It has been over a year since I posted here and much has happened. For one thing, I’m no longer a contract attorney. In fact, I’m not even practicing law anymore, although I’ve held onto my two existing bar memberships, paying the annual dues for old times sake – perhaps just so I can continue to call myself a lawyer (for whatever it’s worth).

Since then, I’ve moved onto other lines of work – most notably I’ve started several online businesses – and have found the Internet to be quite a treasure trove of money making opportunities. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve managed to do quite well online.

For my fellow contract attorneys and tempers still working the salt mines of click-click land, my advice is to get out while you still can. Times are bleak, pay is low, and working hours are getting shorter by the minute – but the legal working situation for temp attorneys is also not going to get any better anytime soon. Contract attorney work is not only a dead end job career wise – but it’ll suck out your soul, pummel your pride, and leave you financially depleted years from now. If you can, try to strike it out on your own as a full fledge attorney. I know it’s incredibly difficult to compete in a market that’s super saturated and getting worse every day, but you must try – for sanity sake. I continue to curse the law school system to this day and continuously pray for numerous plagues to afflict the overrated law firms that choke our social system – but at some point, it’s time to move on to greener (or in my case, less-brownish) pastures.

And read Tom The Temp‘s blog regularly – he’s a morbid dose of social pessimissm and legal comedy for contract attorneys all rolled into one. He’ll bring you down and pick you up at the same time. Misery always loves company and there’s plenty of misery to go around.

Of course, whether contract attorneys are currently being paid fairly as a whole is another issue entirely. For the purposes of this piece, I’m just making a market observation. Although contract attorneys generally get paid the market rate for their geographical location, there are a variety of other factors that determine whether the offer rate exceeds or fails to reach the generally accepted standard:

1. Geographical Location – Probably the biggest factor that determines the appropriate market wage rate and compensation for contract attorneys is where the project will be located. Big cities generally get the bulk of the labor intensive contract attorney work, thus they also tend to offer the highest wage rates and most perks.
   

   New York City and Washington D.C. both currently have the highest rates at $35 an hour with time and a half for overtime. New York City probably flirts in the neighborhood range of $38-40. Any parity with D.C. rates is probably due to oversupply caused by the abundance of city law schools that seem to graduate more and more lawyers every year. Certainly the lack of work due to the current economic recession is causing the job market to noticeably slow down. Disturbingly, many NYC agencies have been taking advantage of the slump by slashing rates, an ominous trend that is frustrating many contract attorneys.
   

   Los Angeles also offers comparable rates, although the city isn’t exactly overflowing with projects, and the lack of steady gigs always seems to put downward pressure on rates. The smaller doc review cities of Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston get the lower end of the wage scale at around $28-$30 an hour plus time and a half for overtime. That’s likely due to the fact that contract project are not as abundant in those metropolitan areas. See this unofficial but handy wage and salary chart for more info.

2. Job Description and Role - Most contract attorneys that perform straight document review get the standard rate for their geographical area. However for mega projects, individuals may sometimes be brought on board to serve as team leaders or quality control reviewers. They are not always guaranteed or given a higher rate, but when they are, the rate is usually a few dollars extra at around $37 an hour for D.C.
   

   Specialized projects that require foreign language knowledge and review skills on the other hand pay substantially more. More common languages like Spanish and French generally pay around $40 an hour. Slightly more obscure languages like Norwegian, Finnish, or Russian pay around $45-50. The premium, most difficult to staff projects involve the Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Asian language projects can fetch anywhere from $50 to 65 an hour with time and a half for overtime. If you are an attorney that can translate Asian language documents, I encourage you to price gouge your local staffing agency up to $70+ if you can. They will bend over backwards for you and more because your skills are a rarity and in extreme demand.

3. Bar Status – Interestingly, even though the DC Bar has already opined that being barred in D.C. is a prerequisite to performing contract attorney work in the state, many D.C. agencies still continue to staff projects using non-D.C. barred J.D.’s. However, many agencies do express high preference for those with the proper D.C. license and most will refuse to pay the standard contract attorney rate without it. Expect to be either rejected outright for project submission if you don’t have your D.C. bar certification or be offered only a paralegal’s wage of about $25 an hour.
4. Experience – Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, contract attorney work consisting of mainly document review does not require substantial legal experience. However, for those of you with more years of document review management experience, you may have more opportunities to be assigned to the privilege review and quality control team. Keep in mind that although it’s sometimes negotiable, usually you aren’t offered any extra compensation for the higher level work. That’s probably why some people avoid second level or privilege review work.
5. Length Of Project – Longer duration projects tend to pay slightly less than those that have shorter duration, at least initially when agencies are fielding candidate offers. The rationale is that – what you lose in wage rate you gain in longevity. From my experience, most people tend to glaze over the duration aspect and prefer to lock onto projects that offer short sprints of high billable hour opportunities. It’s just something I’ve observed and is not necessarily a consistent occurrence.
6. Size Of Staffing Agency – Due to their greater bargaining position, bigger staffing agencies are less generous about negotiating with contract attorneys over their wage rates and more willing to withhold benefits and posture. Small potato agencies have little choice but to negotiate sometimes. They can’t compete on brand recognition so they have to offer greater incentives to entice contract attorneys – thus they usually pay more. For a project that a large agency like Ajilon may pay the standard $35 an hour for, a smaller agency may be willing to shell out $36-$38 an hour. Go with the smaller agencies if you can, although it is true, the number of projects they have to offer simply isn’t as high as the big boys.
7. Market Supply and Demand – When the market’s booming, contract attorneys rake it in. Unfortunately the boom has past and we are currently in a bust period as evidenced by all the recent law firm layoffs. The market is pretty bad right now. There are projects out there but most are for shorter durations and offering less hours. Also, expect to wait longer than usual to come across an offer. Without consecutive, multiple, and simultaneous demands for contract attorneys, wage rates will stagnate in the interim. However, when the market eventually picks up again in the near future and law firm business returns, demand pressure should drive wage rates up. That’s my hope. It’s happened in the past before and it should happen again.
8. Specific Law Firm Managing the Project – Certain law firms are well known for running generous projects – Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom for one. They seem to have a reputation for providing projects that offer full meals, transportation reimbursement, and extended working opportunities for their contract attorneys. They also have a propensity to offer slightly higher wage rates for team leader type positions. Of course, it’s not always this way for every project they manage, but it’s just an interesting tidbit to keep in mind when you hear about projects.

Reflecting On Past and Present Goals But Facing Reality

I am generally an optimistic person so it’s pretty difficult to get me down, but sometimes it’s not easy working as a contract attorney. The temp lifestyle is lucrative and stress free, but the uneasy instability can be hard to handle sometimes. It’s great to preach faith and resiliency, but sometimes reality can be rather harsh and unfeeling. Yes, I am a contract attorney. I bounce from position to position collecting a pretty stellar paycheck from week to week. Projects range from weeks to months to even years, but at the end of it all, I am still on my own. I don’t have my own legal practice and I don’t have a growing client roll to build off from. But therein lies the quandary I am faced with. With 3 years of legal education and the subsequent degree and job experience to show for it, why is it that I haven’t continued to chase my dreams then? The answer is – my goals and dreams in life have changed.

I entered law school with delusions of legal grandeur with the equivalent sense of reality enjoyed by the ostrich that chooses to plug its head into the ground. Upon acceptance of admission, I was immediately cocooned and safe for the next 3 years from working expectations and the real world. My goal was to study hard in law school, get good grades, join a journal team or moot court, and graduate with a perfect lawyer job all lined up.

Reality did not finally set in until my third year and second semester of law school, when one day I looked around and realized that I was in the wrong place. No I was not lost, but I came to the understanding that the practice of law wasn’t the lucrative and exciting profession I had naively envisioned. Gazing at my modest pile of student loans I wondered, was 3 years of expensive legal schooling really worth it? Perhaps my life would have taken a better turn if I had walked a different path.

We Can’t Go Back But We Can Make Our Own Paths From Here On Out

Eventually, we all have to come to grips with reality and recognize the cards we’ve been dealt. Reality is reality, and things can only get better not worse if we’d only take the time to look at all of the positive skills and experiences we have accumulated since the beginning.

I know contract attorneys come from all backgrounds. Not all temps have come to such a realization that the traditional legal rat race isn’t really going to make them happy. Some, and in fact many are still striving for their original law school dreams. If you are one of those chasers, I encourage you to keep striving higher to meet them and not grow bitter with your temping situation. Contract work will cushion your financial transition and allow you to use the opportunity as a stepping stone to a situation better geared to suit your dreams.

As for myself, the goals and dreams I started law school with are no longer mine. I look at my life now and I have many things to be thankful for. My monthly bills are paid and I have an otherwise healthy and enjoyable life. I have the abundance of time and freedom to pursue my non-legal side businesses and investments. Contract attorney work pays very well and I am not even close to wanting. While I might be honed in the art, I know now that I was never cut out to be a legal hustler in the traditional sense. I have other side ventures that drive me now. Talking to other contract attorneys and listening to their stories about their real estate exploits, interior decorating businesses, and even presidential campaign team aspirations – their experiences are reminders that I am not alone.

Those who are determined to maximize their contract attorney opportunities by exclusively working long hour projects will usually have to sacrifice some of their physical, mental, and social needs for the financial payoff. Even Indian workers in our contract attorney parallel universe over there will likely face similar health effects in the long term.

Working Long Hours Requires Substantial Trade Offs

It’s not easy working long hours sometimes. When you are coming in to work at 8 a.m. and leaving at 12:00 midnight, 7 days a week for many weeks at a time, there isn’t much time to do anything else. During those exhausting stints, everything else is secondary and placed on hold. What time is there left to do anything else? When you come home so late and have to sleep right away to get ready to wake up super early again the next day, there isn’t much time to socialize with family, pet the dog, or even to take care of routine household chores. Weekdays blend into weekends and merge back into weekdays without much differentiation. Unless you check the calendar routinely or start etching lines onto the wall to track the passage of days, each day feels pretty much the same.

Contract Project Amenities Are a Blessing And a Curse

Many firms and agencies that host very long hour projects (70+ hours) will frequently try to make it easier for workers to log those type of hours by extending office hours and providing amenities like free catering, reimbursed meals, internet access, free coffee, and even reimbursed transportation and parking costs. All of these extra benefits serve as a blessing and a curse. Without them, there is absolutely no way I’d personally be motivated or driven enough to work the extra hours. But when they are offered, the sirenic financial and convenient lure is difficult to resist. I find myself at the office and the review center at all hours, working away at my workstation for periods of time that seem endless. My regular fitness plans at the gym pretty much go out the window at that point and I live a very sedentary life while the project is underway. I’m only released from this voluntary servitude once the project is over. This is not really a complaint, but more of a social commentary. I guess the financial payoff is so lucrative that I’ve made the decision that any temporary health and social detriments are worth it.

Short Working Bursts Are Okay But Don’t Work Yourself Into The Family Split, Hospital, Or Grave

The article notes that India’s outsourcing workforce frequently face sleep disorders, heart disease, depression, and family discord. The industry is highly profitable but there is a high prevalence of psychological problems, bad diets, as well as excessive smoking and drinking. Since contract attorneys frequently work similar tedious hours and perform similar repetitive work, that might explain why we also face similar health and social problems as well. I guess that might help to explain one of the reasons why I’ve met many contract attorneys with weird, quirky, and mentally odd personalities.

But at least contract attorney work here is generally a daytime position that doesn’t pervasively require night shifts (although there have been 24 hours projects in the past). The Indians that perform outsourced jobs on the other side of the world have to contend with working flipped schedules that demand late evening shifts. Particularly for those Indians that work in the outsourced call center industry, they need to work at night to properly handle daytime calls from the United states and Europe operating in different time zones. I wonder if those in India who might be eventually called upon to perform legal outsourced work would be required to work such flipped schedules to properly coordinate with management activity originating in the United States. If so, they are in for a host of sacrificial problems.

But my advice to legal contract workers here is to try to keep your life in a good balance. Sure you’ll make a ton of money from working long overtime hours, but do take time off to exercise, stretch outside, and go outside for a quick breather. There are many gyms in the Washington D.C. area and although membership may be a bit pricey, I think taking an occasional break during the week to run on the treadmill and shower afterwards might do everyone some good. And stop smoking, it’s expensive and bad for you – but then you already knew that right?

With Contract Work Just Learn To Embrace The Fact That It Is Unpredictable

Contract legal work is very fickle. There is very little durational or job description guarantees. When an agency submits you for a project and promises you 2-3 months work of solid work, the duration terms frequently and do change depending on project conditions. I’ve had 3 month projects turn into 1 week ones, and even a 2 month assignment drag into a 9 month mess. It all depends on the project activity.

This is just the trade-off and essence of contract work. Law firms and corporations hire contract attorneys for short to medium duration assignments because it is more cost effective than retaining a fleet that might not be needed for long durations due to unexpected or indefinite work flow.

When I first started doing this work, I used to always gripe and blame the agencies for falsely advertising and misleading me into taking on a particular assignment that ultimately turned out to be significantly shorter than was originally projected, meanwhile forcing me to give up other opportunities. I think there are a few tricky agencies that do try to inflate the expected hours and duration to snag a few contract attorneys for project submission, but on the whole, I’m not certain that even agencies really know just how long a particular project will last. You should always try to take an agency’s duration estimates with a grain of salt. Don’t nail down irrevocable vacation plans based on their estimations because these type of details tend to waiver. Some agencies are bigger inflaters than others – if they tell me the project will last 2 months, that’s essentially code for 3-4 weeks. If they announce a one month project, be prepared to be there for only 2-3 weeks. It takes some getting used to but the more contract experience you have under you belt, the better your B.S. detector gets.

But It’s All About Knowing That There Will Be Something For You After Your Current One Is Over

As for my expectations of where I’ll end up after the project is over, that is all up to faith – but it’s not blind faith. It’s based on my own previous experience and knowledge about the condition of the market. From my past experience I know that projects are almost always available but that sometimes it may take a few days or a few weeks longer to roll from one into the other. There is no sense in flipping out or panicking when the project is finished. Hopefully you had prudently saved up enough funds to carry you over during periods of downtime and have wisely filed for temporary unemployment benefits to cushion the momentary financial hit. Don’t fret so hard because a project will come knocking soon enough. There is always something going down in lawyer central. Even during recessive periods, there will always be some form of business or legal activity happening in the D.C. metro area.

If you feel like you are waiting around for a long while, take the time to interview and register with the multitude of smaller legal staffing agencies that are popping up everyday. The small fries want to earn your business too so give them a chance by speaking to them during your down time. I’ve found that smaller agencies tend to be more customer oriented than the big agency conglomerates. Of course, faith and expectation only applies to big contract attorney cities like Washington D.C. and New York. Contract legal jobs and projects are not as plentiful or predictably present elsewhere.

The contract attorney experiences of those in New York City tend to be a bit nuttier and off the wall than those in other locations. I’m not sure if this is because of the type of people who do contract work in New York or because I’ve only been exposed to a skewed and limited cross section of opinions, but New York City projects seem to be in a weird world by itself. But for this entry let me just discuss what I’ve learned so far about the L.A. contract attorney experience.

Differences Between Los Angeles. and Washington D.C.

I have a friend who has worked in both Washington D.C. and now in the city of L.A. as a contract attorney, so I decided to ask about the differences between working in these two locations. My friend also solicited comments from current L.A. contract attorney co-workers and here are a few interesting observations:

1. L.A. contract attorneys spend 2-3 hours driving in traffic every day to get to work and spend a ton of money on unsubsidized parking and on the nation’s priciest gas. Most of the work is centralized in the city or on the west-side so getting in and out is a daily nightmare. In D.C., commuting by car is difficult but not impossible. Many choose to avoid D.C. traffic altogether by taking the more convenient Metro subway trains. Yes, they seem to have a propensity to break down and spark mini fires, but they generally run predictably.
2. Subsidized limousine and taxi rides are unheard of for L.A. contract attorney projects. With the nation’s most congested highways and longest commute times it’s not hard too see why subsidized rides home wouldn’t work in L.A. Washington D.C. and New York City are more compact and many live in the city – so it’s a more workable option for the latter two.
3. Projects in excess of 50 hours are rare in L.A. I’ve worked 95 hour projects in D.C. but apparently in L.A., such lucrative extended overtime hour projects are almost unheard of. I’m sure they exist, but they are just very few and far between. D.C. and NYC tend to get the bulk of the juicy long hour projects.
4. Catered meals are not common in L.A. either, although they are the exception not necessarily the rule here in D.C. They are usually offered by agencies and firms to encourage contract attorneys to stay at work longer so you’re more likely to receive catered meals or subsidies when the project office hours extend into the late evening. Since L.A. projects tend to have shorter hours, there is less need or motivation for agencies and law firms there to provide them.
5. The L.A. contract attorney market is very unpredictable and stagnant right now. Welcome to the unstable world of contract attorneys! It’s like that everywhere, although D.C. and NYC tend to have more established and predictable contract attorney job outlooks. Even in a tough economy like this though there are still projects to be had. You just have to dig deeper but they’re out there.
6. There are many non-California barred attorneys doing contract work in L.A. I’m not familiar with California’s bar requirements, but unlike Washington D.C., California does not seem to overwhelmingly require contract attorneys to be barred in their own state. At least not yet.
7. Wage rates in L.A. average around $35 but sometimes they can be as low as $30. Factoring in the high cost of living there, it’s not hard to see why L.A.’ers get the short end of the bargain. Here in D.C. it’s pretty stable at $35 although I’m hoping it’ll rise sometime. NYC seems to have the highest wage rate, but their cost of living is astronomical as well.
8. Overtime regulations in California differ from D.C.’s. In D.C. contract attorneys get overtime of time and a half for hours worked in excess of 40 cumulatively for the week. In California, they get time and a half overtime after working 8 hours every day up to and including 12 hours. They get double rate after 12 hours. Good deal, except they never get to fully take advantage of it due to their mostly low hour projects.
9. Apparently, there are many contract attorneys in L.A. who are also part time aspiring actors, writers, and movie producers. Surprise, it’s L.A. where everyone thinks they are a model or an up and coming actress, hoping to get discovered. Not too many of those in D.C. although I’ve seen and met a few contract attorneys who are always working on their novels and hoping to get published someday.
10. On the whole, L.A. projects tend to be well managed and not very “sweat-shoppy” as my friend put it. I think D.C. projects are generally well managed as well, although there is at least one agency here that enjoys running their projects like a boot camp.

The verdict? Contract attorney work in Washington D.C. pays better, offers better hours, better perks, and offers greater stability with more project opportunities than our brethren enjoy on the west coast. Although I must point out that over there they have much better weather and much better places to eat than here in D.C.

I didn’t really do anything terribly exciting during the holiday weekend but it was a very appreciated rest for the weary. I thought about it but ultimately decided against joining in the Black Friday shopping craze. Those hardcore shoppers are too tough for me and I think my time would be better spent shopping online. Luckily, the associates are out again as usual and we are only about half staffed since many contract attorneys are still out, presumably still suffering from the post holiday I-Don’t-Wanna-Go-Back-To-Work-Wah-Wah syndrome. I totally understand their sentiments. Since work is so slow today, I’ll probably sneak in break time to do some online holiday shopping at my work station and take advantage of post Thanksgiving deals – Cyber Monday they call it.

It’s Not Always Easy Planning Extended Breaks While A Contract Attorney Project Is Still Ongoing

I haven’t taken substantial time off in a long while and this winter I would like to but I think my plans will have to wait a little while longer. My project continues to be extended and now it’s looking like it will last well into the new year. Contract attorney work is generally flexible but its fickle nature sometimes means that vacation plans have to be put on hold until the project has completely run its course. Contract work pays the bills and as much as I’d like to say with all confidence that jumping from one project to another seamlessly is a piece of cake, you never really know for sure.

The temporary lawyer job market ebbs and flows and currently the market is severely dehydrated. Numerous smaller projects are out there, but the key mega ones are a bit lacking right now. I think the real estate mortgage mess and the resulting credit crisis is causing corporations and law firms alike to be more conservative with their business plans. With less corporate activity happening, there is less demand for contract attorneys. But fear not, although the market is slow right now even in a normally active place like D.C., if you follow the contract attorney job forums and postings like I do, you will notice that there still remains a respectable number of active projects. Hopefully the start of a few big projects at one well known firm in the Falls Church area will serve as a catalyst to get things busy around here again.

Delaying Extended Vacations Plans Till Later

Since my working opportunities might be unpredictably murky after this project is over, I think it’ll probably be better for me to pocket the income now when the going is good and still available. Although I generally have day to day working freedom, unlike those who have permanent positions I don’t have the luxury of paid vacations and the security of knowing that my position will still be here when I return. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid. I’ve been generally lucky so far in being able to roll over consistently from project to project on my own terms, but the gravy train might end one day. Maybe eventually my acceptance and patience for this type of high-income-but-unstable line of work will run out, but for now it fits my lifestyle and financial plans.

Okay, back to online shopping, I mean work.

Honestly, it is not difficult to see why law firms and corporations would want to move their man power intensive legal work offshore to countries that command much lower wages. By outsourcing their work overseas, law firms and companies can potentially and substantially decrease their cost of intellectual labor. The natural place to outsource document review is India, an English speaking, low wage, and low cost of living destination. Due to tremendous language hurdles, other low labor cost countries like China or Vietnam would not be feasible so India is probably the best bet.

Despite stories of legal outsourcing that we’ve been hearing about recently, why am I not concerned that the outsourcing movement will affect the contract attorney market substantially? That’s because I don’t think the established conservative legal market will readily accept this type of employment and cultural shift. I also don’t think legal work is as easily exportable as other fields that have been outsourced such as customer service and information technology. This is just my own preliminary take on the matter.

The Conservative Legal Culture Will Resist

The world of law firms, partners, and associates is a very old fashioned and traditional profession, steeped in conservative values. Unlike the private corporate world, law firms have been very resistant to modernization of its cultural norms and old ways of doing things. For example, while corporate America has generally embraced a greater push towards diversity in the workplace, law firms have been very resistant to change, as minorities as a whole still comprise less than 10 percent of all attorneys.

Law firm partners are also generally very old fashioned and I feel they will be very resistant to such employment shifts. Law is still practiced the same inefficient way it has always been practiced. It’s only recently that some courts finally began accepting electronic filing for example. The old bigwigs will not be entirely embracing of the idea of sending tons of privileged and confidential legal work product to a third world country and allow some locals, who they will never meet in real life, ready access to such privileged information.

There will be always be trailblazers in the legal field who will attempt to migrate some legal work overseas, but I truly feel this movement hype will ultimately subside.

Other Outsourcing Attempts Have Not Entirely Succeeded

The concept of outsourcing work to a country with cheaper labor costs is nothing new. But the reality is that outsourcing is fraught with serious confidentiality and adaptation difficulties. There is also the hidden cost of customer attrition. Many companies who have tried to outsource their work overseas have not been entirely successful. They have also not reaped the overall financial benefits they initially expected when they began their outsourcing efforts. Many have ultimately brought the work back in-house.

It’s interesting to read a few stories of outsourced work to India but I just don’t see it happening successfully on a grand scale. Instead, I think the greatest long term threat to the current document review attorney market is technology itself. One day, perhaps many years from now, it is possible that reviewers may be replaced by super efficient software that can keyword sort through documents at lightening speed, completing work in a few minutes that would have taken a lawyer hours or days to complete in the past.

The market will continue to adapt over time and so should we.

I’m writing in response to today’s Wall Street Journal follow-up article on Monday’s piece regarding the dismal state of the legal employment market. The follow-up article reported that Seton Hall law graduate Scott Bullock, the first lawyer quoted in the original article, has finally jumped ship, quitting his law firm job and joining a former high school friend to work as an electrician. The article reported that he’ll be paid the same as his former lawyer job, about $50,000.

Contract Attorney Work Can Be A Great Stepping Stone

Is that how far the attorney job market has deteriorated? We now have lawyers quitting their jobs to become electricians. I wonder why doesn’t he work temporarily as a contract attorney until he gets back on his feet? Many contract attorneys perform document review work for short stints while they plan out their future. It is much easier to plan for the future when you are actively working and paying the bills than when you’re just sitting at home all day, moping about your plight. Performing contract work will keep you productive during the day so you don’t completely fall out of the legal loop. Despite what some may say, document review does entail the practice of law, albeit in its lightest form.

Working as a contract attorney is still a job, and indeed it’s a well paid job. The work is not particularly stressful and there is usually time after work to develop other side opportunities. The wage rate and hours are generally very good and the hours are flexible. Taking time to develop your side business or consider future projects can be performed during your non-working hours. I even see some do it at work during their breaks, talking on the phone to clients of their part time real estate business or like me, typing on this blog during my mandatory lunch break.

I know some contract attorneys have grown very disillusioned with being an attorney and have chosen to exit the legal market altogether. However, I am concerned that these people are wasting the time, money, and effort they previously invested in their legal education. Yes, a law practice is not for everyone, but that doesn’t mean you should ditch everything you’ve learned altogether and go become an electrician. That is, unless being an electrician was your original calling. But for most people, they should keep finding a way to put their education to good use. There are related opportunities out there.

I’ll admit, I haven’t decided exactly what my next professional move will be, but it certainly won’t be what the attorney in the Wall Street Journal Article did. I truly wish him well if that is what he wants to do, but as for me, I didn’t rack up law school loans for nothing! My future move might not necessarily be a legal practice but it will at least have some tenuous connection to my education and previous legal experience.

I’m sure many contract attorneys are also members of The Posse List, and if you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend registering for their e-mail listserv. They protect the identities of their members and offer plenty of contract attorney employment related information. You may have already read the recent market status e-mail from them, but here is the excerpt:

Yes, it is very slow. Things have tightened up for a few reasons, and the mega-attorney projects are far and few between. We believe it’s based on the following reasons:

1. The financial market turmoil has put a number of projects on hold. We discussed the situation with our contacts at various DC and NYC law firms (associates and staff attorneys we have known a long time who are in the loop on projects that will need contract attorneys) and they pretty much hone to the same line: “the deals that must be done by fiscal/calendar year end December 31 are in progress. Everything else can wait”. If you monitor DealBook, Deal Digest, and Deal.com you get the same story. Postings for contract attorney work on Craigslist and Monster.com are also down for DC, NYC, LA, San Francisco, and Chicago.
2. The new changes in the DOJ/FTC review process (instituted last year) have cut-down on the number of attorneys needed for projects, as well as the review time needed for those projects. For example, Google/DoubleClick, a huge deal, got done with a total of 80 attorneys on both sides. (later corrected to 90 on the Google side and 40 on the DoubleClick side)
3. We monitor Hart-Scott-Rodino filings, and they are also way down. Angela also tracks corporate activity through SEC filings via our Edgar search programs and activity is quiet.

   That does not mean nothing is going on. Based on D.C. Posse member feedback, we count between 10-15 projects out there, though all are small. NYC Posse members rang in with about 10 projects. There are not a lot of complex litigation reviews around but we counted about 3 in D.C. and 5 in NYC based on Posse member feedback. And there are a lot of small (1-3 attorney) projects.

   NOTE: We do not get/hear about/see everything. When the market is this slow, agencies can staff internally. And of course there’s Intel out in Falls Church.

   Markets will fluctuate. We saw this “dry” pattern post-9/11 through mid-2002. Our busiest listserv right now is foreign language, with Europe a close second. There are two large (comparatively speaking) reviews in Brussels: one in progress and about to ramp up. And before you swamp us with emails, the first prerequisites: you need to be an EU national with either a U.S. law degree or a U.S. LLM. Those projects are posted to our Europe listserv. Go to [The Posse List] to see/subscribe to our various listservs.

   The good news: of the 10 D.C. law firms we spoke with, we guesstimated they’d generate about 8-10 projects between now and end of the year. One of those DC law firm has 3 projects in the pipeline.

   The NYC firms saw about the same, but none are big projects. We will see it when we see it. As indicated, these were guesstimates.