Hey I am Back!!!

Is anyone still out there?? I am truly sorry to my loyal readers who were hoping for some help recently. But I want to say right here and now, I do not have all of the answers. I am just as stuck as the rest of you. I began this website in the hopes of trying to change things that I didn’t like about contracting, but there was another reason too. I wanted to learn if there were any answers that all of us could come up with together to solve some of the problems with contracting. While I try to keep people informed of opportunities that I hear about, I am not the best source for that. (I would try the Posse List, they seem pretty good. Or just call/e-mail any other contractors that you know, they likely will have heard something.)

As far as jobs out there right now, I would suggest trying to call securities litigation firms directly (both plaintiff and defense) and see if there is any work. With the markets falling, this type of work might see an uptick right now. There are 2 benefits of a direct call, first you might get on board ahead of the contract firms and thus be in a better position to turn the job into a longer term proposition, and second, you might get paid more as an independent contractor then you would through an agency.

Anyway, sorry again, that I haven’t posted anything in a while (wow, almost 4 months). There were numerous reasons for that. First, as I think I said, I was enjoying the sun and warm weather before it was gone. Second, I started getting hooked on blogging generally, and started to do some political stuff, and I wanted to keep my personal voting choices and endorsements off of this site. Third, as many of you were, I was impacted by the market. I have been scrambling around trying to put an income together with shorter jobs.

It is time for me, and I imagine many of you, to take a serious look at this employment and think about doing something else. This is not a career, it is a holding place. And that is all it looks like on the resume too. If you want further education, now might be the time after all there is not much employment out there.

Back to the lack of reliability of the market, it sucks and has gotten worse because of the economy, and the number of attorneys out there who have been doing this in recent years. Since my last post I have heard about mass layoffs in September at both McCarter English and at Stradley Ronon. These layoffs effectively eliminated hundreds more positions for contractors which means there are many more people on the street looking for contract work. Some of those people have landed positions, some of those people have taken jobs out of town (DC or NYC--both markets which if you want to do contract work you should monitor). Many, however, are on unemployment. At the same time, all of those recent grads just got their bar results back, and a large number of them now meet the minimum qualifications for about 90% of contract work in the area. The bad news is that there are no truly massive projects to stick all of the contract lawyers on. I would wager that the last quarter is not looking so hot to Hudson right now. They essentially were funded by 2 major projects in the last 3 years. Now they are back on par with the rest of the agencies fighting to place people.

A little side note, apparently Stradley Ronon has decided to hire a few more contractors, the word is that they are not using Oxford anymore, and they are now using Juristaff who is paying $35/hour instead of the $40/hour that Special Counsel is still offering for the same position. Talk about a pay discrepancy. One reason that I heard they did this is because of economy. They were trying to save money and got a better deal with Juristaff. Another reason I heard is because sometime in August there was a major problem on the project and the coders were not consistent with the way they were coding. That is either bad contractors or a problem with poor instruction/supervision. In other words, the powers that be at Stradley may screwed up in the way they had people coding, or put inadequate checks in place and blamed it on the coders.

I will try to go back to once every couple of weeks, but we shall see. Does anybody have any stories or advice out there that they would like to share?? E-mail me at: phillycontractlawyer@gmail.com.

Hey all, how is the Sun?

I know that I haven't written in over a month. Sorry about that. That is for multiple reasons, but let me assure you, I am still working, and still reviewing documents. I am also taking my own time and partying in the summer sun. As an aside, we had some good conversation on the last post, I am not sure if this is because of the length between posts, the fact that document review is slow right now (including over at the AZ review where they have had a lot of time to just sit around), or what, but it encourages me to keep writing, so keep it up.

Let take this opportunity to welcome the recent graduates who are hunting for jobs. Many of them will no doubt be joining you soon. For those recent grads who where fortuitous enough to get an associate position at a Big Law firm, have fun. The likelihood is that for the next few months you will be reviewing documents, and/or overseeing contractors reviewing documents. Have fun. For those of you who did not get the big law job, the likelihood is good that you will be either overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated OR you will join the rest of us in contract land dreaming of something more.

Here is the trap, if you do not get out in your first year, and went straight through college and law school, you are trapped. Don't get trapped. Take whatever time you need and find a permanent position.

For those dreaming of a career in Law that will make them a lot of money, think again. There are too many lawyers out there, and the salary level for all but the top graduates has dropped. Take a look at this graph from NALP.

Source:Jobs & JD's, Class of 2007

Note: The graph is based on 23,337 salaries. A few salaries above $200,000 are excluded for clarity.

Here are two links to learn more about the NALP surveys.
http://www.nalp.org/content/index.php?pid=618
http://www.nalp.org/content/index.php?pid=561

Incidentally, Tom the Temp recently reviewed some of these results, his blog on this is located at: http://temporaryattorney.blogspot.com/2008/08/ghettoization-of-legal-profession.html

If I am not mistaken, this reminds me of grafts that I learned about in high school when reading about Marxist theory. If I recall the income gap grows and grows until a point where the proletariat becomes large enough, and unhappy enough, and finally decides to violently overthrow the bourgeoisie. The unfortunate part of all of this is, as attorneys, we are looked at by society as the bourgeoisie.

I will try to write more soon. And for those who are not currently employed, I have heard that there are 2 or 3 potential projects in the works for the Philadelphia Area. Feel free to share with others what agencies are or might be hiring.

More Later,
The Black Sheep

Hudson/McCarter project continues Cutbacks

As I understand it, last Wednesday the McCarter project made further cutbacks to its hours, limiting the coders from the previous 50 to 40. This came in an announcement that made it impossible to make even 40 hours for the week because the site would close early on Thursday, and would not be open Friday. This comes as little surprise to many contractors as apparently there have been many periods when the site has been sitting idle because documents were not coming in fast enough. The only surprise here is why the client, McCarter or Hudson did not make the decision to limit hours, or close on Fridays sooner. There were apparently very similar lulls in productivity last year throughout the late summer and early fall. Why didn't they have more limited hours then?

I would submit that now something has changed. They are getting closer to the end of current discovery orders and now are on the verge of closing down or laying off many more people at the site.

Coincidentally, on Wednesday afternoon 30-40 contractors on the McCarter project were called upstairs as a group to Hudson's offices to be told that their services were no longer needed. They could have until the end of the week to clean off their workspaces (which was only one more day).

I believe this is a vast improvement over the way layoffs on the same project were handled this past April. In that layoff, there was a lot of assurances from people that should have known better that there was nothing to worry about. Even some of the more experienced Contractors were not prepared to be laid off that weekend. This time there were no assurances.

In April, Contractors were merely told to check their e-mail over the weekend. This was not out of the ordinary as the Team Leads frequently would use E-mail to tell the rest of the Contractors when and if there would be weekend hours. This caused many to assume it was business as usual. Instead, hundreds of people in PA and NJ were told by E-mail that they were let go. This was ridiculous. Here, Julie Dailey and Lauren Gibson actually delivered the news face to face (even if in a large group).

In April, Contractors were not even allowed into the premises to get their own stuff, rather, the team leads merely packed it into a box which they then had to get from the front desk. This time, they were allowed back into the premises and allowed to earn a couple of more hours pay, and could pack up their own stuff.

Incidentally, I have always wondered about this practice of not letting a contract attorney back into the offices after they have been let go. Why? Do they think we are going to commit acts of vandalism? Do they think we are going to steal the oh so valuable documents we have been working on and give them to opposing counsel? Do they think we are going to steal a client? that we would steal office supplies or computers? What is the point? The practice is inane and perpetuates the myth of the unstable or untruthful attorney. We are attorneys, we had to pass some sort of character screening to be licensed. And let's face it, there are numerous people that would be observing our actions. None of these ill effects is likely to occur.

So here are some questions for you. Was the way this layoff handled better then the one in April? I think so. Were Julie and Lauren influenced by the way the contract community (via these blogs) reacted to the April Layoff? Or is this the way that they would act if they were not pressured to lay off so many workers? Did the McCarter or the Client influence the way either of these layoffs were handled? Which would you prefer in person and 1 day, or by e-mail over the weekend?

We welcome your thoughts.

For those who were laid off, I do not have any real current leads for you. Things are a little slow right now. Make sure you apply for unemployment, you can do it online now. Good luck to you, and if I hear of anything I will try to let you know.

To the other contractors out there, I am sure these guys might appreciate a little help. And to those former contractors, what are you doing now, and how did you get there. I am sure that some of those laid off are looking to get out of contracting and into something else, maybe even out of the Law.

Anyway, that's it for today. Keep in touch.

The Black Sheep

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

Anybody out there celebrate the 4th working? I actually did not.
How about the Philly 4th Celebrations? I was out of town.

This weekend we celebrated our Independence from Tyrannical rule by a dictator located many miles away in England. Ironically many of us contractors are subject to the tyrannical rule of the law firm running our projects, but are not on site. We could easily overthrow our overseers with physical violence, but that would be the end of the project. they would deal with the situation and write us off. So how can we regain a little control? Think about it. What do you want out of your job situation? Do you want to be a mindless robot spending innumerable hours staring at a computer screen in poor conditions for relatively small salaries for the rest of your lives?? Or would you like to have your opportunity to move up the ladder? To have a say about your conditions? To increase your pay scale? To get better benefits?

Anyway, this post I have a couple of news tidbits.

First, I have heard that McCarter has officially closed the doors of its large Newark, New Jersey Document review site. The reason being not enough work (though some have reported that it was because the coders up there were so piss poor). There have been rumors that both Vlad and David King are returning to Philly, but this is unconfirmed.

Second, we for got to celebrate the FLSA's birthday it was June 25, 1938. It was meant to create standard wage practices, primarily for non-management hourly workers. It essentially mandated that anyone working more than 40 hours per week get lunch breaks and pay for overtime. Read it sometime it is worth it.

Third, the Temp Attorney website has a good benefits story that everyone should read. It is at:

http://temporaryattorney.blogspot.com/2008/07/spherion-temp-agency-pure-evil.html


FINALLY, I would like to close with an issue that has been bugging me as of late. On the large jobs that I have worked here in Philadelphia lately, I have noticed something. There is a lot of the attitude that Philly contractors are better than New York contractors, and that they cost less. Many of the contractors that forward this opinion, tend to go on to say that the large firms see this and will choose Philly over New York for future large jobs. I do not think this is true at all, especially in light of how Philly was before the Pharmaceutical Products Liability cases brought massive Doc Review to Philly. So, I wanted to get your opinions on this. Are Philly Contractors better then NYC? Will Philly take work from NYC? Is taking pride in our fair city's contractors worth any effort? Does it really matter?

I welcome your comments as always on any of the above issues or articles. Also feel free to post about issues you would like more about, or in the alternative, send me an e-mail, I will do what I can to address anything you bring up.

Thanks,
Black Sheep

Unions Part 2: Good for the Firms

Hey All,

Happy Start of Summer. I know I have not been posting very often lately (not for a month). There are multiple reasons for this break, but the one I like best is that the weather has been too good. I am still interested in posting some of your thoughts, but I have not received any of note.

As far as the market, I have heard of a few smaller jobs starting recently at places like Montgomery McCracken and Reed Smith as well as a few at smaller firms

I know that you won't believe me, that the Law Firms wouldn't admit this, but unions can be good for them too. The Contract Agencies would probably hate the idea of unions; after all, they would serve as competition for job hunting.

Some academic studies (mostly taken from the AFL-CIO website at http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/why/uniondifference/uniondiff8.cfm) note that unions are responsible for creating benefits to employers and the economy such as:

• Productivity
• Quality Service
  
• Training
• Turnover
• Workplace health and safety

Productivity

According to a recent survey of 73 independent studies on unions and productivity: “The available evidence points to a positive and statistically significant association between unions and productivity in the U.S. manufacturing and education sectors, of around 10 and 7 percent, respectively.”

If we as contractors get the terms that we want, then the hours that we work, we will be much more efficient.

Quality Services

A study looking at the relationship between unionization and product quality in the auto industry. According to a summary of this study prepared by American Rights at Work:

“The author examines the system of co-management created through the General Motors-United Auto Workers partnership at the Saturn Corporation…The author credits the union with building a dense communications network throughout Saturn's management system. Compared to non-represented advisors, union advisors showed greater levels of lateral communication and coordination, which had a significant positive impact on quality performance.”

Just like the auto workers producing a better car, a unionized shop will code better and reduce fines from the court due to the experience, knowledge and dedication that we bring to the job.

Training

Several studies have found a positive association between unionization and the amount and quality of workforce training. There are a number of reasons for this: less turnover among union workers, making the employer more likely to offer training; collective bargaining agreements that require employers to provide training; and finally, unions often conduct their own training.

Look let's face it we have all sat through the five minute training sessions that we get on whatever Document review program we will be working in, but it is enough? I have had to help many people on the job to find their way around in a computer program where there was insufficient training. I have seen numerous man hours blown waiting for a tech support person to address an issue that a coder has with the software. This is not good for the client of the law firm, and thus not good for the law firm, and thus not good for the contractor. Of course problems like this do not make individual contractors suffer, rather it is all of us that feels the pain if we are not trained properly.

Turnover

Freeman and Medoff found that “about one fifth of the union productivity effect stemmed from lower worker turnover. Unions improve communication channels giving workers the ability to improve their conditions short of ‘exiting.’”

The only way I see. And judging by the blog traffic, the only way most people see of getting change on a project is by leaving. In fact, if I remember correctly, major changes came down at vioxx when they started to see many people leaving after a few months into the project. one of those of course was pizza fridays (big woop

Workplace Health and Safety

Employers should be concerned about workplace health and safety as a matter of enlightened self-interest, after all they could be sued by you each individually. According to an American Rights at Work summary of a study by John E. Baugher and J. Timmons Roberts:

“Only one factor effectively moves workers who are in subordinate positions to actively cope with hazards: membership in an independent labor union. ...These findings suggest that union growth could indirectly reduce job stress by giving workers the voice to cope effectively with job hazards.”

Look, our methods to complain about physical conditions is limited at best. When walls go up to reduce sound problems, they can also put us at risk of death during mass evacuations, or trap in the heat. When boxes of paper are all over the place it is a fire and collapse hazard and it impedes our access to the exits of the building. To many computers on one table fire hazard. People sitting too close without barriers an infectious disease hazard. And what about those rats i nthe kitchen? Coders would be so much happier and not leave so quickly if law firms just treated them like human beings.

...........................................................................................................................

I think the firms have a more direct and higher motivation in all of these areas, and to be quite honest I think the firms would love to see an effective hiring oriented union for document review. They could save costs. Ironically, this is exactly why the contract agencies would hate the idea of a contract attorney union. The likelihood is that it would take money out of their pockets.

Anyway, I will try to be more near and dear to all of your hearts next time, but as always, I could use some more input.

For some of my other discussion on unions, see also:
Unions Part 1, Why should we form one?—Finally…

Thanks,
The Black Sheep