Friday, March 7, 2008

Vision Award??

Hello All,

I recently received the following e-mail. I would like to get your opinions. I have enlarged and bolded the line that the writer takes the most offense to (bottom of the e-mail), and I have removed the address of the event from the e-mail.
__________________________________________________________________

This is utterly ridiculous. I received an email today from the Philly Bar Associaton about their annual Young Lawyer Division meeting where they're giving out awards. Naturally the awards are to BigLaw associates, but curiously, one award the "YLD Vision Award" is being giving to Dechert. This is infuriating since so many young lawyers were treated like slaves and dirt and then laid off immediately during the 2007 Vioxx implosion/settlement. The criteria for this award are not found anywhere online, and I wonder how shitting on so many young lawyers is the equivalent of "Vision."

Young Lawyers Division
Annual Meeting and Reception
Tuesday, March 25, 2008

$35.00
Includes open bar and heavy hors d’oeuvres
Welcoming Incoming Chair
Scott P. Sigman
Bochetto & Lentz
Presenting the
F. Sean Peretta Service Award to Maria Feeley, Pepper Hamilton, LLP
Craig M. Perry Community Service Award to DaQuana Carter, Pepper Hamilton, LLP
And the YLD Vision Award to Dechert
________________________________________________

I have my own opinions on the matter, but I will leave this one for your comments.

Please keep reading as there are 2 other recent posts. One on Libel and one on Paralegal jobs.

--The Black Sheep



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dechert is the stereotypical amoral law firm presented in movies such as "Michael Collins." I have talked to attorneys at other firms, and Dechert is notorious for treating its own employees very badly. If they treat their own people that way, how do you expect them to treat us temps?

The thing is that Dechert makes a ton of money, and that is all that matters in the legal "profession" these days. Biglaw masquerades as a profession but is really just a big business.

We are the hopeless ones-- the lost ones. We live our lives in exile-- expatriates in our own profession. Do you really think anyone from the Young Lawyers Division give a s--t about us?

Anonymous said...

I think the last person meant "Michael Clayton," but I agree that it is an apt comparison. When I saw that movie, I definitely could relate. We were helping a corporation that was responsible for untold suffering for our $54.50 an hour.

stateofbeasley said...

Two comments:

I think that the contractor community generally does not participate much in bar association proceedings and events. It therefore comes as no surprise that large law firms who mistreat contractors are likely to get awards from YLD, whose active members probably include large numbers of biglaw associates.

It follows that if we contractors want to do something about working conditions, we should consider flooding YLD with our own people. Hell, there are many more contractors in town than there are young biglaw associates.