Friday, July 30, 2010

FML

So, I had a meeting with some legal placement lady yesterday.  It looks like I might be about to enter the wild and exciting world of document review. 

Been a licensed attorney for two years and this is as good as I can get.  Awesome.  I don't regret going to law school at all...

4 comments:

  1. I've met with plenty of these placement people the last year or two. They usually call me in, say nice things to me, have me fill out some forms, and then I almost never hear back from them.

    They might answer a couple of e-mails, but then after that they ignore my e-mails and never answer calls.

    Ordinarily if something like this happens, it's because you've got bad references. But I'm 100% certain I have great references as my relationship with my references is great and they've actually written me incredible recommendation letters to use for jobs (they understand I need to make a living so they are perfectly okay with me looking for better full time work).

    I don't think there are really jobs out there, and what jobs there are, they have the luxury of taking extremely overqualified individuals for them. The odd thing is that it's still hard for an attorney to get a non-legal job because of being overqualified for it, but in the legal field itself the overqualified people are selected for the entry level or temporary positions like doc review or shit law now.

    A lot of people are in the same boat as you. I work per diem/part time for a lot more an hour but my work is very sparse. I'm also not sure that most people could get the situation I have, I do a lot of court appearances for several different law firms because apparently these law firms are very comfortable having me represent them in court, yet refuse to hire me. So now I know a lot of judges, court personnel, and clients, but don't have an actual full time job still (I need to really start stealing clients).

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  2. I wouldn't give up your current gig for a document review gig for a variety of reasons, particularly with a placement agency. The work is sporadic. Starts dates are usually never set in stone and projects can end at a moments notice. Also, many projects are overstaffed, so some attorneys are let go before the project is finished. To top it off, rates are decreasing and overtime pay is almost unheard of now.

    Add to this the fact that you will most likely be supervised by either a staff attorney or young associate at a big law firm who is on a major ego trip and will treat you like crap.

    Honestly, given the state of the Chicago job market, your best bet is to stay where you are at. Try and get experience and force the issue if you have to. They seem to like you, so don't take no for an answer. Ask if you can draft a pleading, go to court for someone. BE PERSISTENT.

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  3. Other Anonymous is giving you terrible advice. It is obvious that your current employers think you suck, so why would you keep asking them to make you a real lawyer? You need to find an employer who doesn't yet realize you suck.

    Then, ideally, you would stop sucking. Your current employer must not hold out much hope for that eventuality, because they hired somebody you feel you are superior to (though you seem to think you are superior to everyone, so that's not a surprise).

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  4. I have no intention of giving up my current job. As much as it may suck, it is, at the very least, a steady pay check. I definitely don't want to be completely unemployed once some temp gig finished up.

    I'm basically just looking to pick up some part time stuff. I could work weekends and/or I don't think my boss would mind if I dropped some hours in order to do some temp work; provided I still get my work done.

    Obviously, this is all dependent on my actually getting hired for a temp job.

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