Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto -- Lying, Low Class Sweatshop

Highlighted from the comments section:

"BEWARE of the firm Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto!

This is a firm that this past week started a '6 day project, through the weekend, with intensive hours' on a Thursday (so they won't have to pay any OT), then 'breaks the news' on Friday that 'there will be no work on the weekend and your services won't be needed until Monday night at 6 pm (?) or Tuesday morning for one day.'

This bullshit is occurring right now.

The project was staffed by Special Counsel, which doesn't seem to be a problem agency, at least not as much of a problem agency as FrankenDine, Update, or Lex. It seems that Fitzpatrick might have played them, too.

But you never know with these scumbag agencies - I'm sure common sense would've told them that they'd never be able to staff the project if they gave the real terms.

People have said that Fitzpatrick Cella plays this bait & switch game a lot."


"Horrible. We were shoved into a tiny room with no a/c. Air was stale and hot. We were watched constantly, and leaving the building was extremely difficult, if not impossible. We were cheated out of overtime, and the woman that ran the project tried to deny us our food and transportation, even though we were initially promised the stipend and even though we were required to work past 10 pm."


"Second that!

I was on a case for those assholes months and months ago. They would constantly run out of docs and send us home for a day or more while they reloaded.

While those problems might be IT/Hudson related, there was this asshole:
http://www.fitzpatrickcella.com/attorneys/bio.cfm?id=239

He roamed the cubicles and would literally knock on our cubicle walls if we were talking. Then one day he came up while I was eating my lunch and playing solitaire, very clearly on a break, and yelled at me for wasting billable time. Ironically, that was one of the few times when I wasn't on the clock and wasting billable time, but what did he know.

Anyway, I left that project and despite being called by Alan, Julie and Brett to come to another Fitzpatrick job I turned them down."

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Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto motion passed 48 - 4.

Happy Halloween

"The Wicked Witch? Who could that be? Evelyn from De Novo, Nancy from Update, Nora from Lex?"

I'll get you, my pretty. And your little dog too! Off to the blacklist you go!

Motions

Dechert motion passed 53 - 18.

Hudson Legal motion passed 58 - 37.

Rumors

"Is the TTT school/legal world fraud coming to an end?

A "toilet-law" documentary, 2 posters doing doctorate/academic research of the law school statistical fraud and legal market crash, 'rumors' of the San Francisco DA investigating Contract/Temp Agencies, 1 lawyer jumping off the Empire State Building during the summer, a law student shooting up a law school, and someone mentioned talking w/ book publishers about doing a book about all this along with sending letters to 60-Minutes at CNN. Of course, not to be outdone by the Wall Street Journal Cover last month. Is the facade cracking? Will any change actually happen? If so, what?"

I want to hear more about the San Francisco D.A. investigation rumor. Where are the California Tom the Temps?

Going Bonkers In Brussels

Come to think of it, someone did flip out this summer. Good thing they weren't carrying a loaded weapon.

The "incident" didn't occur in America, but rather overseas on Chelsea Silverman's Brussels project. See the world is flat now, and misery is exported. 12 hour days, stressful and hostile legal work environments are now a global phenomena.

Reports have it that the two suspects were ok separately in small doses. But the combination of the two of them was explosive. They just rubbed each other the wrong way and the bad feelings between them just grew and festered. Neither of them wanted to take the high road.

So when they were alone they just went for it. Rumor has it that there was slapping, screaming, and vicious hair-pulling.

The aggressor, a Jamaican woman who is notoriously colorful, loud, and extremely overbearing with a reputation for being aggressive, was deported back to America.

The San Francisco Sweatshop Overseers Flee To New York

The New York Quinn Emanuel project could never be pulled off quite so diabolically in San Francisco. Unlike New York, overtime is required for any time worked over 8 hours in any ONE day - any time worked over 12 hrs. would require double time. Paid 30 minute breaks are required, so Quinn's shenanigans of docking people when they take a quick bathroom break wouldn't be tolerated. Furthermore, after 30 hrs worked, employees are entitled to one hour of sick leave http://www.laboremploymentlawblog.com/employee-benefits-san-francisco-voters-mandate-paid-sick-leave-for-employees.html. Universal health care is also in the works. E.P. Dine's unenforceable labor contracts (where they try to dock you for 2 weeks of pay, if you dare leave one of their crappy temp gigs) and Lexolution's locking of fire safety doors would engender public protest, or possibly even criminal prosecution.

In reality, what we have is Quinn Emanuel fleeing these worker rights obligations and, with the help of Dickhead Osman, setting up a notorious white-collar sweatshop in the heart of New York City. Tired, worked to the bone, overtaxed, middle class New Yorkers send San Francisco millions of dollars in partner profits, and what does New York get back in return? Haley.

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Who is ready for another week of document review?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TfKTVqKXz4o&mode=related&search=.

Agencies Behaving Badly

Increasingly, certain agencies are secretly paying their contract employees on 1099 so they can increase their profits and not pay unemployment.

Going Postal

"An Indiana University law student suspected of firing shots outside of an apartment building on Bloomington's southwestside today is in custody, police said.

Jesse Sneed, 27, Wood River, Ill., is charged with criminal recklessness with a weapon. He was arrested about 8:15 a.m. when he tried to sneak out of the building and drive away in a vehicle, police said. Police officers secured the scene about 11:30 a.m.

According to sources in the local prosecutor's office, Sneed was shooting his law books, with an automatic rifle."

--Above the Law Blog

I fear it's only a matter of time before someone like this shows up on one of the document review sweatshops. Combine someone who is emotionally unstable and debt-ridden with stressful, crowded, 80 hour a week working conditions, and you have a real recipe for disaster. Whenever I land in one of these sweatshops, I always make sure to be near an exit - if it's not locked by management, that is. If someone loses it and snaps (which is becoming increasingly likely with tuition/debt loads skyrocketing and hourly wages stagnating), I want out.

It's Shitty HMO Time

"Hi Tom,

I have a question that a lot of temps I know are interested in: What are the better (best) health plans offered by the various agencies?

Given the ability to keep health insurance through COBRA and that temps frequently switch agencies when moving from one project to another, many temps are interested in knowing which agency offers the best health plan for their dollar. The reason they would seek to work for agencies that offer preferable plans would be to keep the coverage benefits through COBRA.

Agency web sights almost never offer details (ie price and selection) of the plans they offer. Moreover, most people (attorneys too) don't have enough knowledge about important coverage distinctions to make intelligent and cost savvy decisions. As the recent movie Sicko demonstrates, not all health care plans are created equal and some plans (especially HMO's) do not offer sufficient coverage to warrant the premium they charge.

Do you have any information on this?"

Great idea. It's time for another chart. Plop down agency, city, and HMO plan in the comments section. Thank you for your help.

As far as retirement goes, I would also be interested in hearing what everyone has to say. Tom the Temp personally tries to invest in a Roth IRA through the Vanguard family of funds. http://www.vanguard.com Does anyone actually invest in the agency 401(K), where you have to buy temp agency stock? Bad Idea!

65 Broadway - Satan's Workshop

Dechert is the firm now doing all the production. Hughes Hubbard used to hire people for that project, but now it's entirely done by Dechert. The office is down at 65 broadway and it's an incestuous little place.

All the people doing relevance are in one big room being watched/heavily monitored by a hudson legal person. They are all treated like crap. The people doing priv review are in a different room and are treated better. One of the staff attorneys (who is rumored to be cheating on her husband with a para half her age) used to be a temp so she's buddy buddy and favors some of the lifers (we're talking like 4 years on the same project). TOTAL MESS, to say the least. The people there don't have to be admitted so you get a lot of random desperate stupid people who can't pass the bar and can't leave because they'd never get a job anywhere else.

Alot of projects have weird socially inept people but having been at several jobs since then I can safely say that the people over at 65 Broadway have a high ratio of freaks compared to normal people. They fire randomly and the temps are always fighting with each other (this obese girl used to full on yell and swear at people in the middle of the office but she was "old school" so she'd never get fired).

Joan King

"I thought you would be interested in hearing about a BLS Career Services breakfast held this morning. Apparently the director of Career Services at BLS, Joan King, was asked about her reaction to the WSJ article. (Note: this breakfast is an annual event, and was not held as a reaction to the article).

Ms. King said she was contacted in the research-gathering stage by the WSJ author, who interviewed her about the job market for BLS students. She believes that there were some omissions in the article, and that the writer had an agenda: to prove his hypothesis, without highlighting some additional facts.

[Ms. King] argued that the treatment the article gave to contract attorney work was too derogatory in tone. The article ignored the facts that (1) contract attorney work can be rather lucrative, not only in monetary terms, but in terms of opportunities; and (2) many lawyers like contract attorney work, because of the freedom it allows (and again for the money it offers). She went on to say that they have not heard that the market is being scaled back in hiring, and that the outlook is good."

--Abovethelaw.com


Does this woman ever stop spinning?

Lucrative? While document review hourly rates certainly help puff up a law school's career statistics, contract attorney work really isn't all that lucrative. Unlike Ms. King's cushy position, we have to subsidize our own retirements, pay for our own health insurance, and subsidize own bar dues/CLE's. We don't accrue sick/vacation days, we are repeatedly denied OT pay, and many of us have to repay massive student loans. During a recessionary period, long stretches of unemployment are not uncommon. After the tech bubble bust, a law firm in Silicon Valley staffed a document review for as little as $12 an hour. As outsourcing steams ahead, this is only going to get worse.

The opportunities? In the legal profession, putting "contract attorney" on your resume is akin to smearing shit all over it.

The freedom? The required 80 hour work weeks, the lexolution document review torture chamber, the blacklists, the random mass firings, the moles, the constant micromanagement, the being treated like second class citizens, the lack of internet, the having to sign out to use the bathroom, the cockroaches, etc, etc. Let freedom ring!

Many lawyers like contract attorney work. Has Joan King ever stepped into the Paul Weiss basement? "Like" isn't exactly the word I would use.

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A gift from an anonymous JDUnderground poster:

ODE TO JOAN KING
("They Built This Toilet")

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TxGGckAc1rs.

by Hardship (Deferment)

Chorus:

They built this toilet, they built this toilet, on fraud an' loans
Built this toilet, they built this toilet on fraud an' loans

Say you don't owe me, say that I'm a fool
Say you don't care who goes that kind of school
Neck deep in the quicksand, living in your car
Too many graduates passing that damn bar

Joan King she plays her marks now, lies an' don't ya know, don't you forget her
They built this toilet, they built this toilet on fraud an' loans

Chorus:

They built this toilet, they built this toilet, on fraud an' loans
Built this toilet, they built this toilet on fraud an' loans

Someone's always playing accreditation games
Who cares, no one will ever take accreditation blame
We just want a job now, someone stole the work
They call us self-entitled, write us off as jerks

Ol' Valvoline Dean, he spins tha stats now, lies, an' don't ya know, don't you forget it
They built this toilet, they built this toilet on fraud an' loans

Chorus:

They built this toilet, they built this toilet, on fraud an' loans
Built this toilet, they built this toilet on fraud an' loans

It's just another workday, in a tired old street
Insurance Defense has got the chokehold, and we just lost the beat!
Who counts the money, the kickbacks to the Bar?
Who outsourced our jobs to Third World bazzars?
Don't tell us you need us, 'cos we're just simple fools
Look out America, we're coming for the TTT schools

Don't you forget now (forget now)
The deans they spin the media, listen to the lies they tell, don't you forget now
They built this toilet, they built this toilet, on fraud an' loans

Chorus:

They built this toilet, they built this toilet, on fraud an' loans
Built this toilet, they built this toilet on fraud an' loans

Chorus:

They built this toilet, they built this toilet, on fraud an' loans
Built this toilet, they built this toilet on fraud an' loans

(They built, they built this toilet) built this toilet (they built, they built this toilet now) (repeats out)

Enjoy The Slammer, Mel

"A few years back, when I was on a doc review project at Milberg Weiss, they made all of the contract attorneys wear IDs hanging around our necks. They were bright yellow and said TEMP.

I hope the sleazy Milberg partners recently indicted do prison time."