"Judges of New York, unite!
Frustrated over salaries that have been frozen for almost 10 years, a group of state Supreme Court justices are talking about starting their own union.
In an email dated April 7th that was obtained by The New York Post, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Wayne Saitta wrote to his colleagues that 'a few of us in Brooklyn have been trying to get together an organizing effort,' but to date it has not gone anywhere.
Judge William Erlbaum expressed his support. 'This is some shit we should not eat.'"
- Larry Celona, New York Post, 4/15/08
13 comments:
Nice work, guys. Hope you all enjoyed the free pizza.
Updated 4:11 p.m. ET, Tues., April. 15, 2008
CHICAGO - Two new reports involving the painkiller Vioxx raise fresh concerns about how drug companies influence the interpretation and publication of medical research.
The reports claim Merck & Co. frequently paid academic scientists to take credit for research articles prepared by company-hired medical writers, a practice called ghostwriting. They also contend Merck tried to minimize deaths in two studies that showed that the now withdrawn Vioxx didn’t work at treating or preventing Alzheimer’s disease.
Sallie Mae Sounds the Alarm
By KATHY SHWIFF
April 17, 2008
SLM Corp. swung to a first-quarter loss and warned it can't make profitable loans at this time, prompting the nation's largest student lender to assess its operation and call for a "system-wide liquidity solution."
The Reston, Va., company, known as Sallie Mae, said tightened credit markets have "dramatically" increased the cost of funds. The comments, while not specific, were a dramatic indication of the turn of fortunes for the one-time powerhouse lender and the student-loan market.
The credit crunch and recent cuts in federal subsidies have led some lenders to stop making federal student loans and tighten their credit standards on private student loans.
"Today's environment is the most difficult we have seen in our 35-year history of student lending," Chief Executive Albert Lord wrote. "It has become obvious that we can only meet the enormous student credit demands we are seeing at Sallie Mae if there is a near-term, system-wide liquidity solution."
In Senate testimony Tuesday, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd said he would send a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to direct the Federal Financing Bank to purchase participation interest in pools of new student loans backed by the government.
He also planned to write Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to allow student-loan-backed debt to be used as collateral for the recently created Term Securities Lending Facility, introduced in mid-March to boost capital market liquidity.
At the hearing, SLM Chief Financial Officer John Remond backed Mr. Dodd's proposals and said Sallie Mae should securitize approximately $2.5 billion in loans a month for the balance of 2008 but is about 40% below that.
Morgan Stanley recently cut its investment rating on Sallie Mae and said the market is underestimating the effects of reductions in government subsidies and capital-market disruptions. Morgan Stanley said it expects losses from student loans to rise further and Congress may shift market share to the government direct program.
Citi Unit Curbs Student Loans
By KEVIN KINGSBURY
April 17, 2008
Student Loan Corp., 80%-owned by Citigroup Inc., said it will suspend lending at certain schools and withdraw from the federal consolidation loan market, becoming the latest company to pull in its horns regarding student lending.
The company blamed higher funding costs caused by the "continued disruption in the capital markets," which has cut the profitability on student loans, and a new federal law that cut subsidies and will lower profit margins.
It added, "While a number of lenders have exited the industry altogether, SLC continues to originate Federal Stafford Loans and Federal PLUS Loans as well as private loans." But as of May 1, the firm will pull out of the loan-consolidation market and suspend lending "where loans with lower balances and shorter interest-earning periods result in unsatisfactory financial returns."
Student Loan Corp. added that it "expects these changes to be temporary and will evaluate returning to these schools and offering federal consolidation loans as student-loan market conditions improve."
SLM Corp., known as Sallie Mae, the nation's largest student lender, said last week that it would stop offering federal consolidation loans, under which borrowers combine loans into a fixed-rate loan.
The credit crunch and recent cuts in federal subsidies have forced a number of student lenders to stop making federal student loans and tighten their credit standards on private student loans. But consolidation loans have been among the hardest hit because they're the least profitable loans for lenders, most of whom are now losing money with each consolidation loan they make. In total, about 50 providers of federally guaranteed loans, as well as nearly 20 private student-loan firms, have pulled out of the market.
stop the loans... close the law schools.... tell the truth !!!!!!
Just curious, just as our pals do in Philly (Black Sheep), can we have some sort of chart with what reviews are open and staffing, what agencies and the pay? That would be helpful!!! especially now that 500 or so were kicked out of McCarter.
Tom, you forgot to mention one of the reasons why the judges weren't granted a raise. NYS is essentially broke, but still somehow found the money to plant the seeds for three more toilet law schools for Binghamton, Rochester, and Stony Brook. Someone should sue the ABA before a pissed off NY judge.
three more paper churning, monkey graduating dumps. Ahhh I wonder what horrendous statistics will be offered as the starting salaries for graduates? I hope they do a good job of listing all of the excellent document review and no fault jobs that the bulk of their grads will be jockeying for; law is a fetid profession, full of delusional suckers sold a lie.
Much more grist for the Hudson mill.
I concur with the above request...charting current long and short term projects, salaries, OT, and if staffing etc., what agencies really do have work etc. etc. Some news reports are that lateral hiring at firms is flat, that litigation departments are not expanding (in contrast to the past when recession and slow-downs in corporate and finance departments led to expanding litigation departments), and that there will be more hoarding of work by partners and many more lay-offs of associates and summer program cancellations. It appears that there is an intentional silence on this topic by law firm sources, and possibly that spells trouble for contract attorneys in the next 24 months.
I think your right, Milbank canned all of their staff attorneys:
http://abovethelaw.com/2008/04/milbank_fires_staff_attorneys.php
I agree with 11:18 and 1:35. Some agencies, I am sure, are hoarding resumes, with promises of projects that do not really exist. Thats a colossal waste of time for us. The more information that we all have, the better it is for us!!!
Hudson just asked me to send them an updated resume. Like I would ever work with them again. Sir, can I have another?
Did you ask them why they were asking for your resume again, instead of relying upon the resume in their database. Moreover, did you ask them to identify the project they were staffing for which they were requesting your resume? Just to play with their head....
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