Comments on: I’m Not a Child So Stop Treating Me Like One

By: Charlie Delta

Charlie Delta — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:09:19 +0000

Firms and agencies will push us around as much, and as long, as we let them. They can keep us off balance and scared because we don’t have a collective voice. They count on lawyers to be individualists, even though the firms and agencies are collective organizations wielding the combined economic power of many investors. We have to operate the same way.

If we complain individually about the unreasonable hours, constantly-falling wages, and demeaning conditions, they don’t even have to fire us: they can just tell us “Your project is over,” and then just never call us for another one. The only solution is for us to do what the carpenters, ‘longshoremen, and other casual workers did long ago: organize.

If we’re intelligent, we can do that in a way that won’t expose us to black-listing and won’t just lose us our jobs.

If you’re interested in helping develop a plan for a democratic and intelligent law temps’ organization (I’m not interested in getting everybody fired), write me at charliedeltaesq(at)gmail.com. Don’t give me your real name or anything else that’ll identify you (you don’t know who I am, after all. We’ll exchange information later, when it’s safe), but give me an email address that you’ll check.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:48:58 +0000

I know how you feel. The description of your work place sounds identical to mine. The only difference is your some what more qualified than me, and I work in a call center.

Seems that education is a bit of a wast, 99% of folk all end up do the same rubbish. Plenty in call centers all have degrees for something or other.

Just think, you can look forward to deathâ€¦

By: LCC

LCC — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:43:29 +0000

Thank you! That is the one thing I find irritating about contracting, is the adult homeroom class atmosphere that some of these projects generate. The constant monitoring, announcements of some new restriction, almost infantile restrictions as to where you go or when you go. Instead of dealing directly with the person or persons who are problems, the administrative part of the firm comes down on everyone. The contempt that some of these adminstrators of the contract attorney projects have towards contract attorneys is so obvious. I knew I had hit a new level of funny on an assignment several months back that had just two attorneys on it. Neither of us even felt comfortable talking to each other because they had three attorneys, in shifts, sitting in the tiny space with us all day. Of course, the attorneys were working on other matters. We would walk out together and figure out how fast can we get this done. Needless to say, that is one firm I will not try to work with again!