Money, Skaddenfreude

Do You Want Fries With That Insanity Defense?

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One of the “perks” of working in Biglaw is the ridiculous amount of money that gets direct deposited into your account every two weeks. Even if you work for a firm that pays below market rate, your earnings still beat the bag out of what they pay at the local 7-11.

Can you imagine having to take a second job to make ends meet?

Welcome to the world of an assistant prosecutor or public defender. The National Law Journal has some disturbing stories of attorneys putting in double duty to pay off their loans:

“I have lawyers delivering pizzas, I have another lawyer umpiring and another bartending,” said Frank de la Torre, chief assistant at the Broward County Public Defender’s Office. “Many of us could be making more money in private practice, but obviously those of us who make a career in the field of indigent defense do it because we love it and we believe in the Constitution.”

The sad thing isn’t just that they have to take these jobs, it’s that they make more money — bartending or whatever– than they do in the legal profession.

We’ve covered the craptistic pay for government lawyers in the past. Many public attorneys used to be able to pick up some real estate or T&E work on the side. Today? Not so much.

Keep on grifting ’till you drop, or it’s back to the crumbs from the table after the jump.

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The crunch seems to be hitting lawyers with law school debt from private universities the most:

If she had it to do over again, Lisa Palmer, an assistant public defender in Cordele, Ga., would still become a lawyer — but would attend a public law school.

“It wasn’t worth it,” said Palmer, 31, of her degree from the private Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law in Macon, Ga. She now faces $100,000 in debt, or $1,000 a month — more than her $600 monthly mortgage — forcing her to take every side job she can.

Now that the real estate market has dried up, Palmer is teaching business law at two technical colleges. But because she is getting a divorce, she may not be able to continue teaching. “I guess I got sold on the myth that you were going to get out of law school and someone was going to have their hand out offering you a $100,000 job,” she said. In her small town of 4,500 people, that has not happened.

For all of you who did get $160K jobs “handed” to you, remember how the other half lives. It is not pretty.

Moonlighters tackle their legal debt [Law.com]

Earlier: Skaddenfreude: Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be State Public Defenders

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