Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Contract Attorneys

Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Contract Attorneys

The world of contract attorneys isn't our primary focus around here. We make occasional forays into that territory, but for the most part we leave it to sites that can focus on it with more intensity. E.g., Temporary Attorney (aka Tom the Temp).

If the temp-attorney world is your cup of tea, however, then check out this interesting new site, which several ATL readers have emailed us about: Big Debt, Small Law. We reached out to Law Is 4 Losers -- the angry author, who still works as a contract attorney (he just finished a New York project for a large national law firm) -- and we asked him about the origins of the site. He explained:

I was prompted to start the blog for two reasons. First is the membership solicitation from the ABA asking me for $250 in dues and listing all the wonderful things that they've been doing of late to "improve" this profession (curiously, outsourcing my job to India via ethics opinion 08-451 was not among them).

Another reason was my recent NYS Law license renewal of $350. There was no waiver provision or extension for unemployed lawyers. [W]e contract attorneys have to pay health insurance, bar dues, CLE fees, and other obligations out of our own pocket. And at the $28 an hour straight-time now offered by NYC Biglaw (or the $40K small firms are paying), this is a hell of a lot of money. Forcing people to choose between their rent and their job is unconscionable....

I hope to warn incoming One L's and prospective law students about the reality out there behind the slick admissions brochures and silver-tongued charlatan deans who will lie thru their teeth to get their hands on that Sallie Mae loan money. I'd also like to lobby the state bars to offer fee waivers or extensions on dues to unemployed lawyers who can prove financial hardship.

If you're an associate and feeling sorry for yourself, perhaps because your pay has been cut or layoffs are taking place at your firm, Law Is 4 Losers doesn't want to hear it:

Bad as things are for associates, they are 100 times worse for doc reviewers. We've been losing jobs every few weeks or months ever since leaving law school, having no "careers" to speak of, and also no health insurance, severance, or savings.

His most recent blog post -- deeply depressing, but scabrously funny -- describes the misery of temping at two of Biglaw's biggest names: Paul Weiss and Sullivan & Cromwell. And he doesn't pull his punches.