Associate Life Survey: Poll Positions
We received 836 responses to Monday’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on whether you’ll be volunteering your services on Election Day, and the results are pretty remarkable. Over 40% of practicing attorneys who took the survey said that they would be helping out:
* 23% will be working as election monitors.
* 11% will be staffing call centers.
* 7% will be members of a legal response team.
* Another 7% are still deciding whether to volunteer.
Law students are even more active, with 46% planning to work as election monitors, 6% staffing call centers, and 9% supporting a legal response team.
Interestingly, Obama supporters were much more likely than McCain voters to spread their time around for Joe the Voter, with 30% working as election monitors (vs. 15% of McCain voters), 12% staffing call centers (vs. 4%), and 9% working in legal response teams (vs. 5%).
Formal law firm support also had a pretty substantial impact on attorney participation in next Tuesday’s efforts, especially among attorneys staffing call centers:
* At firms counting the work as billable time, more than two thirds of attorney respondents will be volunteering their services (31% as poll monitors, 30% in call centers, and 7% in response teams).
* The percentage of volunteers drops slightly, to 60%, at firms that consider the work pro bono but non-billable (31% poll monitors, 18% call center staff, and 11% in response teams).
* But at firms that give no credit at all, only 34% of respondents have decided to volunteer on Election Day (24% as poll monitors, 2% in call centers, and 8% in response teams).
Quite a few firms will be giving credit. 27% of respondents said that they can indeed count their service toward their billable hours, including associates at Cleary Gottlieb, Cooley Godward, Davis Polk, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Goodwin Procter, Hogan & Hartson, Katten, Kelley Drye, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham, Morgan Lewis, MoFo, Orrick, Paul Hastings, Ropes & Gray, Shearman & Sterling, and Skadden. Another 12% of respondents will count their work as pro bono, but not billable time.
That said, though, roughly a third of respondents said that their firms would not be providing any credit for volunteering next week, and about a quarter of you weren’t sure.
In addition to firm support, there’s quite a bit of peer support going around. More than half of attorney respondents noted that their firm colleagues were also volunteering next Tuesday. 41% said that both partners and associates were pitching in, while 11% said that other associates were signing up, but not partners.
Actual participation may be even higher though, as 38% of respondents weren’t sure whether other attorneys at their firms were getting involved. Only 9% of respondents said that neither their peers nor their partners would be volunteering next week.
So, overall, it looks like next Tuesday’s going to be a pretty quiet day at the office. Probably a good day to do some volunteer work. (You can still sign up here or here.)
—
Justin Bernold is a Director at Lateral Link, the sponsor of this Associate Life Survey.
(37) 
Comments
Comments hidden for your protection. Show them anyway!
*hands out resumes at polling locations. 'yes we can' find me a 1L sa position!*
-nervous T-10 1L
FIRST!
FIRST!
DPW *has* no billable hour requirement, so it's not really accurate to say such work "counts" in that sense.
I was going to vote for Obama, but I just realized he's black.
Yae! The real nervous is back. *hugs nervous, notices he slipped a resume in my pocket*
7TH HEAVEN!
i'm nervous about being beaten by my family at thanksgiving because they are so sickeningly ashamed of me
-nervous T-10 1L
masterb8
At my T-14 elementary school we got to watched movies in class when lots of kids were absent. Maybe that’s what we will do in torts on Tuesday.
Remember: Once you go black, you get tested in a generated international crisis.
Luckily for Obama, there's a good chance it'll just be a paternity test. <-More or less offensive than the Marin's Mormon joke?
Yes, but what's happening with Thelen? (Sorry, force of habit.)
Is anyone else concerned that Obama was raised in Indonesia by a WGWAG relationship?
Why isn't McCain running ads on this?
McCain voters will be working to support our families. In anticipation of an Obama presidency we will have to work twice as hard because we have to support everyone else's family too.
WGWAG?!?!?!?
15: Shocking I know. I just realized that we could have a WGWAG step son in the White House! Tell your friends, we must stop the infiltration of WGWAG!
selection bias...
It's "interesting" that Obama youth squads are "monitoring" elections at a greater rate than conservatives? They're trying to micromanage everyone's vote ("helping" the mentally handicapped to vote for Obama; "helping" crazed homeless people get to the polls and giving them ACORN voter guides; etc.).
Conservatives just want people to vote on their own accord. Liberals always think they have to have their hands in everything. Of course, that applies to our liberal leadership as well.
Is a WGWAG like a wigwam? They sound similar. If so, I think its great, and I'm all for having a native american president. After all, this was their country first.
Hmm, come to think of it, Palin's husband is half Eskimo, and Trig Palin is a quarter, so I'm not sure I can vote for Dances Like a White Guy just based on his heritage. This voting thing is hard!
Pursuant to federal election law, any firm that treats volunteer work on behalf of a campaign as billable or pro bono -- as opposed to requiring the time to be taken and designated as "vacation" -- is making a contribution-in-kind to the campaign. This is a serious problem. It is shocking that any firms would do this.
18, and "helping" voters who have been challenged by members of a party that wins elections depressing turnout.
19: WGWAG is white girls with asian guys. Obama's mom was white and her second husband was Indonesian.
WGWAG's are a rare breed.
20, poll monitoring is non-partisan.
"Poll monitoring" is the liberal word for gestapo election engineering.
And, #21, stopping Mickey Mouse and Bettie Boop from voting dozens of times is not "depressing turnout."
ACORN has been behind this for at least a decade.
Elie cemented ATL's total lack of credibility on any political topics when he refused to post anything about Obama's views on "redistributive justice" and the Warren Court...
So please...whether it is Elie, Justin, or whoever is writing....please refrain from posting anything about politics unless you are willing to retreat from partisan hack-land.
Mayer Brown counts it as pro bono, but since all pro bono hours count as billables for bonus purposes anyways, it's effectively counted as billable time.
I don't know any firms that are giving credit for working through one of the campaigns, as that would be considered a contribution. It has to be through a non-partisan outlet such as Election Protection to get hours credit.
"Election Protection" may claim to be non-partisan, but it's just another left wing activist group supported by radical groups like LaRAZA. What a joke.
Look at all their sponsors; notice a theme?
http://www.866ourvote.org/partners
Yes, a "non-partisan" outlet such as Election Protection.
Yes, a "non-partisan" outlet such as Election Protection.
Ah, the return of WGWAG. It all comes full circle.
What about just being a good old poll worker? Isn't that good enough anymore? They certainly need the young folk.
27,
Stop being a douche. National Counsel of La Raza is not partisan or radical.
http://www.nclr.org/
The volunteer call centers that law firms are giving credit for are non-partisan, not on bahalf of either campaign. the people working in the partisan call centers have to take time off and don't get credit.
The volunteer call centers that law firms are giving credit for are non-partisan, not on behalf of either campaign. the people working in the partisan call centers have to take time off and don't get credit.
For what it's worth, Dechert also credits pro bono hours toward the minimum billables.
Katten will only give pro bono credit if you do election protection for a non-partisan organization. God forbid that pro bono be used for advocacy.
Partisan call centers are awesome, even if they aren't billable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8Uc5BFogE