The "Swine" Group Pigs Deflate the Rate!

Our pals at The "Swine Group" aka EP Dine aka "Franken-Dine" aka "EP Slime" are hard at work "deflating the rate" with this new $25 an hour cattle call that needs 100+ bodies:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/lgl/1554510102.html

As predicted on this blog months ago, the new waves of recently-admitted lemmings will drive rates to shockingly low levels. We're reached the point where agencies are testing new floors for doc review rates daily, and don't doubt that they'll fill this job w/in hours. Don't be surprised if we see rates fall to the high teens or very low twenties by mid-spring. Remember, the NY Bar 1st Dept has a big admissions ceremony in January, and then in March all the out-of-staters head up to Albany for that swearing-in. The agencies are licking their chops at this new group of desperate, heavily indebted lemmings who will code like crazy and ask for more! We learned a couple days ago that a Hudson job that's happening in NYC right now is paying $27 flat and was filled w/in hours with admitted NY attorneys.

(Another rumor awaiting confirmation is that the infamous Deloitte/Barasso gig in Westfield NJ cut the rate for incoming coders from $29 to $25- can any T the T readers confirm this?)

We certainly hope that all experienced coders boycott this project. At that rate, you might as well drive a truck or wait tables and preserve at least a bit of your pride. Posts like the new Swine project really remove all doubt that we're in an ugly, bumpy race to the bottom out in doc-review land.

*UPDATE: We learned today at Tom the Temp that the $25 an hour Dine project is at Huron Consulting. Another agency, Synergy, is staffing Huron gigs at $33 an hour and have been for some time. Apparently, Dine is simply testing the bottom to see if they can steal a few more bucks from the coders and pad their already fat bottom lines.
L4L

Ethics Complaints Dismissed

Norwich bankruptcy attorney Zenas Zelotes

Friday, January 15, 2010
Attorney Ethics Complaints Dismissed

Ethics Complaints Dismissed In Total Attorneys Case
The Connecticut Law Journal by Douglas S. Malan - January 15, 2010

Grievance complaints were dismissed Friday afternoon against five Connecticut attorneys who have done business with Total Attorneys Inc. of Chicago. A Norwich bankruptcy attorney has grieved 12 attorneys in Connecticut more than 550 attorneys in 47 total states claiming that attorneys participating in the Total Attorneys network are paying for referrals, which is a felony offense in this state. Connecticut-licensed attorneys Matthew Rousseau, Gregg Wagman, Steven Lesko, Kenneth Lenz and Russell Small all have been cleared by the Statewide Grievance Committee. It’s likely that the other seven complaints, including one against Manchester attorney and State Rep. Ryan Barry, will be dismissed similarly, though a time table isn’t evident. The short summary decision offered no insight into the three-person hearing committee’s logic behind the decision. A full-length decision is due in two weeks. Chief Disciplinary Counsel Mark Dubois declined to comment until the full decision is released.

Connecticut was the only state to hold formal hearings on the matter. Those hearings occurred in November. Several other states had decided to take no action on the complaints. For defendants who have been part of a massive ethics complaint that was launched last spring, Friday afternoon offered a lot of peace of mind. “We’re delighted with the decision and hope it ends this particularly difficult piece of legal history,” said Raymond Garcia of Garcia & Milas, who was local counsel for Total Attorneys. Kimberly A. Knox and Brendon P. Levesque from the high-powered Hartford appellate firm Horton, Shields & Knox represented Wagman and Lenz. Levesque said it’s “been a crazy ride.” Levesque added, “We are thrilled that Connecticut has dismissed the grievance complaints. Our position has always been that this is simply lawyer advertising.” The company operates numerous web sites for different practice areas that all work the same way: Attorneys pay $65 to receive leads on potential clients who enter their zip code and other contact information through the web site. There’s no guarantee that the leads will turn into paying clients. Total Attorneys says its business model allows lawyers, who are mainly solo and small firm practitioners, to pool resources and pay for group advertising online.

Posted by Corrupt Courts Administrator at 10:13 PM



Politician-Lawyer Named In Ethics Complaint
By DOUGLAS S. MALAN
LINK

State Rep. Ryan Barry, (pictured above) the co-chair of the legislature’s Banks Committee, is under fire after a local grievance panel found probable cause Friday that Barry engaged in unethical conduct through his Manchester law practice.

The finding does not mean Barry broke any laws or violated any ethics rules, but that his case is ripe for further review.

Barry is one of 12 attorneys in Connecticut who have been swept up by a massive ethics complaint filed against Total Attorneys, a Chicago-based business, over accusations that the company’s business model results in attorneys paying for referrals, which is a felony offense in Connecticut. Grievance officials have found probable cause for ethics violations against 11 of the attorneys.

Attorney Kimberly A. Knox, of Horton, Shields & Knox in Hartford, represents Barry and other Connecticut-licensed attorneys who have done business with Total Attorneys. She said current ethics rules established before the digital age have been wrongly applied to lawyers attempting to grow their business through the Internet.

“The advertising that forms the basis of the probable cause finding is not a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct,” Knox said in a written response to the finding. “The public’s need to know about legal services is fulfilled in part through advertising and the interest in expanding public information about legal services ought to prevail over considerations of tradition.”

Barry deferred to Knox for response to the finding.

Norwich bankruptcy attorney Zenas Zelotes filed the original complaint against Total Attorneys and its affiliated lawyers this spring, naming five attorneys. A supplemental complaint named an additional seven attorneys licensed to practice here.

Zelotes has targeted more than 550 lawyers in 47 states for their business dealings with Total Attorneys. The company operates numerous web sites for different practice areas that all work the same way: Attorneys pay $65 to receive leads on potential clients who enter their zip code and other contact information through the web site.

There’s no guarantee that the leads will turn into paying clients. Total Attorneys says its business model allows lawyers, who are mainly solo and small firm practitioners, to pool resources and pay for group advertising online.

Barry is name partner and founder of Barry & Barall where his general litigation practice includes commercial litigation, employee benefits and criminal law matters.

He entered into a relationship with Total Attorneys in July 2008 and was featured on two web sites -- totaldivorce.com and totalcriminaldefense.com. He terminated those contracts earlier this year after “very little business was generated,” according to Knox.

The panel found probable cause that Barry violated Rule 7.2 of the Rules of Professional Conduct that prohibits giving “anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer’s services.” An exception includes paying the “reasonable cost of advertisements.”

The Statewide Grievance Committee will now set a hearing date.

Knox said Barry had no direct contact with anyone who contacted his firm through the Total Attorneys web sites; Barry’s partner, Maria C. Barall, handled all contacts.

Barry was elected to the state legislature in November 2002 as a Democratic representative for Manchester. In addition to being co-chair of the Banks Committee, he’s also a member of the Finance, Judiciary and Revenue & Bonding committees.

Four states have decided not to pursue Zelotes’ complaints. Connecticut is the only state that has found probable cause for ethics violations.

Last month, a formal hearing was conducted for Matthew Rousseau, a Massachusetts-based bankruptcy attorney who is licensed in Connecticut. His was the only case to be heard by a three-member ethics commission in Hartford. Rousseau’s lawyers moved to dismiss the case.•

Grievance Officials Target Legal Web Site
Connecticut Law Tribune
Monday, November 16, 2009
Copyright 2009, ALM Properties, Inc.

Hearing focuses on whether lawyers pay for referrals
By DOUGLAS S. MALAN

A Connecticut-licensed attorney ensnared by a nationwide ethics complaint moved to dismiss his case last week after a six-and-a-half hour hearing before a three-member ethics commission in Hartford.

The decision on the motion could have an impact on more than 550 lawyers in 47 states who have done or are doing business with Total Attorneys, a Chicago-based company that helps connect consumers to lawyers through web sites such as www.totalbankruptcy.com.

Norwich bankruptcy attorney Zenas Zelotes filed grievances against all of those lawyers, arguing that Total Attorneys’ method of connecting the parties is an example of lawyers paying for referrals, which is a felony in Connecticut and a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

For a $65 fee, attorneys who sign up with Total Attorneys receive leads on potential clients who enter their zip code and other contact information and click for a “free consultation.” The potential client is routed to the fee-paying lawyer who is closest to that zip code, and the lawyer has exclusive rights to all leads in that zip code.

Matthew Rousseau, a Massachusetts-based attorney licensed in Connecticut, is one of 12 lawyers licensed in this state to be named in Zelotes’ complaints. Five of those attorneys have had probable cause found against them.

Rousseau’s case was the only one heard last Thursday because his was the first in which probable cause was found.

Chief Disciplinary Counsel Mark Dubois argued that the Total Attorneys model violates state law and ethics codes because it is recommending a lawyer to people who enter their contact information. “We got in all of the evidence [during the hearing] that we needed to get in,” Dubois said. “The facts are not disputed. It’s just a matter of whether there were rules violations.”

Like Google?

Attorney David Atkins, of Pullman & Comley, represents Rousseau and two other Connecticut lawyers under fire. He moved for dismissal of the case, arguing that the Total Attorneys set-up is not recommending any lawyers but is just pointing people toward attorneys who choose to advertise with the company, similar to Google’s advertisement model.

“The Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel cannot establish what it must establish by clear and convincing evidence,” Atkins said, that Total Attorneys is recommending lawyers to the public.

Zelotes said TotalAttorney is not the same as Google. While the search engine is selling advertising, he said, the net effect of the Chicago-based site is to provide direct referrals to lawyers. However, he acknowledged that at last week’s hearing, that he “got a sense from the questioning that the committee may not have [understood] the distinction” between Google’s model and Total Attorneys’ model.

If the motion to dismiss is granted, all of the Connecticut cases will be dropped. If the motion is denied, testimony in the Rousseau case will resume and the door will open for additional hearings. “Whatever the decision is, it will open a lot of eyes and we’ll see where we stand with all of this,” Zelotes said.

At least one state has already made that determination. Last month, Hawaii’s disciplinary counsel completed a full inquiry and decided that there was no basis to take any action on the ethics complaints filed there, mainly because the complaints raised First Amendment free commercial speech issues. •

Solo Cheerleaders say we're "whiners"

Came across this post on good old Solo Practice U's website:

http://buildasolopractice.solopracticeuniversity.com/2010/01/11/dont-be-a-victim-of-the-victim-mentality/


You really gotta hand it to the solo cheerleader shysters and their denigration of anyone not swilling the $595 "Solo Practice U" Kool-Aid! Who knew that forking over $595 for a bunch of YouTube clips of fellow solo losers was the fast-track to success?

Fact is, American lawyers cannot compete with a continent full of unlicensed third-world "lawyers" who will cut, paste and code the same slop-work garbage as us for 1/100th the pay. It's like a baseball game where one side gets 3 outs and the other 15. You cannot compete on a playing field that unlevel. And lest we forget, LegalZoom has stolen most of the makework garbage like LLC formation and wills, while the terrible economy and unemployment make it impossible for DWI and other shitlaw quasi-criminals to pay even modest attorney fees.

And if solo practice is so lucrative and fufilling, why aren't these people out there doing it? By their deeds you shall know them.

L4L

Fakes and Forgeries

The Associated Press reported in today's NY Times that Italian authorities last year recovered thousands of looted art and antiquities valued at close to $240 million US dollars. The story said: "Police figures show the number of illegal archaeological excavations discovered in 2009 decreased dramatically, from 238 in 2008 to just 58 in 2009. But at the same time, the number of people charged with falsifying artwork rose more than 400 percent."

The fact is that forged art exists in the marketplace, and this newspaper report serves as a caution to stay alert. Authenticating artwork is an essential component to ethical collecting. One should take time to ensure that a piece is not just looted or illegally exported, but that it is genuine.

Junior Associates in India Earn $8100 a year

Good luck competing with folks who pay no bar dues, student loans, CLE fees, and work hard for 8 grand a YEAR:

From Bloomberg.com (link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aBo8DnfekWZQ


(Bloomberg) -- Bruce Masterson, chief operating officer of Socrates Media LLC, asked his outside counsel to customize a residential lease for all 50 U.S. states in 2003. The firm's estimate: about $400,000. He rejected that price tag and hired QuisLex, in Hyderabad, India, which did it for $45,000.

``It was good quality,'' said Masterson, whose Chicago-based company publishes legal forms on the Internet. ``We've been working together ever since.''

Clients are pushing law firms like Jones Day and Kirkland & Ellis to send basic legal tasks to India, where lawyers tag documents and investigate takeover targets for as little as $20 an hour. The firms are reacting to a trend that will move about 50,000 U.S. legal jobs overseas by 2015, according to Boston- based Forrester Research Inc.

``The objective is to have only the most valuable people in London or New York, and the others in India, China or Columbus, Ohio,'' said Robert Profusek, co-head of the mergers and acquisitions practice at Jones Day in New York, who sends low-end work to the cheapest locations and plans to open a document center in India. ``Lawyers are service providers. We are not gods.''

Companies with in-house legal departments in India include Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont Co., San Jose, California-based Cisco Systems Inc., and New York-based Morgan Stanley, according to ValueNotes Database Pvt. The Indian legal services industry will more than quadruple to $640 million by 2010 from $146 million in 2006, Maharashtra, India-based ValueNotes said.

General Electric

General Electric Co. sends about $3 million a year in routine legal work to its Indian affiliate, said Janine Dascenzo, the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company's managing counsel for legal operations.

``India has very talented lawyers,'' she said. ``But it's a misconception that you can just send work there and it gets done. You need proper supervision and security.''

Kirkland & Ellis, the seventh-largest U.S. law firm, works with offshore attorneys at the client's request, said Gregg Kirchhoefer, a senior partner in the firm's outsourcing and technology transaction practice.

``I'm not an advocate of offshoring legal services, but having worked in this area for so long, I understand the value of the model,'' he said. Typically, clients hire a provider and Chicago-based Kirkland helps manage the attorneys, Kirchhoefer said.

Markup Disclosure

U.S. law firms are required under ethics rules to disclose markups on what they pay foreign attorneys who aren't licensed to practice law in the U.S. Such rules don't apply to legal work performed by lawyers admitted to practice in U.S. jurisdictions.

Traditionally, law firms pay U.S. contract attorneys $50 to $65 per hour and bill clients up to three times the fee. For work performed by associates at the law firm, firms typically bill clients about $250 to $400 an hour.

Armed with the knowledge of how little law firms might pay for offshore work, corporations can use the threat of cutting them out and sending legal tasks overseas on their own to force law firms to reduce fees.

``Law firms can earn more by using labor they can mark up without disclosure,'' said Stephen Gillers, professor of legal ethics at New York University School of Law in Manhattan. ``But clients are knowledgeable about costs, and they want to negotiate the markup on these charges.''

Trend

Not every law firm has accepted the trend.

``Some firms are spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt,'' says David Perla, co-chief executive of Pangea3 LLC, an offshore legal services company based in New York and Mumbai. ``They see any competition as bad and they'll raise any issues as to why you shouldn't go offshore.''

Of the 10 highest-grossing U.S. law firms, seven declined to comment on outsourcing. Only one, Chicago-based Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, said it doesn't use the practice.

``I don't think law firms are ashamed of offshoring,'' Perla said. ``The firms that are having success with it aren't talking, because they view it as a competitive advantage.''

Of about 100 third-party legal services providers in India, clients give top marks to Pangea3 and New York-based Integreon Managed Solutions Inc., according to The Black Book of Outsourcing, a survey published in July by Clearwater, Florida- based Brown-Wilson Group Inc.

About 80 percent of Pangea3's clients are corporations and 20 percent are law firms, Perla said.

`In-House'

``Some firms are coming to us because in-house clients suggested it or pressured them,'' Perla said. ``Others want to come to the client first and offer a solution.''

Integreon, which provides legal services in India, the Philippines and Fargo, North Dakota, has long-term contracts with about 45 companies and 15 law firms, said CEO Liam Brown.

Law firms contribute 45 percent to offshore revenue, while corporate law departments contribute 36 percent, ValueNotes said.

Integreon recruits lawyers from second-tier law schools in India and managers from the litigation practices of firms such as New York-based Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Brown said. After training in India, managers relocate to New York or Los Angeles.

In India, legal education is based on common law, conducted in English, and requires two or three years of classes. The country produces about 80,000 law school graduates a year, according to ValueNotes, compared with about 44,000 in the U.S.

Offshore companies charge $10 to $25 an hour on low-end work and $25 to $90 an hour on advanced jobs. Junior Indian lawyers might earn as much as $8,160 a year, according to ValueNotes, compared with the $160,000 average salary for associates in major U.S. cities.

Janice D'souza, 26, a lawyer in Pangea3's litigation and research department in Mumbai, says she makes three times as much as she would at an Indian law firm.

``At an Indian law firm, generally your potential is not recognized at an early stage,'' D'souza said. ``Here it's talent- based. In the near future, I think I will be a department manager.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Cynthia Cotts in New York at ccotts@bloomberg.net and; Liane Kufchock in Southfield, Michigan, at lkufchock@bloomberg.net

Legal Tools for Artists

The Carving Studio in Vermont is holding a workshop in July. It is titled Legal Tools for Artists. Go to the link at carvingstudio.org/workshops/courses.asp

Out of State Licenses and NYS DWI

As is often the case with students attending Cornell University, Ithaca College, or SUNY Binghamton I have clients with driver's licenses from many different states, and sometimes even different countries. With criminal charges pending, often a DWI, wasting time by waiting for things to improve on their own accord is futile.

There are unique and collateral issues that need to be dealt with early in the majority of situations. For instance, if someone is from New Jersey and holds a NJ license, and now is a student residing in New York State, and if their future plans include staying in NYS for a number of years then why are they maintaining a NJ driver's license? Is it in there best interests, financially and functionally to maintain their NJ driver's license? These issues may not be as pressing until I tell them that because they hold a NJ driver's license their NYS DWI conviction is going to cost them $1000/year for three years ($3,000 in total) in NJ, and then another $250/year for three years in NYS. In addition, NJ will suspend their driving privileges for 210 days (with NO conditional or restricted license privileges).

So waiting to hire a lawyer is not a good idea. In fact hiring a lawyer not conversant in how a DWI/DUI conviction can impact your state's driving privileges is a bad idea.

Any lawyer can do any type of legal matter. BUT will they do a good job is another story. Will they be thorough? Will they understand the collateral consequences? Just today I got an email:

"First and foremost, I'd like to say that ive gotten more information from you on your website than i did from my own lawyer! My question is...."

So my advice:

Always Hire the best Bankruptcy lawyer for your bankruptcy!

Always Hire the best family lawyer for your divorce!

Always Hire the best estate lawyer for your will and trust!

Always Hire the best business lawyer for your incorporation!

Always Hire the best real estate lawyer for your house closing or sale!

Having a generalist lawyer handle your case "may be" like having your family doctor (GP) handle a foot problem (instead of a podiatrist) or

handle a back problem (instead of a Chiropractor or an orthopedic surgeon) or

handle a skin problem (instead of a dermatologist) or

handle a psychological problem (instead of a psychologist)

Don't tell me but he's been practicing for 25, 30, or 35 years so he knows what he's doing. Remember the world is dynamic. The laws are constantly changing, the days of the generalist are over, and staying current and focused is the best strategy for long term success!