"They have color-coded pens for sign in's that they randomly change every 2 hours to prevent time sheet fraud. What a lovely 'profession'! After 7 years of grueling higher education, get ready to be treated like a criminal.
Speaking of criminals, the first day at any doc review is very much like the opening scene of the Shawshank Redemption - the "prisoners" walk in in their suits and ties while the "lifers" heckle and cajole these "new fish" from their khaki sweatpants and Salvation Army golf shirts. "New fish, new fish, hey new fish, we got some fresh fish today." They all cry out like babies the first day on the gig. A doc review is a lot like a prison. The smallest things in life take on primeval importance- an extra cup of coffee, a slab of sticky bun, an extra 12 seconds in the restroom. Treat people like animals, and animals they become."
22 comments:
Repost, relevant to colored pens.
"There's too much fraud going on to really catch it all. There are good examples where the authorities caught on, like the Anderson Kill attorney that represented Purdue Pharma who lied about going to law school. He clearly lied about his credentials and was the target of legal action. Far too often in NYC it's a game of smoke and mirrors, with tons of questionably trained foreign lawyers, dubious JDs from 4th tier tiolets and a certain % of liars.
You would think that any agency would scrupulousy investigate every candidate, but many do not as it would cost too much money and time. Sometimes they check references, but that's a joke. For example there is a group of Nigerian women temps that use each other as references, none of whom has ever worked for the other. They just lie when necessary to get their fried the gig. The funny part was, one girl acting as a reference for another with whom I worked, was fired for fraudulent billing on her temp assignment. Some reference! This is absolutely true, because my friend working with her told me all of the details. She probably lied to another agency and is working somewhere else again (thanks to her friends professional reference) and overbilling away.
So some people are honest and some are not. I'm not saying the Nigerians in particular are more dishonest in general, but this actually happened. But my point is that some people (of all races and nationalities) lie all the time to agencies, fudge timesheets, etc. The sad part is, they punish the honest people on the projects too, not just the dishonest. So there is no incentive to be honest and trustworthy on the projects, beyond your own sense of ethics and professional resposibility."
From a due diligence standpoint, verifying the JD/bar admission is more important and efficient than reference checking for job history. Its objectively hard to reference check since:
1. Management might have changed since the position
2. Management is reluctant to give bad references
3. How can you derive information from a no-name company or a small shop
What they should do is ask for an official or unofficial transcript demonstrating graduation from an accredited law school. That way they can filter out the con-artists.
Right, a copy of the jd + plus verification from law school is a good start.
But you really have to check references, too, to insure that they have done the work as represented on the resume. More importantly, you have make sure that they will be able to work well with others, show up on time, work the long hours, etc.. Again, these are rarely checked out in any detail. Having your JD doesn't automatically translate into being able to weather the unstable, gulag conditions of many of these projects. If someone can't scrape together a couple decent referencs, this should be a red flag for agencies and other employers that maybe this person is unemployable.
Another important safeguard is bar passage, which is fairly easy to check online for most states.
These fantasy posts aren't even humorous. Hire a striking writer to at least make this cry-baby blog entertaining.
Speak for yourself 3:02 this blog is very entertaining, I love reading it. If it is not "humorous" as you say, then stay the f...k away from it. Now who is the cry-baby?
yawn 3:28. What, do you get a dollar each time you carry water for this lame whine fest? Or does it just make you feel self-important to come up with pseudo-pithy retorts while sitting in your mom's basement in your underwear?
"there is no incentive to be honest and trustworthy on the projects, beyond your own sense of ethics and professional resposibility."
That's the only real incentive to be honest and trustworthy anywhere. Isn't that enough for you?
12:04
If bar passage and JD verification are easy to check how do you explain the con artists? you cannot con the fact that you passed the bar if all the temp agency has to do is look at the appropriate website.
This is all bullshit... There are no colored markers. There are no timed bathroom breaks. There will be tons of overtime available to make bank on this project. So all you naysayers, keep talking. I'll be having a great 2008 on this project.
This is now the 4th blog entry on the stupid hudson newark project. Please. We get the point. Is there nothing else going on but this one project?? I doubt it.
I'm actually interested to see how it plays out...we have at least one pair of eyes on this project.
I'm sure the agency is reading every post, waiting for each precious morsel of information to be transmitted into cyberspace. I can't wait for more...so keep up the good work.
8:09, I think it's getting so much attention because it's one of the few (maybe the only?) "cattle call" type project going on right now.
They are not using the random pen trick in Philly, but instead they are having the "Lead" attorneys be the overseers for their teams. It seems to me that the creation of team leads on the Philadelphia part of the project was done to primarily alleviate the need of the firms involved to actually hire staff attorneys. Instead, they just "promoted" some of the early doc reviewers on the case. (The philly portion of the review started back in summer of 2007). Some of them have let the power go to their heads and are worse then the condescending staff attorneys that I have worked with in the past.
Being team lead is a thankless task, you usually get extra pay which is good, but way too much liaibility and exposure. You're still a temp with no future...I was a team lead for over year on a project and when it ended I was back coding with everyone else....it means nothing on your next project. But if they pay you more, it might be worth it, but having to act as chaperone for the monkey clickers becomes unberable. Better to actually be the monkey clicker...
Long term, it's best to fly under the radar and be as anonymous as possible. Do your hours, collect your pay and go home.
I guess that there are two temp jobs in Newark because the one I'm on doesn't have timed bathroom breaks or colored markers.
In fact, on our Newark project, because of computer problems we went home at two, but everyone was paid for eight hours.
Allan Cohen has horns.....
The contract attorneys in the Philly office are a bunch of greedy wimps. Otherwise, they would have refused to work overtime until they got time-and-a-half at 40 hours like the Newark office.
Julie Dailey, Lauren Gibson and Hudson are laughing at you.
Hey can we rate the guys on this project, at least the hotties? Would be a lot more fun than all this uber serious shop talk.
Anonymous woman coder (note I did not call myself a lawyer)
Yes lets rate what few hotties there are. At least then it would be interesting. Lets see, who is the hottest coder?
Hmmmm good question. Well there are a couple guys on the Newark project who look, um , delicious in their clothes. My imagination runs wild. Of course I don't know their names since they are just eye candy....
Though I heard of one who is supposedly very well endowed. Some ladies were talking about him...not sure how they would know that though...but very curious.
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