Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Sullivan & Cromwell Idol

Dear Tom the Temp,

Here at Sullivan & Cromwell, the many temp attorneys face the typical downsides of legal temping in New York City -- a general lack of respect, horrible work areas, crap cafeteria food, and ridiculous super-temp coworkers.

In addition to all that we have an Administrative Assistant/Receptionist extroardinaire, who goes the extra mile to make our lives miserable.

Dressed in a way that slightly bends the rules? Forget to sign your time sheet once? Have food or drink at your desk? Using the dreaded internet? The administrator is on it and will be sure to report it to the highest authorities!

What I don't understand is why someone who participates in a system of second class employee subjugation would publicly expose themself in an embarrassing on-line youtube video with their male titty showing?

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=_KTwfJwk4Oo

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On a more serious note, the WSJ blog had an interesting posting regarding temp. attorney outsourcing:

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/11/27/temp-attorneys-the-india-edition/

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

That video is disturbing in soooo many ways. The guy reminds me of one of those Direct Hires of Quinn Emmanuel. His name is Alex..... there is a slight resemblance.

Anonymous said...

That S & C cafeteria serves up food poisoning every night. They also seat temps right on top of each other, three to a small table that is meant for one, such that everyone infects each other with whatever cold is going around the city. These close quarters have also bred some romances leading to cohabitation and marriage.

Anonymous said...

That video is pure comedy. I expect my monitor to burst into flames at any moment.

Anonymous said...

This is like when the grocery store checkers were striking - if a machine, down the lan that you can SEE, can do your job as well as or better than you, than you can't go asking for another dollar an hour, you have to develop a better skill set.

If India can do the work cheaper and better, they will - and doc reviewers better develop some skills and talent and god forbid - personality - to be employable some other way.

Buggy whip makers had to learn a new trade, and so can you. Suck it up, take the lower paying job, work your ass off (something the whiners on this site are afraid of), build your skill set, and move on to an actual future.

If you can't figure that out, you need to return the law degree, bar exam results and law license.

Anonymous said...

What the hell are you talking about 3:06?

Anonymous said...

why should you be able to demand $40 an hour if some other people are willing to do the same work for $2 an hour?

Anonymous said...

Yeah yeah, heard all that before.

Lets stick to the topic at hand, the douchebag in the video.

Anonymous said...

"If you can't figure that out, you need to return the law degree, bar exam results and law license."

I'd gladly sell it all back if my enormous law school debt would disappear too.

Anonymous said...

i'll second that 4:54

Anonymous said...

You put all that work into law school, passing the bar, etc. and then what? You can't find a job, more jobs go to India, you find out about associates who get sabbaticals and milkshakes and it's like, "Dude. I can't even get a 401(k) plan!!!"

Anonymous said...

The guy in the video who gives a little nipple is the same guy who administers the infamous S & C sexual harassment video to incoming temps.

Anonymous said...

Holy shit. Yep, he shows the sexual harassment and insider trading videos. That was a good find, but I'd like to go back in time to before I'd seen that video.

I don't know if I'm in the minority or what but I'm having a really good time at S&C right now. At the project I'm working on we have our own cubicles and no one really busts our balls.

And I really enjoy the 125 Broad cafeteria.

I dunno, maybe I just got lucky with this one.

Anonymous said...

DON'T WATCH THAT VIDEO! I SERIOUSLY NEED THERAPY NOW.

Anonymous said...

Hey 3:06, you dumbfuck:

How can someone take a low paying job if they have enormous student loans to pay off, on top of the enormous cost of living in the NY area? People have to survive, you stupid idiot. The $40k/year that the ID and PI firms want to pay is impossible to take, even if someone wanted to to "get the experience" that geniuses like you keep posting about over and over again on this blog. Unless, of course, their overhead is low because daddy paid for law school and subsidizes their living expenses.

Go stick your buggy whip and know-it-all preaching up your ass, shit-for-brains.

Anonymous said...

"Get the experience"?

Small firm work, esp. PI/ID, is nothing more than gutter cut-and-paste toilet paper churning that a monkey could do. At least, temp doc. review pays a semi-survivable wage.

Anonymous said...

If there are no jobs than no one will be able to pay their loans. When thousands of law grads default on their loans are you going to send them to debtor's prison? Again, for the nth time, certain things were promised to us, certain things were marketed to us and our expectations ran accordingly. I am sorry we did not implement a forensic investigation of the law school publications.

Anonymous said...

3:06 was just trolling and 1:37 closed the argument. However it appears from recent news that there will be some associate lay-offs so we will have some more company.

Anonymous said...

Back to the topic at hand. S&C is miserable. I heard one person say they got lucky? You must be new here. Wait until you are disrespected by a "higher up" for the third time, you get your first case of wild diarrhea from the wonderful shiggelosis surprise,or Mr. "It's raining Men" calls you up freaking out about your card being white instead of yellow, your time sheet being off by a few minutes, your break time being off by five minutes, or they decide your lovely cubicle is no longer suitable and stick you in the hallway. Then I guarentee your tune will change quicker than it takes you to click on the next S&C idol's youtube video.
And just wait till the snow comes and you slip on a patch of ice walking to your wonderful sodexho or your car service...which might just keep you waiting an extra 15 minutes outside of 125 Broad so you can think about what you've said. Good day sir.

Anonymous said...

I know the group the person who likes temping at S&C. That group is pretty new, they are also the only group that has cubicle-like spaces (they're actually just long tables with privacy walls between the temps).

So, they're lucky they got the least-crappy work space, but it's only a matter of time before they get to hating this place.

Anonymous said...

There are a total of 41 of these ridiculous videos featuring that dude right here -- http://au.youtube.com/user/justkemp

Anonymous said...

He feels beautiful, but I felt vomiting after I watched the video

Anonymous said...

This guy is insane but if you want to turn it up a notch Google Video "Mr. Beyonce".

Anonymous said...

I believe that guy is actually Sean curtin.

Anonymous said...

Jesus, no wonder you idiots don't have jobs. You're not smart enough to get them. Expectations? Guess what, everybody thinks a degree is worth something. It's not. What are willing to do for someone else? That's the only thing they'll pay for.

Why the fuck would anyone hire someone with no other skill than clicking, and pay them the salary you think you deserve? You are worth what you can do. If you can't do anything, you aren't worth anything. Simple, simple, simple.

Thank god all you morons are sitting on your asses whining while we apply for entry level jobs. In 2 years, you all will still be whining, and we'll be getting better jobs at better places. We might even supervise you idiots.

It's called building a career. No one promise you a free ride. WORK!!

Anonymous said...

Lol, Mr. 5:25 is gonna be a whining bitter ID attorney in a couple of years.

Anonymous said...

More bad news: as if we didn't have enough lawyers in NY, SUNY Binghampton has been in talks with the ABA re opening up yet another law school in NY:
With 15 public and private law schools accredited by the ABA, New York boasts more such institutions than any place else in the country.

"A 16th law school at Binghamton, which is part of the State University of New York system, would become the state's third public institution. The others are the University at Buffalo Law School, also part of SUNY, and the City University of New York School of Law - the state's most recently founded law school, opened in 1983.

Yearly tuitions at Buffalo Law and CUNY Law are $13,200 and $8,900, respectively. Annual tuition at the private schools ranges from about $35,000 to more than $40,000."

Anonymous said...

Hello?

Anonymous said...

5:25, many of us HAVE more skills that "clicking." The problem is that without a Top 25 law degree or "connections" (nepotism), it's next to impossible to land positions which allow us to use those skills.

If they don't allow someone into the game, there's no way that person can show what he/she can do. And the great majority of NY firms aren't allowing people into the game, whether it be by outright rejections or by offering ridiculously low salaries.

That's the crux of the problem, not your arrogant and condescending version of things.

It's usually a cop-out to blame someone else or an outside force for one's problems, but there are instances where the problem really isn't one's own fault. In the case of many legal temps, it really isn't their fault. They can't land permanent jobs that pay a living salary and they have massive student loans and living expenses - the NY Metropolitan area is very expensive, in case you don't know this already.

Plus, as we well know, in the legal profession, having temped is almost like having leprosy. The powers-that-be are too lazy and preoccupied to investigate a candidate further than seeing "Contract Attorney" on their resume, at which point they throw it in the trash and you get a rejection letter or rejection email (really unprofessional) if you're lucky.

kris said...

Dude

Please tell me the guy in the video wasn't wanking.

Grim.