Meet Counsel on Call's Chad Schmidt. He's just another sleazy recruiter who is trying to squeeze his way into the lucrative East Coast temp attorney market. How is he doing it? By throwing himself into the media, and smearing the reputations of the very same people that he is planning to employ:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/05/05/these_temp_lawyers_are_top_notch_a_new_firm_in_boston_promises/
As fellow blogger "Wicked Words" recently stated, "No wonder I'm expected to feel ashamed for not finding a decent job in a horrible economy. The guys who are supposed to help job searchers do nothing but put them down!" When these job candidates eventually do land a gig, these very same recruiters do nothing for them except fleece them out of half of their pay.
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Wicked's Open Letter to the Boston Globe
May 12, 2008
IT IS with a dull anger that I read your article, "These temp lawyers are top-notch, a new firm in Boston promises" (Business, May 5), which my grandmother handed to me as I was clicking on the classifieds in a fruitless effort to find an ad for a junior-level attorney.
You see, I have four years of an Ivy League education, followed by three years of law school, and admission to the bar. In a world where someone with a doctor of jurisprudence is automatically considered to be one of the top earners in the country, the Globe frittered away the opportunity to report on the underclass of lawyers who are mired in tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars in debt and count on document review to pay the bills.
Instead, the story gleefully perpetuated a "stereotype" by noting that a contract attorney is a "fancy name for recent law school graduates who are desperate for work."
And it touts the services of a staffing firm that refuses to hire recent graduates who "couldn't get a job anywhere," without bothering to interview a single contract attorney.
This recent underemployed attorney also used to be a journalist. Maybe I should have remained one, as the Globe could certainly use a refresher in one of the cardinal rules of journalism: Always examine all potential angles.
23 comments:
I think these are actually two different companies:
The one in the Boston.com article, Counsel on Call
http://www.counseloncall.com/
The one in NYC Craig's List, On Call Counsel
http://www.tempositions.com/occ/
I'm not trying to minimize what an absolute creep this guy is, but the NYC group appears to be a different corporation.
Thanks! I will investigate. Sounds odd.
That survey is pretty funny I have to admit.
Why are many of these recruiters so nasty to look at? I hear that the Update recruiters are pretty hot.
I met with a very condescending woman from this agency in their Chicago office.
She told me that I needed to see a career coach and then handed over her friend's card. "She only charges new attorneys like you $150/hour."
She told me that I didn't do litigation: "You do document review," she hissed at me.
She then interrogated me about my class rank:
--"You were in the top 10%, right?"
--NO
--"The top 20%?"
--NO
--"The top 30%?"
--NO
--"Well, I hope that you were at least in the top half."
I walked out of there feeling really great!
Agreed, these people are scum!
You have poor reading comprehension skills. This is probably why you didn't go to a top school and land a firm job like me. Anyway, he's actually defending the contract attorney lifestyle. Try reading again.
Defending the contract attorney lifestyle, disparaging the people that do it.
they should send this out to all 1L's promisinb futures
they should send this out to all 1L's promisinb futures
Thanks for linking me, Tom. A couple of other things have happened since then. I wrote a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe that actually got published. And Mr. Schmidt responded to my comments on my blog a couple of days ago, and I replied with an open letter on the blog. You can see the subsequent progress at http://wickedwords.blogspot.com
Ahh, here are the links:
Link to the letter and Chad Schmidt's reply
Open Reply to Chad Schmidt
Is it me, or this guy look kind of like LeiTTTer?
Good backlash, Wicked. Clearly, this guy was merely trying to pimp his business to the detriment of all of those struggling young attorneys looking for work.
8:13, you are one with the poor reading comprehension. You were probably a legacy at your "top school" and you have (or had) contacts at your "top firm". What Schmidt is saying is that NOW (as in with On Call Counsel), doc. review is more sophisticated, unlike the other agencies who hire shit bowl tier 2,3, and 4 lawyers.
Sorry..it's Counsel On Call. Oops! Bad enough I am blogging while "working"
So, is it counsel on call, or on call counsel? I find it hard to believe that two businesses in the same industry(albeit in different cities)sound so similar.
Interesting back and forth. But let's face it, the real problem is not with Wicked Words or any other young attorney who cannot find a good job. The laws of supply and demand are at work here and the there is simply a gigantic oversupply of US trained lawyers and very few decent entry level jobs. In fact, many of the good entry level American jobs are being offshored to India...and it's only going to get worse. It's tragic to see hard working people's careers being thrown in the garbage before they get started, but that's what's going on.
There is far more assistance for the young Indian LPO worker than the US lawyer.
http://legal-outsourcing-services.blogspot.com/
2008/05/open-question-what-countries-offer_1709.html
http://www.ftconferences.com/outsourcing/
home.asp?m_pid=0&m_nid=24454
The FT is now offering its own offshoring conference. It's officially big business.
I don't mind competing with the Indians. I believe that I am a responsible, hard working American. Economists say that Americans are still the most productive workers in the world.
What gets me with this whole thing is how in order to do the work over here, we are forced by regulation to attend expensive ABA institutions, sit through 7 years of higher education, pass a difficult bar examination, and pay exorbiant CLE/registration fees, etc. Do the Indians have to jump through all of these hoops? I don't think so.
It also irks me how recruiters allow foreign attorneys with questionable credentials to come in and do the work. I was once on a project and several of them could hardly speak English. To engage in this kind of behavior in order to deflate wages, and then turn around and verbally put down the entire contract attorney population is a bit strange.
The Boston recruiter knows quite well that most of colleagues in the big firms essentially do not obtain significant substantive experience as would an attorney working in a small firm or solo. Work in big firms oftentimes is parsed out to those who are the "favorite son" of the moment. That favorite son makes themselves totally available to do anything, and does so to the detriment of other associates equally situated. Work is dribilled out, and each associates only gets a piece of the pie e.g. of the work assignment, if not working together with other associates as a true team. It is incredibly insane for him to represent to a client seeking a contract attorney that the candidate can do just anything e.g. as if superman/super woman. All this person is hawking is someone who graduated from the same pool of law schools from which the client recruits their first years. I guess he won't take a risk, since it is own personal income in fees that would be at risk. But, he'll learn when one of his supercandidates screws up and can't do the job, despite what the resume and credentials reflect...then the client will be duped. It will take time, but Chad will be running a show no different than what has already been established. It isn't the piece of paper that distinquishes candidates, it is far more intrinsic qualities. A piece of paper for the brain guarantees nothing - only that you paid tuition, attended a Bar Review Class, and are in hock to 6 figures...........more of the same.
PLEASE SOMEBODY DO THE RIGHT THING.. close the law schools already !! how much more pain do we need to see ....
He's pretty sexy! I'd fuck him!
Nice to read of an agency with benefits. I have Blue Cross/Blue shield through my agency, too. It seems like it's the poor performers (i.e. minorities) that are the bulk of some projects that I've left early. I don't really want to work with someone not westernized, nor someone urban. My agency is sexist, they prefer older men for these blue-blood WASP firms, but it's worth waiting for, I was not in law review or anything.
Your counsel in DC,
Nancy Schelling
didn't I see that guy in a kitchen with Chris Hanson?
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