Foleydog's blog

Why I should stop reading the NYT

See the following link: NYT Blog on High Law Firm Salaries

Read the comments.

My comment.

Have you checked the race of these high paid associates.  Many firms have now moved to a two tier system -- hiring the whitest for these salaries -- while having a back room of black and brown law school graduates working for one-half to one-third the pay doing endless docuemnt review.  But since they too have the high law school debt -- what's a minority to do?

Public service -- puh-leeze!  $30 - $40K with over $100K in non dischargeable debt -- you do the math.

But of course journalism must be sensationalist to get readers, I guess.

Attorneys need not apply

Today, I was looking at job ads categorized under 'legal' -- and most of the descriptions explicitly say, "Attorneys need not apply."  I'm seeing this is more and more ads for job. 

I guess in this tight economy, attorneys, like myself who were told in law school our degree was an asset, because we could tackle anything are applying for jobs outside their immediate field.

With almost one million lawyers in California and what seems like three jobs, we're branching out.  Unsuccessfully for the most part, I may add.  To increase my chances, I've taken an unprecedented step.

I've finally done it despite years of threats. 

I've taken my law degree off my resume. 

For years, it's been a hindrance.

Two years ago, an executive at Fox looked me directly in the eye during an interview and said, "I hate that attorneys think they can come in here and do our jobs just because they went to law school."

Needless to say, I didn't get a call back from her.

Now, it's deleted.  It's gone.  Like it was never was there -- despite the one hundred thousand dollars plus interest, I'm still struggling to pay off.

I haven't gotten any response to my new lighter resume, but it has to be more positive than my current resume.

Just yesterday, and my millionth job interview in Los Angeles, I spent many minutes assuring my interviewers that even though I didn't take a class in administrative law, and I never worked in finance, that I could grasp the concept of administrative hearings and could read financial documents and other balance sheets.  Those seven years in Ivy League schools must have been worth something, right?

I'm not entirely sure they were convinced, but I found out they hired many more non-attorneys than attorneys.  I may have had a better chance at the job without that J.D. on my resume.

Who knew?

The hatred of lawyers has spilled over into other industries -- and it's not pretty.

Four years ago a friend of mine was hiring folks for her company.  She said when she got resumes from attorneys, she threw them out immediately.  "What do they know about my business?" she asked.  Now this didn't stop her calling me for free advice when she had a legal problem related to that job, but I digress.

My response?  "What could I know about your business?" and a shrug.

Now that Cornell Law School  has gone by the wayside -- maybe I can save myself from the round file.

Only time will tell.

The Perils of Foster Care

Because rationalizations made in the criminal justice system drive me crazy.

I'm not a joiner, but . . .

I know, I know.  I can't draw, but I love making up political cartoons.

Yale Needs no Boosting

On the other hand, we all know those who attend Ivy League schools have a 'blue chip' resume.  Superlatives for Samuel A. Alito.

• Quiet dedication.
• Formidable intellect.
• Totally capable, brilliant and nice. [emphasis added]
• Prestigious academic prize winner.
• Powerful intellectual humility.
• Ivy League pedigree and a blue-chip resume.
• Blueblood career and education.
• Enormously intelligent.
• Smart and incisive

Score one for Yale.

Harriet Miers

The new Southern Methodist University Law School website, will feature the following, I imagine.

Come to SMU Law School.  We'll make sure that when you graduate, you won't be considered a constitutional scholar.  We make sure our graduates aren't up to the intellectual heavy lifting' required of attorneys, judges, nor justices.  In short, we're not Harvard.

Here are some of the superlatives used to describe our graduates:

• No public record of legal expertise.
• Most unqualified.
• Incapable of intellectual heavy lifting.
• Lacking in experience.
• Could use a crash course in Constitutional Law.
• Unimpressive
• Did a decent job of discussing federal cases.
• Ill suited.
• Inexperienced crony.

We hope you'll come.

A Gamble

Up front, I must say, I have a bias against gambling. It was my father's unceasing love of Off Track Betting that caused my parents' divorce. And Las Vegas just isn't my bag.

So, would you take this bet?

You've completed your undergraduate degree. If you attended a state school, you may have no debt at all. An Ivy League school -- perhaps you already owe twenty or thirty thousand dollars. You're looking around a entry-level jobs. You're finding that they're basically the same 'secretarial' jobs that were offered in the 1960's, but now the title's been elevated to 'assistant.' Sure it's a demeaning job that won't use your hard earned skills, your soon to be Alma mater's career center tells you, but it's the stepping stone to a career. Plus, you find, the job pays $20,000 per year if you're lucky.

Quickly, you do the calculations in your recently educated head. At that rate, if you live in one of the cities offering these lucrative jobs, that small college debt won't be paid off so quickly. Gone are your dreams of a new car, great apartment, cool clothes, and fun nights clubbing your way through your twenties. Who knew adulthood was going to be so hard.

Enter law school -- a new solution. Now you're looking around at graduate programs. Hmm, business school applications opine that you should have some business training under your belt -- umm, back to dilemma #1, with that $20,000 a year job looming. Graduate school in your liberal arts major of underwater basket-weaving seems that it will lead you to a path of teaching underwater basket-weaving in a town similar to the one that was cool for college, but not for living.

Ah, law school, the savior. Looking at those statistics in U.S. News seem promising. Private salaries for starting attorneys are over $100,000. And you'll have an assistant, rather than being the assistant.

But upon further investigation, things may not be so rosy. Unless your parents have won the lottery, they're tapped out after sending you to that pricey college. Law school tuition (and room and board, because you're not quite ready for homelessness), hovers between $50,000 and $55,000 per year. And those great salaries -- are reserved for a precious few -- top law school graduates -- top schools, top grades, and definitely non-minority, maybe 10 percent of law school graduates. Reading boards like Infirmation, you discover that if you don't get one of these top paying jobs -- you're options quickly dwindle to government work $36,000 -- $50,000, public interest work, $30,000 - $40,000, being an 'ambulance chaser' for $30,000 - $50,000 -- the world for the other 90 percent.

So, with three years of your life gone, and a potential $100,000 - $140,000 in debt hanging over your head (we're talking about 10 years of $1500 monthly payments -- or 30 years of $400 monthly payments -- do you take the gamble?

Before you answer, remember that you have little control over whether you'll end up in that elite 10 percent. You'll have less control over whether you can stay in that elite group -- where you're one economic downturn from lay off. That's the chance you take. The debt, however, is certain.

You may have a better chance of winning the lottery.

Quotas

I remember stories my mother told me as a child -- about the time that she worked in a factory -- somewhere between high school, a waitressing gig at Chock Full O'Nuts, and college.  It was then I learned that working to fulfill a quota was hard work, to be avoided if possible.

Elite colleges and Ivy League law schools were to be the savior from all that.

Yet as I sit here today.  I'm working, making sure to fulfill my quota.  This week it's to review 1000 documents per day.  A few months ago it was 200 documents per day, but the time I spent reviewing every document from log on to log off was monitored and I had a 'talking to' when I moved too quickly or too slowly.

When I worked for LexisNexis the quota was stated in characters, not words or documents, owing to the differing length of cases.

Today I'm working in an office with three other African Americans trying to fulfill their quota.  At my last jobs the people and the demographics were the same.  Our supervisors, young white men with less education and experience.

Sometimes it's $25  - $30 per hour. The lowest paid was $15.38.

Am I working in a factory?  The answer is no.  Is my fate fundamentally any different than those of my fore-bearers? 

Sure, I get to call myself a 'professional,' but in reality, we're back in the factory again.

The California Bar Journal

I normally throw away the California Bar Journal when it arrives monthly in the mail.  Who can stand the self-congratulatory articles and endless call to pro-bono work?  But after my last job interview, I went back and reread the paper on-line.  My interviewer had been intrigued by the article about minorities and how they have 'miles to go' in the profession.

Not one to remain quiet in the face of an incomplete story, I drafted the following letter to the editor:

Editor, California Bar Journal
180 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94105-1639

            Re:       ABA study finds minority lawyers have ‘miles to go’ in the profession

Dear Editor:

            It was with interest that I read the March article about the low numbers of minorities who are recruited at and stay at large law firms.  I beg to differ with some of the study’s findings, however.

            It has been my personal observation, especially during the time I have lived in Los Angeles, that the top tier law firms have a large pool of white women and minority attorneys working within their offices.  Every day, these attorneys, often with years of experience under their belts, ascend the corporate elevators which nearly silently whoosh them to these white shoe domains.  They are not reflected in NALP or other statistics, and they are virtually invisible to the majority white and male attorneys who pad the floors because they are shuttled off to administrative floors or enclosed in interior conference rooms.  These lawyers are very loyal to the firms where they work – toiling away countless hours on large-scale projects for many months, and sometimes years.

            These attorneys are among a legion of temporary workers now dominating the general marketplace.  For twenty-five to thirty dollars per hour (most without benefits), – a mere fraction of what their ‘associate’ counterparts earn, they work in quiet isolation – often doing the ‘heavy lifting’ that the ‘elite’ associate recruits don’t do themselves.

The Legal Hierarchy

To most people, I imagine, most lawyers are the same. Suit monsters out to represent dishonest corporations or guilty criminals. But between lawyers, there's a strict hierarchy. People who have their own practice like I did have been referred to derogatorily as 'Common Pleas Lawyers,' intimating that appeals or federal court may be too complicated for the likes of us. One attorney once said that he wouldn't want some divorce lawyer handling the complicated matters that he did. So, you're wondering who comes out on top? IP lawyers. For some reason other attorneys seem to believe those who work on trademarks, copyrights, and patents, garner the most praise. They're heralded as the most brilliant, versatile, and are often the most sought after -- even in the post dot com boom era when there's not a whole lot of IP work to go around. Who's on the bottom? You know this without even asking. Plaintiff's attorneys -- you know -- the one's on TV who get settlements for you; divorce attorneys, criminal defense lawyers. No one is standing in line to get these jobs. This is usually the end of the line when those IP jobs don't pan out. Of course there's a loose middle -- government attorneys, corporate lawyers, small firm folks -- like the middle class the bulk of my compatriots end up here. And large firms with long names are better than smaller firms with longer names, unless it's a 'boutique' firm -- read small firm, big money. When lawyer meet, and shake hands, they immediately size each other up on these terms. Hmmm . . . you're at an IP boutique . . . . hmmm, your at the D.A.'s office . . . . hmmm . . . you're a solo practitioner . . . wait, that's a double hmmm. And where do some of the most well-known attorneys fall? Politicians . . . and we won't even go there.