07... S+C has over 600 attorneys & 12 offices worldwide.
Some of us don't live world wide, and just know the City, 11:07. Are you referring to Sullivan and Cromwell? You haven't yet told me whether my guess is right and I'm not going to page through the big Martindale Hubbel books when it's you that's trying to make some point about my post.
Ha ha ha. I worked side-by-side "Special K" on many projects at that same firm. I will agree with your general synopsis of "Special K"'s attitude and behavior. But you simply have your facts wrong. He had already been hired by the firm when he was on the Pillsbury review. So he didn't "earn a full time position on the backs of the honest mistakes of many hard working contract personnel". And I never saw him rat anybody out (at least not on my watch).
And, yes, he did create a sort of fraternity house atmosphere (I know everyone in that "fraternity" mind you). But I would think that was a better alternative to the one where firm employees where told not to "fraternize with the help". Or an atmosphere of robot-like behavior, no? And, no, "Special K" is no longer on Broad Street. And neither am I. You see, even full-time employees of the firm get fed up with the bullshit administration there.
Anybody who doesn't know who S&C is does not know the temp world in NY. S&C is in many ways like Paul Weiss and it is a temp bootcamp. Most temps who do doc review have worked at one time at S&C. A lot of temps got their start in the temp world at S&C. Update and De Novo usually have projects going on there so that tells you a lot about the place.
The Kroc was quite a volatile character in his glory days. He also would date temps. I heard that he got canned from there.
Seasoned Temps
Easy there with your comparisons, 12:28. I don't know anything about temping at Paul Weiss, but S&C was, and I'm sure still is, a good place to work. There were a few bad apples, but the majority of us were nice and respectful and didn't treat temps any differently than employees. Any bad experiences that you had on Pillsbury -- other than those because of this particular individual -- had more to do with the firm being caught off guard by the size and scope of the review, and not because S&C has bad people.
And for the record, even us S&C employees recognized the subject of this post as a completely useless ass clown. Last I heard (and this was several years ago) was that he had quit to start a temp agency of his own. Don't know how that worked ot for him and don't really care.
2:31PM I think you are delusional if you believe that you treat temps "nice and respectful." The consensus in the temp world is that S&C is a sweatshop run by tyrannical case managers and nasty associates. I know many temps who would never go back there.
By the way, Kroc failed in the agency business.
Seasoned Temp
Seasoned Temp,
You must've had a really crappy experience at S&C. And for that I am sorry. However, like with everything else in life, there is good and there is bad. And it's useless to try and clump them all together. Just like there are good and bad case managers and associates, the same rings true for temps.
This thread is very timely for me. Yesterday I got a call from Update regarding a doc review project at S&C. $36.50 per hour, time and one half overtime, M-F 9:30am - 9:00pm Have to work one weekend day 10am -6pm. Project lasts 4-6 weeks. I told them that I can't work Saturdays but Sunday is fine. Update girl was nice and said ok. You add up the hours you are looking at 63 hours weekly.
Today some other girl from Update calls...not nice like the first girl. Starts hedging....asks if I ever worked at S&C before. I say no. Then says that I could end up working on either weekend day at client's whim, hourly is $35, says that S&C never pays $36.50...does not even mention OT, says project could end in 1 week and you have 60 hour work weeks.
Too many inconsistencies. She got snippy when I called her card on them. I passed.
Now I see this thread and I am glad I did pass on it.
to 2:25PM--
if she really got "snippy" when you spoke honestly about what you perceived as a fraudulent "bait-and-switch", then welcome to the notorious "Update Black List". This is precisely the sort of non-event that earns you a spot on that coven's "never call" file. They don't like to be questioned or challenged -- they only want groveling attorneys who "know their place" and will eat every ounce of their shit and tell them it tastes like Lindt chocolate. I know because it happened to me. Thankfully I am out of the game, but I am still very bitter about how those haridans treated me, and they ought to be mindful of the fact that not everyone remains a temp forever. When one of them called me recently looking for referrals, I told her to go jump in a lake. It waa sweet.
Yo, what up, doc reviewers? I've been on 35/hr + time half after 40 gig at a downtown firm for well over a year. Hours are capped at 80, but otherwise project is chill. Are there higher paying gigs out there? I've been stuck at $35 for over 2 years.
Denovo just called me for a 45/hr flat 1 week and 1/2 gig - no cars, no food. I told the d-bag I'd pass.
It's funny but I have called update's card before and asked them questions that they did not like...but yet, they still call me. They always seem to tattle on themselves. The job is never what the first person who calls me from Update says it is. I was actually fortunate that the second caller revealed the inconsistencies and the likely bait and switch on the phone before I actually went to work and got stuck on a dog of a project.
HUDSON SUCKS THE FRECKLED BEANBAG
HUDSON CHOOCH LOVES EXPLAINING TO CONTRACT ATTYS THERE'S LIMITED INTERNET ACCESS TO PROTECT THE CLIENT'S CONFIDENTIALITY, SPITTING IN OUR FACES BY INSINUATING WE'RE NOT TRUSTWORTHY.
THE WIZARD ALWAYS IS CALM COOL AND COLLECTED WHEN SPEAKING TO YOU. I LOOK FOR THE PUPPET STRINGS BUT THERE DOESN'T SEEM TO BE ANY. SCUMBAG.
George or Kroc was a paralegal there years ago when I temped there (1999) and I thought he was fair and decent administrator, this sounds like he came back as an attorney?
Yeah, I remember you Brian. You were the guy who took over an office there and burned CDs for the case. You acted like you were performing brain surgery.
Kroc didn't come back as an attorney; he couldn't even pass the bar exam. He was a blowhard and you were a brownnoser.
Marty Armstrong
"8 million potential readers on Manhattan have no idea about your insular little world of no-name law firms and 2-man agencies. We've heard of Cravath, Swain, for example. None of these tiny law firms that make no difference except to the poor-performing attorneys from third tier schools that are not fit to shine my shoes, let alone code documents for discovery."
1) Why would 8 million people ever care about a blog devoted to the life of a temporary attorney staffing doc review projects at large law firms?
2) Please stop embarrassing yourself. Anyone who practices law in the NYC metropolitan area has heard of S&C--certainly someone who has the cojones to deride "third-tier schools" should. It's fun to pretend online, but get a grip.
geez, did your mammie nurse you a little too long?
@ 9:00 PM
One wonders why you waste your time on a blog that is so obviously beneath you.
Hudson sucks out loud. I was on a gig at their old site. They capped us at 55 hours a week, but we HAD to work saturdays and couldnt work more than 9 hours per day.
Plus they gave us the same bullshit about no internet access except that they told us that there was a "broadband" problem that apparently only affected the 20 doc reviewers computers.
fk hudson. let me know if you see the horns on a. cohen's skull.
Julie Zuckerberg and Jeremy Kaye should open the door to their apartment for Seth Welty and all the others who need a safe space in which to decompress from the recent horrific, PTSD-causing, cataclysm aka an election. Be sure to provide play doh, soothing new age sounds and forbid sudden movements as well as any disagreement with anybody about anything.
Jeremy Kaye, dont you love how Julie Zuckerberg's right leg shakes when she starting to come? And what is the deal with letting a fella come inside her, but not affording the same happy ending with blow jobs?
Or does she let you come in her mouth? If so, you win, amigo. You win.
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