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
50 comments:
I am currently working in a temp doc review through an agency and the firm we're working at is being really shady. We've been working for a week and a half and all of a sudden they hired a bunch of other temps from another agency and put them in a different room on the same case for more pay at the firm. They don't want us to know about the others but we found out. If my agency finds this out (i.e. I tell them) I have heard that they will contact the firm and negotiate the same for the attorneys because it makes the agency look so bad and embarrassing that a competing agencies attorneys are doing the exact same work and are making more. I'd like an expereinced temp worker to advise if I should tell my agency or if it will be fruitless. Thanks
"I'd like an expereinced temp worker to advise if I should tell my agency or if it will be fruitless."
YOU'RE A TEMP MAN GET USED TO IT YOUR LIFE IS OVER & GOING FORWARD WILL BE FRUITLESS TOO BAD YOU WENT TO HOFSTRA LAW YOUR DEGREE IS WORTH LESS THAN HALF A PIECE OF TOILET PAPER END GAME!
Focus on yourself and stop looking for trouble. Agencies aren't here to get YOU a better rate. Until attorneys starting showing some backbone and turn down insulting rates, nothing will change. By definition the job is temporary, so stop letting agencies push us around. Do your job and move on! There's always more work and if the terms change, leave.
The agency is the pimp who is looking to take the greatest cut possible, and you are the cheap hooker who was willing to take the job for the lowest possible price. Get over it. Life is not fair on the street.
I would say nothing, you will be gone. YOur agency is NOT about to negotiate a like rate, they are putting it in their own pocket. It was a competitive bidding process and they feel lucky that they were chosen period. They will do nothing to assist you, they just want the operating income flow from what they have now, and they will NOT rock the boat with the client, but I doubt it is the client, it is your agency keeping the amount that should be going into your pocket. Trust, me, been there, done that...I can almost guess who is the agency and the recuiters, might it be S.T. If so, he did this to people on Tyco/BSF and let it go for along time until someone was caught, then when caught, somehow the whistleblower (who was a stellar e/ee) ended up with no bonus, as should have been paid, and when raised the issue of no bonus, S,T. found a way to get rid of him/her. It is his M.O. If it is ST, trust that the difference in pay, that not going into your pocket, is going into his, and I mean, his PERSONAL pocket. He is known for it. Not a trustworthy guy, and anyone in the industry knows this about him.
Look what the Big firms think about American contract attorneys:
http://www.jonesday.com/files/Publication/223fd394-0a43-45dc-8fef-51f7ee1a8420/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/f4468417-d8af-4e38-a6e3-5b48911e3dfa/Bennett-The_Ethics_of_Legal_Outsourcing.pdf
This is a piece of fluff, written by the Chair of the Jones Day E-Discovery Committee. Surprise, surprise! He thinks that outsourcing U.S. legal work to foreign attorneys and non-lawyers is good.
His "analysis" fails on MANY fronts. First, there is no conceivable way that one supervising lawyer can give careful attention to outsourced work, i.e. projects with 500,000 documents reviewed.
Second, this swine notes: "Outsourcing in low-level forms, moreover, has occurred in legal practice for years." Well, then we should condone outsourcing on a LARGE scale. (I mean, who can argue with this "piercing logic?)
Bennett also mentions the rules are ill-defined. Yeah, for good reason. I also like how he praises this supposed 'Ethics' Opinion for "reinforcing" confidentiality and COIs.
Just look at how 08-451 has SUGGESTIONS for Biglaw. "May," "should consider," "might consider," etc. This is an embarrassing, disgusting decision that was made for the SOLE BENEFIT of Biglaw and Biglaw clients - who want to cut back on legal expenses.
To the one who will expose rate difference: remember Thunderdome - we don't need another hero.
You will be out on your ass in no time flat.
The Indians and Nigerian flat heads are ready to steal your job (and personal data and belongings, credit cards).
Wilmer Cutler sucks but I have to admit the need to download a resume to a drive is dubious.
the suspicion is reasonable since some temps might want to blackmail or expose the big fraud these companies and firms are doing.
Nigerians especially are very dumb but known for stealing computer information, same Chinee.
better to be suspicious ofWilmer and that arrogant staff attorney.
AFAIK, Wilmer hasnt started any action against this ex-temp for actually stealing the documents, probably because he wasnt stealing anything. I'm willing to bet what happened is that the staff atty was found to be wrong, wasted the partner's time and then went to the agency and blacklisted the temp as some sort of revenge.
Revenge against temps by staffers is all too common and for the dumbest of reasons ranging from refusing the advances of staff perverts to making innocent comments that are taken the wrong way. At one place I worked one staff attorney became offended by women simply because they were better looking than she was.
The majority of these staff attorneys are on a high horse - I have never encountered such people who, as a group have such a false sense of superiority and arrogance.
In the 20th century, Detroit, Mich., symbolized American industrial might. Today it symbolizes the offshored economy.
Detroit’s population has declined by half. A quarter of the city—35 square miles—is desolate with only a few houses still standing on largely abandoned streets. If the local government can get the money from Washington, urban planners are going to shrink the city and establish rural areas or green zones where neighborhoods used to be.
President Obama and economists provide platitudes about recovery. But how does an economy recover when its economic leaders have spent more than a decade moving high productivity, high value-added middle class jobs offshore along with the Gross Domestic Product associated with them?
Some very discouraging reports have been issued this month from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There have been record declines in both jobs and hours worked. At the end of last year, the U.S. economy had fewer jobs than at the end of 1997, twelve years ago. Hours worked at the end of last year were less than at the end of 1995, fourteen years ago.
The average workweek is falling and currently stands at 33.1 hours for non-supervisory workers.
In a major problem for economic theory, labor productivity or output per man hour and labor compensation have diverged markedly over the last decade. Wages are not rising with productivity. Perhaps the explanation lies in the productivity data. Susan Houseman found that U.S. labor productivity statistics might actually be reflecting the low wages paid to offshored labor. An American company with production in the U.S. and China, for example, produces aggregate results in labor output and labor compensation. The productivity statistics thus measure the labor productivity of global corporations, not that of U.S. labor.
Charles McMillion has pointed out that unit labor costs actually fell during 2009, but that non-labor costs have been rising throughout the decade. The rise in non-labor costs perhaps reflects the decline in the dollar’s foreign exchange value and the increased dependence on imported factors of production.
Economists and policymakers tend to blame auto management and unions for Detroit’s fall. However, American manufacturing has declined across the board. Evergreen Solar recently announced that it is shifting its production of solar fabrication and assembly from Massachusetts to China.
A U.S. Department of Commerce study of the precision machine tool industry has found that the U.S. comes in last. The U.S. industry has a shrinking market share and the smallest increase in export value. The Commerce Department surveyed American end-users of precision machine tools and found that imports accounted for 70 percent of purchases. Some U.S. distributors of precision machine tools do not even carry U.S. brands.
The financial economy which was to replace the industrial economy is nowhere in sight. The U.S. has only five banks in the world’s top 50 by size of assets. The largest U.S. bank, JPMorgan Chase ranks seventh. Germany has seven banks in the top 50, and the United Kingdom and France each have six. Japan and China each have five banks in the top 50, and together the small countries of Switzerland and the Netherlands have six with combined assets $1.185 trillion more than the five largest U.S. banks.
Moreover, after the derivative fraud perpetrated on the world’s banks by the U.S. investment banks, there is no prospect of any country trusting American financial leadership.
The American economic and political leadership has used its power to serve its own interests at the expense of the American people and their economic prospects. By enriching themselves in the short-run, banksters and politicians have driven the U.S. economy into the ground. The U.S. is on a path to becoming a Third World economy.
i was on a wilkie farr project a couple of years back and some temp freaked out when he saw another temp with what he thought was some sort of recording device on his head....turned out to be large strange headphones, you know, the kind with an FM radio on the head phone...dude thought he was in an episode of Alias or some shiz
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Regarding staff attorney perverts advances from what I have seen they don't have to trawl the waters for bootylicious much..... temps are willing to offer their own bodies and slut around in exchange for job and getting promotion to staff attorney.
Then when staff attorneys they are tough on women who do the same thing and call them sluts.
The agencies are very slutty too and use sexy voices to get what they want. Dress is designed to attract business and money for the agency. "Do whatever you have to to win the business." So their bedrooms are a revolving door of steamy lovemaking.
Use what you got.
If I were still a young hot thing, I would flash it around.
Please girls and Lady Sonia - don't degrade yourself for trashy ghetto staff attorneys. If you are going to do it go for some wealthy Ivy League partner/top dog. Leave the skanky low-level staff attorneys for the skanky low-level polyester-wearing temps. Most of you on this blog sound way more intelligent than cheap whorish temps and recruiters I've seen lurking in this field. You girls can score the big kahuna.
By the way staff attorneys are GLORIFIED PARALEGALS. Back in 2003 they started recruiting barred low level attorneys as legal assistants. At least now they are called "attorney" - back then they were merely paralegals.
After being expelled from BIGLAW, I have worked several temp jobs, the latest of which, upon finally receiving a full time offer as an attorney for a Fortune 50 corporation, I thought I was being nice by giving the agency firm 1 week's notice. After completing an assignment I had been working on, they Associate in charge came over to me and with literally 5 minutes notice advised me to leave and escorted me out of the building (with two days left in the week).
These people are hearltess douchebags and they should all rot in fucking hell. very thankfully, I do not have to deal with them or their Nazi prison guard minions any longer. I would have littly sympathy if any of you punch out one of these cocksuckers for treatment like this.
Just think girls if we open up our blouse to let the lactating twins breathe a little and slip off the panties a few times to get ahead, with staff attorney or yes, if we can land some balding, gross fat partner, we lose nothing. It doesn't cost us a dime and nobody is the worse for it. Then we can rule the roost and blackmail anyone who tries to fire us.
But this doesn't work for the beer gut solo practitioner since there is no where up to go and he will have his hand between our legs all day. This could get tiring. If we sue him no use because he will say he has no money.
For staff attorneys everyone knows how the game is played. Why do you think the agencies hire all those skanky sluts from schools like Coolie and Bimbete U. The firms take them out for a test drive to see if they are getting quality booty.
I wish I was so lucky as to be fired so I could bring a defamation suit against the firm. Just what I need to pay off my $200k in loans.
10:54 I feel very sorry for you. NEVER NEVER NEVER give notice. The temp world is NOT a place to be nice. It is to watch out for yourself. That is exactly what happened to me the first time I gave a week's notice. I learned fast. Also realized THEY never give notice. So I decided to screw them as they screw me. Earn every single penny till the last day and then call in after work and then say you can't come in anymore. The agency is going to blacklist you whether you give notice or not - yes, I know it sounds weird, but once you leave a project without seeing it to completion you are technically blacklisted by the agency. I was asked to leave that very second...I had barely even had my coffee. Fortunately my supervisor was a 300 lb black baby elephant and I wad glad I didn't have to see her face anymore so I fled.
On my current job the Nigerians just lurk in the background trying to get information and to glom on to opportunities and benefits. They are real leeches.
Regarding notice on every job I hear newbies say "Your reputation is everything in this business" a red alert that they know nothing.
I spent $200k to go to Hofstra and don't regret it but their network was not as advertised. I have never gotten a job and my friends from Hoftsra are either married or doing other things.
My ex wife keeps telling the judge how rich I should be and be a big firm partner. So I can't pay alimony or child support.
I have considered swinging from a rope and hanging it all up - literally.
But all the time I meet people such as recently who say "Wow, you're a lawyer. That's such a great field. I'm thinking about it too. It's a good thing to have. I don't plan to use it but it gives you the edge."
No amount of explaining will change their mind.
"I'm committed to going already. Just because it didn't work out for you doesn't mean anything."
A) Your mother is sick in Indonesia and you have to leave the country immediately.
B) Your back went out last night and you have to go into immediate back surgery.
C) Your grandmother died and you will need a couple of months to recover.
D) Your spouse works for the CIA and you have asked to deploy to Kazakhstan immediately.
Don't do it!
Agency lady put me on a small project with this overweight Filipina monster. She made my life a living hell. Demeaned me behind my back, made subtle jabs about my weight, made me feel stupid all the time. Yet, she kept telling agency lady I was doing a "great" job. I was trapped as her abused little pet toy. At night, I would wake up in a cold sweat, I couldn't get the vision of her monstrosity out of mind. Finally, I broke down. Blackballed.
First of all 9:10 I have heard this story many times from you over the last year. The fact that you are still alive speaks well and that maybe you are not that depressed. Hang in there my friend, forget your ex-wife. Find a new bimbo and a new career. I did - I found a new life and am happy as a clam.
9:30 Your list of excuses is excellent. Believe it or not I have used many of them.
I was put on an assignment with a black baby elephant. Due to lack of creativity, curiosity, energy or motivation this bitch has stayed put at the same loser company for 10 years. Although I was far more intelligent, had a much more diverse, cosmopolitan and substantive work experience, and was thinner and prettier she lorded it over me like she was ruling the SEC. And treating me like I was a janitor. I really felt like choking this cunt - once you are temping even janitors at firms think they are better than you. Please - get real bictches - many temps have solid experiences.
It's Wilmer Hale now.
Fundamental problems with Wilmer Cutler:
1. The associate was dumb enough to believe there was any "espionage" occurring.
2. The partner on the case was dumb enough to find the associate's claims credible.
3. Even if espionage was occurring, it must have been so minor in magnitude because there is no way one coder could bring down the entire case, let alone put a ding in it.
4. The firm should've terminated the employee for using their computer for "personal use" (which is true) instead of accusing the coder of stealing documents.
Of course, the partner and associate figured they were so superior to the coder that they could just terminate him and slander him at the same time without any consequences whatsoever.
It makes me wonder whether the firm had any common sense to begin with.
Staff Attorneys are bottom of the barrel. They offer their asses to be sodomized by people 20 years younger than them. Staff attorneys are a bunch of sad depressed troubled middle-aged lawyers from pathetic law schools. Or just plain old low-level ghetto people.
One or two are worthy of being talked to and acknowledged as a professional but either they leave or are promoted to associate. This whole staff attorney racket reeks of stale garbage.
Fuck yeah! The temp is going to stick it to Wilmer Cutler and retire from the cesspool that is law.
Claiming "espionage" for using a flash drive. What bullshit!
I have used a flash drive to upload and download my resume many times but have been smart enough NOT to do it in front of anyone. I knew that if these paranoid fuckers saw me they would think I was stealing their piddly little documents. To be honest, if someone wanted to steal documents they could so easily and would be so much more discreet. They wouldn't stick their flash drive in front of tens of people. These associates and lawyers are a big bunch of NERVOUS NERDS - if they got out more, got some fresh air and sun, got laid, they would have more common sense and calm. Sitting in front of a computer all day in tight pants/pantyhose with their tiny genitals squeezed up for 14 hours a day can wreck havoc on your mind and soul. I pity these fools.
Most people I know just keep a copy of their res in google docs or in their blackberry. Some even download it to their temp work computer.
The flash drive thing is just stupid. It's easy to suspect something is afoot when they see the flash drive. Of course, like any legal matter they should assert proof before spreading false rumors against some temp.
Many firms and corporations do this, they in fact get off on it. Why just let some groveling temp go when you can ruin his/her career as well?
What was interesting about his article too was that they obviously failed to do a background check and see the temps prior litigation.
This makes Wilmer look pretty incompetent on several levels. They're going to have to pay off this dude's loans. Good for him, for standing up to these people. It takes balls that most temps lack.
It it rather disappointing reading some of these blogs above. The real point is that doc review projects are filled with attorneys from diverse and differing backgrounds. It is true that those attorneys who come from more privileged backgrounds, no matter what race, are generally faced with incredible hostility by other doc review attorneys with fewer opportunities, regardless of country of origin. The trick is to hide who you are and blend in...very very sad. Another example of the dumming down in America and of the facist like mentality of those less fortunate to those with more fortune. It is human nature to attempt to bring others more talented and with more opportunities down to ones' level, rooted merely in jealousy and envy. It happens everywhere. In America, today, one can not be oneself for fear of offending anyone from a backgorund with fewer opportunities. It is clear class warfare and the recent policies in this country, which academia has helped promote, has only made it worse.....it is a form of intellectual facism. Individual freedoms and individuality is what made this country great, not swarming everyone into sameness, across the board. Our President seeks that, in the alleged name of equality of opportunity. He is a hypocrite, as has been many people promoting this approach the last 30 years.
Ladies if you want a job firm up those abs and prepare those dick sucking lips.
Law degree.....what degree? When the partner saw your community chest suddenly background check was not needed.
Don't laugh - I worked for a solo practice guy (a fat bald pig) for 4 months and everyone knew the uneducated receptionist was carrying his love child. There was another person a secretary, in the office and he had "had her" before but got bored. He took clients out for a test drive if he could get in their pants. The funny thing is these people were proud of having a baby with a lawyer and thought it was a step up. I think there are a lot of people like this? This guy paid people nothing and asked us to do everything. There were sweat and body fluid everywhere on the phone, seats, etc.
You can say nasty but it was a job.
Wilmer.....Shmilmer.
Law newbies make such a big deal that they work fora big name firm. I am at AmLaw 100 etc. But these firms are all the same.
"I like Dechert. It is a cut above. It is not bad like Wilmer."
Sure! Same people. What the fucking difference?
I hear the Nigerians talk about their resumes and how they are an attorney "with" Cravath etc. I guess they can fool people back in Lagos or in New Jersey.
Go to the ABA and see all these jobless Hofstra and NYLS people trying to latch on to anyone they can.
The people from New Jersey see me pulling up every night in a chauffered car..... they admire me and see that I have made it in America. I tell the car service to hang outside my building for a while to impress the neighbors.
What's the deal with Beacon Hill - do they have any jobs???
Re Beacon Hill. Sent in resume several times, heard nothing back. True of others as well. Must be building a roster to hussle to firms, if and only if business ever comes back e.g. doubt it.
Do NOT work for Transperfect Staffing. It is also a hoax to get people to come in. They have no jobs.
What about Yorkson?
I got so many emails from them with a silly job requiring a car but the girl there (Sara Kim) did not answer.
Does Yorkson have jobs?
What about E.P.Dine?
Be careful that these new entrants e.g. Beacon Hill, Legal People, Transperfect, and possibly even some oldies such as Yorkson, are not just gathering resumes to hussle and/or grab for purposes of identify theft etc. Maybe someone is running these ads just to gather resumes, and then lift people's credentials. Seems wierd. Caution people.
Bringing a flash drive in was really, really , really really, stupid and it was almost assuredly against both the firm's policy and the temp agency's as well. This guy deserved to be fired for it. He very probably was not doing any espionage. I am sure he was doing what he said he was: downloading his resume. But even that it usually wrong to use the firm's computers for and to compound it by bring your own drive in? Not enough o's in stoooopid.
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Transperfect - I am not working with trannies thank you
Spies have cooler toys than a freaking flash drive. Typical, attorney stupidity and probably clear cut racism. If he wasnt a Chinese attorney who would think "espionage?"
did 5:05 say agencies are collecting resumes for identity theft? really? could you also tell us about the second gunman on the grassy knoll, the aliens in New Mexico and how the US government masterminded 911?
Anonymous said...
To the one who will expose rate difference: remember Thunderdome - we don't need another hero.
You will be out on your ass in no time flat.
The Indians and Nigerian flat heads are ready to steal your job (and personal data and belongings, credit cards).
Wilmer Cutler sucks but I have to admit the need to download a resume to a drive is dubious.
the suspicion is reasonable since some temps might want to blackmail or expose the big fraud these companies and firms are doing.
Nigerians especially are very dumb but known for stealing computer information, same Chinee.
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Racist sleazebags like you do not deserve the going rate - unless it is as a bottom in an S&M club. Do us all a favor and die in a hail of gunfire after failing in your killing spree -that is what all you angry white boys are good at.
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