DiscoverReady

DiscoverReady was one of the few chop shops in town offering project work last week, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were inundated with 10,000 resumes. All this for a job that is expected to last less than two weeks, where your cell phone is confiscated at the sweatshop door, and where you are lucky to scrape by with 40 hours per week. Welcome to the new reality. Recently, the ABA sponsored a presentation discussing how outfits like DiscoverReady are the wave of the future:

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/majority_say_law_practice_is_undergoing_a_sweeping_evolution_survey_says

As we have been saying for years, welcome to the Wal-Martization of the so called profession of law, where obscene partner profits and rock bottom freelancing rates are the rule of the day.

As Kaye Scholer partner James Blank is quoted as saying in the study,“you just don’t need the bodies and man hours to get answers anymore. E-Discovery tools have eliminated the need to have junior associates review boxes of documents, which is why you are seeing thousands [of] junior associates laid off.”

E-Discovery tools, Mr. Blank? By tools, are you referring to cheap offshore human labor? While Mr. Blank and the offshore discovery vendors bask under the green shade of the money tree (DiscoverReady's emblem is the money tree, by the way), American law graduates suffer through the autumn of despair, with sky high student loan debt and a lack of jobs.

Another Assault At LabaToilet?

Sounds like a great place to work:

"I quit labaton several weeks ago after I too was assaulted in front of several witnesses in the eating area and no one confronted/reported the asshole who hit me to anyone, including me because we were all afraid of losing our jobs, just as happened to other people recently. Keep in mind that I am a woman and my attacker is a male foreign educated attorney."

Golden Gate School of Law - Your One-way Ticket To The Trailer Park

Someone posted this earlier today in the comments section, and I wanted to highlight it. Crappy law school (that should be padlocked) + stay on the couch spouse + student loans + two kids ='s eviction, misery, and a horrible life.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/22/BUUO1CI40P.DTL

Health Care Reform

On the floor of the House, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee told a story of a 32-year-old lawyer who went to an emergency room three times but was sent away with antibiotics, and eventually died. He probably had crappy agency health insurance.

Wilmer Cutler

Just when things were quieting down in crazy document review land, this nonsense pops up. Apparently, Michael Layman (staff attorney 007) solved the espionage crime of the century over at Wilmer Cutler when he caught an international super spy downloading sensitive corporate documents on to his custom made Inspector Gadget flash drive. Actually, the "spy" was nothing more than a dingbat contract attorney who was downloading his resume, most likely because he was bored out of his mind shuffling through millions of pages of irrelevant corporate dreck, and was doing everything in his power to get out of a toxic and degrading work environment where low level staffer douchebags try to score brownie points with superiors by cracking fanciful imagined international spy rings.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2010/03/temporary-lawyer-sues-wilmer-for-defamation-.html

Dine Group Drops the "F-Bomb" On Contract Attorneys

The Dine Group is still up to their old tricks of fishing for rate information from attorneys and trying to lowball the competition. A friend also recently told me that she overheard one of the business managers of the company scream: "Fuck them! They are under contract for $25 and easily replaceable. We'll ghost them if necessary." I guess some of the foolish attorneys who signed on for that assignment spoke up after the fact only to be blacklisted. Blacklisted for $25/ hr? Really? So Sad!

Chicago to $10 an Hour!

RESEARCH ATTORNEY (4105 W. 26th St.) Date: 2010-03-08, 9:11AM job-ff5pp-1633948536@craigslist.org

Illinois licensed attorney with exceptional research and legal drafting skills needed to support attorney work in several areas of law, including immigration, bankruptcy, mortgage foreclosure and loan modification, family, criminal, among others. The position is full time -- 9am to 6pm, Monday through Friday, and requires a natural talent for writing and research, an ability to produce exceptional work within a short amount of time, as numerous assignments will always be in the queue. This is a great intro position for someone who has this talent but minimal experience, and wants to learn a great deal quickly in many areas of law. The pay is non-negotiable $10/hour with a review in six months' time. Full benefits are provided after three month probation term is passed. This is the legal equivalent of the medical school graduate's residency experience.

• Location: 4105 W. 26th St.
• Compensation: $10/hour
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

"Et tu, Anita?"

"Two books chronicling Eliot Spitzer's meltdown are about to come out. One is entitled, Journal of the Plague Year, by Lloyd Constantine, a former senior adviser and close confidant of Spitzer's, revolves around a three-day period after Spitzer was linked to the prostitution ring before he resigned, during which Constantine camped out at Spitzer's Manhattan apartment. Spitzer was distraught and leaned heavily on his friend, confiding matters about his relationship with his wife. Now neither Spitzer nor Silda is speaking to Constantine."

-Time Magazine, 3/15/10.