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Omerta posted:No requirement, it's just that I'm a yes man and accept tons of assignments. I'm the only 2L SA in the office, so that means I get all the drafting project, which are really easy to do because of all the drafting I did in my law school classes. Thanks for clearing that up. Are you liking the job though? I'm starting today and I'm extremely nervous
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May 22, 2012 12:31
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Omerta posted:My firm bills me out -- probably at a significantly reduced rate/reported hours. Maybe they're lying to me because I was in total shock when I was told they'd actually bill me out. It doesn't surprise me that they try to bill for your time, but it would surprise me if your bill was actually accepted. Most likely they're billing you at a paralegal rate (which is still ridiculously inflated). Omerta posted:Things I've learned so far this summer: Yes, there are tons of horrible attorneys. A lot of them also outright lie.
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May 22, 2012 14:00
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Lemonus posted:Christ, what is this right wing drivel about 'competition' (i.e. opening more schools) somehow making schools better?! what kind of creative destruction fantasy bullshit is this? There's this crazy right wing movement that is basically "liberal arts bad, practical education good, who cares about research" thing going on. There's a huge struggle at UT Austin right now because one of the governor's cronies who is his point man on education is trying to implement this kind of crap, and he's mad that he didn't get his way so UT Austin is getting a tuition freeze to punish the president of the University (who will probably be out of a job next year anyway) for his recalcitrance. Personally, I think the movement is populated by people who are bitter they weren't smart enough to get into great schools when they went to college (assuming they went to college) 
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May 22, 2012 14:17
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Lemonus posted:
Well, this reveals the author's fundamental misunderstanding of the legal market: quote:You might be surprised to learn I disagree that opening more law schools will hurt future students or lawyers. And dare I say that the average consumer of legal services actually wins. Competition allows for change. Competition allows new programs to be devised, innovation in the delivery of legal education including online programs, and forces those law schools which cling to the old ways and the high tuition costs to suffer a major blow. As costs go down only the fittest and most responsive law school will survive and the students will ultimately determine this. It very well may mean that older, more established law schools will close for failing to change. Lower debt for loans ultimately allows greater access to justice for the general public because lower debt allows the lawyer to make choices, who to service and at what cost. It brings back opportunity for those who get their degree because lower debt means they can choose NOT to practice, too, but utilize their law degree in other ways without feeling as much distress. When you are suffering from crushing debt your choices are few. The author completely ignores the market-distorting impact of federal loan programs. The availability of low-interest federal loans completely fucks over the market pressure on law schools to reduce costs/tuition in order to be competitive. That column is typical of the most basic understanding of economics, and sadly that is what we hear from the right a lot of the time - never mind that the market is far more complex than that sort of freshman-level silliness.
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May 22, 2012 14:18
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nm posted:Yes, at least if they're a 2L. No, it's on its 1L summer.
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May 22, 2012 14:43
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entris posted:The author completely ignores the market-distorting impact of federal loan programs. The availability of low-interest federal loans completely fucks over the market pressure on law schools to reduce costs/tuition in order to be competitive. Do away with guaranteed federal loans or cap how much they'll pay. It's absolutely ridiculous. We have a single payer system now, except the single payer isn't exerting any loving pressure on the sellers.
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May 22, 2012 14:46
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Hello. You may remember my avatar as that of Cwapface, an Australian philosophy grad student who got his knickers in a big twist about fifteen or so pages back over-thinking a paid ride through law school. Today, through a mixture of being very lucky and shamefully privileged, I managed to score an admin job (title is 'paralegal' but calling it that is probably misleading) in a Big Six (Australian biglaw) firm. The partner I'll be working for is frenetic but super-friendly, went to a T14 (rare in Australia), and, as far as I can tell, is extremely well-respected in his field. It's casual work (though at a good rate), but my boss-to-be says the idea is to start off pushing paper, keeping lawyers to deadlines, and doing a bit of grammatical and formatting quality-control on outgoing documents, at first in a small section of his practice with responsibility and scope of work expanding as I progress through my law degree, culminating (assuming I'm competent enough to last three and a half years) in my being already quite extensively trained in certain areas of commercial legal practice by the time I'll be looking to do my articles. So, I'm naturally pretty psyched at having been offered employment at a major firm before even beginning law school, and I'm quite dazed at what an absurdly lucky little turd I am. I would be very grateful for any advice on how to make my start in this job something other than a nerves-addled clusterfuck. Basic tips on what to expect as a paid shitkicker in an international firm and how not to make a total dick of myself are much appreciated. Smudgie Buggler fucked around with this message at 15:43 on May 22, 2012 |
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May 22, 2012 14:47
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HiddenReplaced posted:Do away with guaranteed federal loans or cap how much they'll pay. It's absolutely ridiculous. We have a single payer system now, except the single payer isn't exerting any loving pressure on the sellers. Isn't there a cap on federal loans (which is happily made up by private lenders who know you can't discharge the debts)?
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May 22, 2012 15:32
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evilweasel posted:Isn't there a cap on federal loans (which is happily made up by private lenders who know you can't discharge the debts)? Depends on the type of loan and I don't recall the distinctions.
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May 22, 2012 15:52
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evilweasel posted:Isn't there a cap on federal loans (which is happily made up by private lenders who know you can't discharge the debts)? There is a cap for Stafford loans (6.8% interest), and I think the cap is currently around 24k a year? After that, GradPLUS loans kick in (8.5% interest). GradPLUS loans are guaranteed up to cost of attendance, and the cost of attendance is set by the school, so there is essentially no cap.
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May 22, 2012 16:44
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Agesilaus posted:No, it's on its 1L summer. 1l summers should be seen but not heard (in the courtroom).
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May 22, 2012 16:51
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Good news! It looks like us goons won't have to worry about paying back our student loans anymore! http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202555456097&slreturn=1
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May 22, 2012 17:12
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LASTCAR posted:
Sorry bout the rough spot with the test. Find me in chat I got some goods for you. We should pool non Barbri resources.
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May 22, 2012 17:15
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gret posted:Good news! It looks like us goons won't have to worry about paying back our student loans anymore! No Judge, the secret is that there IS NO way to meet the undue burden standard
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May 22, 2012 17:21
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MechaFrogzilla posted:awesome Columbia advice Thanks, MechaFrogzilla! This was really helpful, actually. I'll probably have more questions for you as I learn more about going there, but I'll try to keep it in PMs or something. Also, congratulations on graduating!
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May 22, 2012 18:41
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At a judicial round table. The moderator asked the judges what their hobbies were. From left to right it was reading, travel and sports. I had to sneak out to keep from laughing.
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May 22, 2012 19:23
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Hey I just met you, and have a JD, here's my resume, so hire me maybe~
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May 22, 2012 19:43
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Won my first trial on a motion for directed verdict. Feels good man.
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May 22, 2012 20:20
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CmdrSmirnoff posted:Won my first trial on a motion for directed verdict. Feels good man. In your face, jury
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May 22, 2012 20:29
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fougera posted:Hey I just met you, I went to law school and got a JD, goodbye cruel world, don't try and save me
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May 22, 2012 20:54
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fougera posted:Hey I just met you, Best part of this is that I read it just as that song came on the radio. Synced up perfectly.
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May 22, 2012 20:59
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Dogen posted:In your face, jury It was judge-alone 
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May 23, 2012 01:41
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sigmachiev posted:Sorry bout the rough spot with the test. Find me in chat I got some goods for you. We should pool non Barbri resources. Excellent, thank you. Didn't know this group was on IRC, too; I like that. 
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May 23, 2012 01:56
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This was my first semester with any classes off the curve. Having gotten some of my grades back, it almost feels like cheating.
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May 23, 2012 04:13
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PatrickKilpatrick posted:Thanks for clearing that up. Are you liking the job though? I'm starting today and I'm extremely nervous I love it. I can't stand 90% of law school, so it's very comforting. I spent 5 hours today researching a really cool bankruptcy problem and time just flew by. I've got nothing but glowing reviews on my work so far and here are some things that helped: (1) check your firm's document management system every time you get an assignment. If possible, search by attorney name for the attorney/partner your project is going to. (2) use google. Firms publish tremendously helpful web alerts and short articles all the time. I usually do a little googling before moving to secondary sources. (3) Crank out a draft ASAP, even if it's poo poo. Reduce it to paper so you have lots of time to edit. Make buddies with the other summers and ask them to proof your work (and do the same for them). It makes you look like a team player and will often force you to explain your answer to someone before you have to explain it to the attorney who gave it to you, which will make you sound more credible when they ask you for the elevator pitch for what you found. (4) Be succinct. Usually, a 20 page memo is the product of someone who was too busy to write a 5 page memo. Nobody cares what the law was or how it came to be what it is now (unless it's a legislative history thing), so just explain the law, apply to the facts, and maybe have a paragraph or two about other issues your assignment potentially raises. (5) Read the complaint and answer. Particularly for smaller cases, opposing counsel fucks up stuff because they're on time deadlines or bad lawyers. I got a discovery assignment, but looked to the complaint/answer before starting and saw that OC hosed up and basically admitted the complaint as true, so I got to deny every RFA and production request as irrelevant. The partner was very appreciative because that takes care of lots of problems for her; she bought me lunch and told me a ton of inside stuff about the firm that'll help me later on. HiddenReplaced posted:It doesn't surprise me that they try to bill for your time, but it would surprise me if your bill was actually accepted. Most likely they're billing you at a paralegal rate (which is still ridiculously inflated). Oh yeah. I'll have to ask what my realization rate is next time I see the office manager. HiddenReplaced posted:Do away with guaranteed federal loans or cap how much they'll pay. It's absolutely ridiculous. We have a single payer system now, except the single payer isn't exerting any loving pressure on the sellers. Have guaranteed federal loans, but require either a 164+ LSAT or a 3.5+ GPA as a condition for eligibility.
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May 23, 2012 04:20
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HiddenReplaced posted:It doesn't surprise me that they try to bill for your time, but it would surprise me if your bill was actually accepted. Most likely they're billing you at a paralegal rate (which is still ridiculously inflated). That wouldn't surprise me. Obviously most tasks can be done better and faster by a lawyer a few years out from the Bar, but some billable chores are going to take a fixed amount of time regardless of who does it (e.g. client in the middle of nowhere is willing to pay travel time to have someone deliver documents for signing, needle in a haystack searches through boxes of files, etc.). Those are good ways to actually get some return on the students. Assuming the associate is willing to give up easy billables...
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May 23, 2012 06:26
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To Big and Mid-Law Transactional Goons: What software does your firm use for automated document proofing? I'm talking about software that does things like compared defined terms for consistency of use, check cross-references, review for undefined use of terms, things like that.
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May 23, 2012 14:17
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SlyFrog posted:To Big and Mid-Law Transactional Goons: Such a thing exists? We don't have anything like it.
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May 23, 2012 14:20
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Thank god we don't know anything about that and neither do our clients.
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May 23, 2012 14:46
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evilweasel posted:Such a thing exists? We don't have anything like it. That sounds like something that look good on paper and horrible in practice.
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May 23, 2012 15:16
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SlyFrog posted:To Big and Mid-Law Transactional Goons:
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May 23, 2012 15:47
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Oh, it most certainly exists. I have used it. It works well. However, for various reasons, my firm does not license it. Therefore, I was wondering what alternatives are out there. (And yes, there is always the devil's dilemma as a billable unit of whether you really want to acquire something that reduces the time you spend billing pointless grind-work.) SlyFrog fucked around with this message at 16:35 on May 23, 2012 |
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May 23, 2012 16:33
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Took my frozen burrito down to the firm cafeteria to heat up in a microwave. Waited in line for a microwave. Microwaved the burrito. Got back to my office, burrito still frozen in the middle. Do I take the burrito back down to the cafeteria for another round of standing in line and reheating? Or do I eat it cold at my desk so that I can continue to bill? The choice is clear. 
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May 23, 2012 17:28
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entris posted:Took my frozen burrito down to the firm cafeteria to heat up in a microwave. Waited in line for a microwave. Microwaved the burrito. Why don't you guys have a kitchen/breakroom with a microwave on each floor? This sounds like a ridiculous efficiency sink. The time you spend in a single week traversing down to the cafeteria to heat something up would easily cover the costs of a loving microwave on your floor. Edit: Some of the partners were arguing they should cater food here every day to encourage us not to leave for lunch. It hasn't happened yet, but I can hope... HiddenReplaced fucked around with this message at 18:34 on May 23, 2012 |
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May 23, 2012 18:30
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HiddenReplaced posted:Why don't you guys have a kitchen/breakroom with a microwave on each floor? This sounds like a ridiculous efficiency sink. The time you spend in a single week traversing down to the cafeteria to heat something up would easily cover the costs of a loving microwave on your floor. My understanding is that there used to be microwaves in the kitchenettes on every floor, but people didn't like the lingering smell of cooked food that apparently wafted out from the kitchenettes.
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May 23, 2012 18:53
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entris posted:My understanding is that there used to be microwaves in the kitchenettes on every floor, but people didn't like the lingering smell of cooked food that apparently wafted out from the kitchenettes. Shortsighted fools!
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May 23, 2012 20:55
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entris posted:Took my frozen burrito down to the firm cafeteria to heat up in a microwave. Waited in line for a microwave. Microwaved the burrito. Microwave in office. You're a lawyer dammit.
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May 23, 2012 21:39
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My office is right next to my kitchen. Today for lunch I cooked a skirt steak.
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May 24, 2012 00:38
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I daydreamed today about a world where student loans were dischargable in bankruptcy. It was like a beautiful utopia where my debt vanished and income went exponential, where rainbows beamed across an empty sky and squirrels danced hand in hand with cats. After the boom, I would retire to my private island. During the rainy season, we would migrate to the mainland home and I would adjunct teach a law class in "How to immediately file your bankruptcy".
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May 24, 2012 01:20
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Minnesota Bar sent out a mass email to many, if not all, persons who needed to renew on July 1, 2012 stating that their licenses were suspended. Oh and it took them 3 hours to correct.
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May 24, 2012 02:45
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