Tuesday, December 09, 2008

The "DiscoverReady" Churn and Burn Continues

"We were told that this was going to be a 2-3 month project. Last night, just after several days of work, I got the call not to come in. They claim DiscoverReady 'overstaffed' our project. This is nuts. These people really know to exploit the suffering of a desperate economic situation. DiscoverReaady sucks."

51 comments:

Anonymous said...

India Work Grows, With Glitches
Law firms and companies are outsourcing legal work to India, but not without some lingering concerns

http://www.law.com/jsp/law/international/LawArticleIntl.jsp?id=1202426572845

Anonymous said...

Almost got Perla?


In another close call, a conference on legal outsourcing to India was held at the Oberoi Hotel -- one of the hotels hit by terrorists -- on Nov. 17, just a week before the attacks. The co-chief executive officer of Pangea3 LLC, a New York-based LPO with two offices in Mumbai, spoke at that conference. "Our clients have been great," said Kevin Colangelo, vice president of legal services for Pangea3. "We have not had any interruption of data or operations. We had a couple difficulties getting through on cellphones, but that's it."

Anonymous said...

This sort of conduct is truly reprehensible.

Anonymous said...

The trouble with the "offshoring" is that it makes too much economic sense, at least in the short term. If there are tasks that can be performed well by cooperative people at far lower rates in India or anywhere else, a company will take advantage of this ability to reduce its costs, and the person who came up with the idea will be rewarded. IT and operational tasks seem ideal, and legal work is just another piece. Refuting all that is the challenge.

Anonymous said...

Yep, that sucks. Has anyone worked with Marjorie at Strategic. I am going to meet them. She busts my ear-drums with her high-pitched faux Brit squealing, but how is she in person?

Anonymous said...

She's a nasty bitch like all the SWS bitches, Watch your back. Watch out for Suzanna Blanke too.

Anonymous said...

It appears that the only doc review action in the Country will be at Deloitte/NJ. Every fucking in agency in NYC is on this one...

Anonymous said...

That was really mean of them!

Anonymous said...

Wow. If there had to be a terrorist attack in mumbai like that - Davod Perla and the rest of those dirtbags should have at least been there when it happened.

Anonymous said...

All these recruiter types seem like nasty bitches. I guess you have to have that kind of personality to do this work. Most decent people wouldn't.

Unknown said...

that's mature, 3:51, wishing that Perla and "those dirtbags" should have been in Mumbai during the attacks. This is like some high school site where people like to place inappropriate comments.

Anonymous said...

Class it up people. There are some great agencies to work for. Denovo Legal is one of them. If you work hard, they will reward you handsomely.

Anonymous said...

"Class it up people. There are some great agencies to work for. Denovo Legal is one of them. If you work hard, they will reward you handsomely."

Spoken like a true suck-up.

Anonymous said...

De Novo doesn't place people on merit. It places them on friendship. Trust me. I've worked with some fat lazy bitches registered with De Novo. They were there only because they were "pals" with the recruiters. They had NO education, no class, no intellect. Just fat saddlebags.

Anonymous said...

7:35-What does weight have to do with performance?

Anonymous said...

Discover Ready, it sounds like
Engergizer Bunny came up with this one. LOL!

Anonymous said...

If I may interject, Frau Blancke seems very much on the up and up. If anyone has detailed anecdotes evincing the contrary, be my guest.
The agency you really have to look out for is HireCounsel, now that Andrew Rider is there. He is quite the weasel. They are as much about the blacklist as is Update.

Anonymous said...

lets not forget that asshole treadwell or treadnotsowell is at strategic

Anonymous said...

The "Blame the Recruiter" Game is back on!

Anonymous said...

7:35

I bet they're licensed!

Why do you hate them? Take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Anonymous said...

me work long time

Anonymous said...

Amazing. I guess lawyers really love to blog.

Anonymous said...

If there are tasks that can be performed well

Where is the evidence that offshored work is being performed "well"? I think we would have learned from the poor quality of most manufactured goods imported from the 3rd World that paying unskilled people pennies a day and working them 16 hours a day doesn't lead to a "quality" product, just a cheap one. That's the trouble with offshoring that people like you who support it never seem to address. You just make conclusory claims that the work product is fungible when it clearly is not.

Anonymous said...

Peak Counsel is not too bad. They've treated me ok

Anonymous said...

8:22 - Weight has quite a bit to do with performance. If you are eating cheese cake and Big Macs all day, your brain might not be working as efficiently. Trust me. I've worked with some of these fat ladies and they are quite lazy and foggy-brained. Also, weight is a good indicator of discipline. And don't give that BS about genetics.

Anonymous said...

Peak Legal's Kathy Fournaris mistakenly said that I had bad references, causing me to lose several jobs.
After I threatened her with a lawsuit, she backed down and admitted that she had mistaken another applicant's bad references for mine.
Avoid Peak Legal.

Anonymous said...

Bad reference, please. The only reason temp agencies check references is to get in contact with a new firm and drum up business.

Anonymous said...

6:59

You are an annoying Fuck. I'm tired of listening to these fake-ass lawyers threatening lawsuits. Sue you! Sue you! The lawschools misrepresent employment stats, so lets sue! Lets sue, lets sue. Sue, Sue, Sue.

Anonymous said...

Right on!

We're gonna:

1. Sue
2. Strike
3. Form a union

Comin' right up!! HAHAHAH

Anonymous said...

Suing, probably not gonna work. Forming a union, maybe, maybe not. But a strike/sick-out is definitely doable. I mean, seriously, we've been talking about it since I dunno, a year ago when the writers' did a strike against tv. Now that's ancient history.

And don't tell me you need to form some kind of union in order to organize a strike. Cuz last I heard, this whole ruckus with the gays is leading up to the "Day without a Gay" sickout. Is there some kind of gay union? I'm not saying it's easy to organize a strike. WHat I'm saying is that if the strike isn't happening, then you guys don't want it enough. Keep making excuses about this being a bad economy and you not wanting to lose your jobs. You think gays and lesbians want to lose theirs? The fact is, if you want something bad enough, you'll strike for it. Period. Until then, you simply don't want it enough.

Anonymous said...

rooooooooooooooooooooooachboy! He's back....unfortunately.

Anonymous said...

They routinely overstaff projects in a lot of places. This way they can cut half the people after a couple days that don't meet the numbers quotas.

Especially now with so many of us out of work, firms can easily do it to protect themselves.

It sucks to be the one axed, but be rest assured that the coders with the highest daily doc totals are there coding now.

Anonymous said...

7:11 is correct

i tested that theory with two contacts that were lawyers but not big firm related like my 3rd contact....and who only got called -- the 3rd contact

Anonymous said...

Unlike most places, Discoverready bills by the document, not the hour. So give 'em what they want- quantity not quality. The funny thing is though if they ever get called on it, and a judge asks coders if they could reasonably review docs at the speed they want us to, I can't imagine any one of us protecting that sweatshop. You know what they say about payback, lol.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like an awful chop shop. Better run faster and faster in that hamster wheel if you don't want to be fired.

Anonymous said...

There is only a few words to use herein...it is Shawn Treadwell, alone, since Craig Brown moved on from Strategic apparently.Many of us always knew, he just did not know what he was doing, or shall we say, he overstaffed in hopes it would result in a commission...somehow I'll lay bets he still makes a commission even on those he "overstaffed"......had them hired, so he could make the commission on the overstaff, knowing in advance they'd be let go......trust me, he is an operator.

Anonymous said...

But if the firm asks him for 10 doc reviewers, how can he overstaff it with 15? Won't the firm wonder why there are extra people there?

Anonymous said...

I am not certain about the over staff issue, but I can see how it might happen.

Discovery is another layer between the firm and the temp attorney. Rather than the firm managing the projects, as I understand it, the firm hires Discover. Discover hires the temporary agency.

I am guessing that Discover makes projections of employment need based on yet more layers of added to an already distorted communications chain with the law firms.

Think of this situation like whispering a phrase down a line of people starting with "Howard is tall" and by the 5th person "Toward the fall."

The additional layers does not just add to costs, but also to communications and management issues.

It makes no economic sense to have all these addtional layers in what is a fairly uncomplicated project management situation- a data base consultant, a management consultant, a consultant to hire temps, etc is overkill)

You could do all of this under one house, but then I guess you couldn't add additional layers of cost to justify charges to the client. But, sssshhhh. We are just dumb temps who are not suppose to realize that's what they are doing.

Anonymous said...

Hudson just lost a major document review project they have had for over 4 years.

Anonymous said...

Details?

Anonymous said...

There's a huge project going on in Chicago, staffed by Carrie Cheskin at Dine. It was about 100 attys, 3 days of training and a measly $29/hr. It was supposed to last a while. One day, documents are suddenly running out and we are told to "call a hotline" to see when we should come back in. Well lo and behold, the project starts up a week later. A few weeks after that, they pull this bullshit again and we've been out of work for about three weeks. Though, some people have been called in to do work, which has NOT been based on any sort of accuracy. Every once in a while we will get b.s. e-mails from Dine saying that the project is sure to start up again blah blah and to check the hotline.

Oh, it's run through Huron consulting group which employees quite possibly the most unprofessional and incompetent doc review managers.

Anonymous said...

Get used it.

It's an employer's market and the firms and agencies know this. Even if you are lucky enough to land a job, they are going to make it as hellish as possible.

It sort of reminds me of the Vioxx project after 9/11. Lisa used to take out whole rows of temps because she didn't like someone, or she was in a bad mood.

If you can avoid this hellish market for at least the next 6 months, do so. Go teach English abroad or something.

Anonymous said...

If you want predictability in your hours or work flow, you're in the wrong job. The reason that temp projects start and stop on a dime is that legal work starts and stops on a dime.

I'm an AmLaw 100 senior associate who is on this site to better understand what some of my friends are going through.

My work starts and stops on a dime.

I'm sure being a temp sucks. Having to work sucks, period. Being a non-temp sucks, too, by the way.

I would not trade my position for yours. But, if you were my friend, and you were striving to trade your position for mine, I would advise you against it. I'd tell you to get a different job.

At work, I don't get handed a stack of documents to review. I get handed a "problem" or a "goal" and have to make it go away or be achieved, as the case may be.

If this sounds like fun to you, I'll just say that it's profoundly disturbing to me that the two serious girlfriends I've had since I started this job have complained that I tend to talk in my sleep. And that when I talk in my sleep, I sit up and begin to troubleshoot legal issues or host phantom conference calls that I'm chairing the next day.

And it's profoundly disturbing to me that I have two serious ex-girlfriends and no wife.

I don't throw these things out to get sympathy. My life is mine and I'll do or not do with it what I will and that's all on me.

I mention all of this because the misunderstanding, on this board, of what the job many of you purport to want is striking. You don't get it.

I'm likely to be ejected from the firm in a year or two myself (up or out, baby). That scares the hell out of me and makes me doubt all the choices I've made so far. Why have I missed so much in my life to handle the problem or find the solution? Who the hell knows.

The scarier question for me is, why do I still want this?

Based on what my firm tells me, which I don't necessarily put much stock in, I'm positioned to make partner in due course. And I think that's probably a horrible outcome.

The reason I think that is that, I've been through the traps of being an associate "positioned to make partner" and I'm not happy, have no close friends in my city and am unmarried.

As has been said, "mistakes were made".

If I could do it again, I certainly wouldn't angle for a temp attorney job, but I probably would choose the Forest Service over this.

Anonymous said...

Frankly, 1:03, you're the one that doesn't get it.

You seem to hate your work and your life, yet no strategy for improving either has occurred to you. You're just "scared to death" at the prospect of being ejected or continuing to stay in the same miserable job; the idea that you can either take action to improve your working conditions, or find better ones seems lost on you.

Other people make all the decisions about the quality of your life, and you accept that, though, of course, it makes you afraid.

You have no sense of your own ability to make change in your life, let alone the possibility of making change with others. I doubt if the other lawyers here will ever strike, sue or form a union, because, like you, they are scared to death.

They don't want to lose their livlihoods--though they regularly lose their livlihoods without a moments notice. They're scared of being blacklisted--though colleagues are regularly blacklisted on little more than the whim of some doc review project manager, and they know they can be too.

Legal education and the legal profession teach people to live in fear, and thus give away your power over your own life without a whimper.

Anonymous said...

7:11 is right. The only reason the temp agencies check references is to drum up new work. This guy from Robert Half has NOT placed me in a year, but he is always calling and asking me for newer and newer references at all the top NYC firms I've worked at. And I hate his stupid frat boy laugh -- and camaraderie. Get me a job, fatso and cut the fake sophomoric banter. We are not in college anymore. And his cronies at Robert Half are even worse.
They act like the sports agents in Jerry McGuire and produce NOTHING!

Anonymous said...

1:03 Profound thoughts. Well at least you did something substative with your life. I know how you feel. I sacrificed having a child for all this nonsense and now it's too late. It may not be too late for you. You can still find someone and have a family. There are so many of us out there who feel this way. But having met many losers, I can say at least you accomplished something.

Anonymous said...

Wellll - after two days of training and barely one day of work the $29/hour- no OT Deloitte project that was to be "indefinite" was cancelled. They pulled a 5pm meeting and proceeded to let folks go via phone call. At first it was 'some people' were being let go. Then I was told the project was 'cancelled'.

Anonymous said...

Robert Half sucks. They have never ever staffed a document review project, for anyone in NYC. They're green when it comes to legal staffing. They will probably never get any projects. I wouldn't even waste your time emailing your contact because they will never have anything. Don't let the "We're a giant Fortune 500 company" thing fool you.

Anonymous said...

tenuja is Awesome! and she has great hair.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but an ego to match.

Anonymous said...

Discover Ready is a haven for favoritism. Some of its incompetent managers, particulary an Asian woman and a passive aggressive Senior Vice President, encourage some of the most offensive bigotry including spying and reporting on colleagues and surreptitious overtime assignments. The overarching management strategy is to ensure that prospective contract attorneys recognize that they must demonstrate perpetual obsequiousness and fake loyalty to these jokers to ensure a potential call back. Mediocrity prevails but they (DiscoverReady) are paid by the document so they ensure that persons are rewarded for speed. Another vexing reality is that they seem to be getting projects. Not cool...at all!