Legal blogs and trade publications have been writing about “The Death of Big Law” for months. But now it’s official. The patient has been pronounced dead by no less an authority than the New York Times. Who needs the fat lady to sing when the Gray Lady has spoken?
First, a quick caveat. Obviously Biglaw hasn’t “died”; large law firms continue to exist, and they continue to be very profitable. They may have to evolve with changing times, but they are still with us, and they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. What has died, rather, is a certain version of Biglaw, full of fabulosity, fun and frothiness — think Biglaw, circa 2007. May it rest in peace.
So, on to the article. It appeared in print in yesterday’s Sunday Styles — yes, the Style section, normally the home of wedding announcements and trendspotting pieces (sometimes of questionable validity). Despite its location in a guilty pleasure of a section, however, it’s a solid and hard-hitting piece.
The reporter, Alex Williams, begins by discussing The Deep End, the new ABC show set in a law firm (and previously mocked by Elie). It features associates having tons o’ fun — which makes it ridiculously outdated (assuming it ever was accurate). Williams writes:
“The Deep End” was conceived in 2007, that halcyon era of $160,000 starting salaries and full employment even for law grads who had scored in the 150s on their LSAT’s.
Those days are over. As the profession lurches through its worst slump in decades, with jobs and bonuses cut and internal pressures to perform rising, associates do not just feel as if they are diving into the deep end, but rather, drowning.
As you can tell from this excerpt, the article is stylishly written and fun to read. Although it might not tell regular ATL readers much that will surprise them, it’s a well-reported wrap-up of where things stand now, sure to be appreciated by a general audience. (It’s also much better than the Times’s last major effort to tackle Biglaw as a topic.)
The piece has been at or near the top of the NYT’s “Most E-Mailed” list for a few days now (since it first appeared online well before it showed up yesterday in print). Help it stay on the list by emailing the article to your parents or friends. Or do a good deed, and email it to that cousin of yours who is thinking about going to law school. She’ll thank you later.
Okay, that was a cheap shot — there are legitimate reasons to go to law school. But there are also things about the law, as a profession and as a business, that potential law students ought to know.
Let’s dig deeper into the piece….
Williams offers a nice description of what has changed in the span of perhaps just two short years:
Lawyers who entered the field as recently as a few years ago could reasonably expect a life of comfort, security and social esteem. Many are now faced with a different landscape. Firms shed more than 4,600 lawyers last year, according to a blog that tracks the legal industry, Law Shucks. Bonuses for those who survive are shriveling, and an increasing number of firms now compensate associates based on grades for performance — shades of law school — rather than automatically advancing them on the salary scale.
For those just starting out, it’s easy to think that the rules have changed six minutes into the first period.
Indeed. This is why we feel especially bad for current 3Ls, as well as 2009 graduates who are still looking for work (or deferred and waiting to start work). They made the decision to go to law school under a different set of assumptions. Anyone who enrolls in law school in fall 2010, in contrast, should be aware of the risks inherent in the proposition.
Some of the current difficulties are due to the economy. But, as the article suggests, some are tied to larger and possibly long-term changes in the legal profession:
The main reason for the squeeze is the Great Recession, which has cut deeply into the kinds of companies — in financial services, real estate, high tech — that are the wellsprings of fees for corporate lawyers. The client companies that survived are doing fewer deals, and driving harder bargains with their lawyers: many negotiate a flat fee for the job, meaning firms can no longer bill by the hour for every legal eagle on the case.
Even associates who find plenty to do worry that outstanding performance is no longer enough to protect them, said Daniel Lukasik, a Buffalo lawyer who runs an information and outreach Web site called Lawyers With Depression, adding that his traffic is up 25 percent since June, to about 25,000 visitors a month.
So it’s not just the economy, stupid. Even after the recession is over, other changes — such as a move away from the billable hour,a move away from lockstep and a rise in “merit-based” systems of compensation and promotion, and the rise of outsourcing — will make Biglaw less lucrative, cushy, and secure.
In addition to Lawshucks, quoted above, other friends of ATL make appearances in the NYT article:
A midlevel associate in the New York office of a white-shoe firm, who writes provocatively about law-firm life under the name Legal Tease on her blog, Sweet Hot Justice, described a big law firm as “an absolute torture shack.”
…. The pain of 26-year-olds earning six figures may not seem great in a country where unemployment hovers around 10 percent. But, Legal Tease argued, that six-figure salary looks a lot smaller when you divide it by the number of hours worked. “If you do the math, you’re making less than a baby sitter — not a nanny even, but an actual baby sitter in high school,” she insisted.
(Digression: Is that hyperbole? We saw some conversations on Facebook where our friends ran the numbers and concluded it had to be.)
The piece closes with some comments from yours truly:
It is harder to maintain [a] sense of esteem now that your contract work is being farmed out to low-cost lawyers in Bangalore, and your client who is splitting up with her spouse can handle it herself with a $31.99 do-it-yourself divorce kit from Office Depot, said David Lat, the managing editor of Above the Law, a well-read blog about the legal industry.
“There’s a different feeling in the air,” said Mr. Lat, a Yale Law-educated former associate at a major firm. And in some quarters, the sense of outrage is giving way to simple fatigue and resignation.
In 2008 when firms announced cuts in bonuses and office perks, “there was an outcry, a certain sense of entitlement,” he said. Lawyers, being lawyers, had fight. Now, less so.
“That sense of entitlement is so 2007,” he said. With 14,000 lawyer and legal staff jobs lost since the beginning of 2008, “to whine about how your firm no longer has chair massages on Friday seems a little petty.”
We’ve just given you excerpts. Read the whole piece, which is excellent and well worth your time, by clicking here.
UPDATE: As noted in the comments, the Times has advertised on ATL in the past. (Please treat this as a standing disclosure; we are not going to mention this historical fact every time we link to an NYT piece.)
No Longer Their Golden Ticket [The New York Times]
FIRSTY MCFIRSTERSON says this article was published like a week ago…
Why are black people so noisy on public transportation?
David,
Since when did you become an advocate against law school and a legal career?
1 – No, it appeared yesterday. You know, the SUNDAY Times.
3 – Lat isn’t anti-law school (not as much as Elie, at least). He is more of a “proceed with caution” kind of guy.
Disclosure: the NY Times advertises on ATL.
Lawyers are such fools.
I personally thought the article was terribly written, and lacked any hard facts. I do not believe that citations to Law Shucks and Lat equal a well-written, well-researched piece worthy of the New York Times.
This story is about six months too late. Biglaw is back in a big way.
Here’s a conservative estimate of what first year biglaw associates are making now:
$167,500 / 2500 hours = $67 per hour
That’s using 2500 hours spent in the office or at home working (not 2500 billable hours), which was probably very high for corporate first years in 2009. The $7,500 bonus is also as low as it has been in a decade.
There is no babysitter making $67 an hour. OR IS THERE? GIVE ME THIS GIG.
7 – I don’t think they currently do. I haven’t seen NYT ads on here in a while.
I bet the partners at WilmerHale are thinking the Big Law Rose smells sweeter than ever! They are paying associates less and hoping the associates will be motivated to work more to meet the mysterious core competencies thereby allegedly gaining a super-duper merit bonus, which will no doubt be less than market, but they’ve indicated that they won’t disclose what anyone gets so no one will really know.
They also have yet to decide on the amounts of 2009 bonuses – bet they’re trying to figure out if recruiting would be hurt any more by not paying bonuses.
10 – Lateral hiring is up, and some firms will show good profits. But it isn’t like it was back in 2007 (and may never be that good again).
Not that one would expect anything logical from the mouth of Legal Tease, but the assertion: “If you do the math, you’re making less than a baby sitter — not a nanny even, but an actual baby sitter in high school,” is what Malcolm Gladwell would term a disqualifying statement. If you “do the math”, a junior associate who bills 2500 hours as a first year (a big year) may have worked 3000 hours. At a base salary of even $145K (below standard and not including bonus), you’re getting paid around $50 per hour. Some babysitter!
A master of fiction could not have conjured up a statement that is at once so nakedly false and encapsulates the whiny entitlement mingled with incompetence that plagues young lawyers today. Brava! Your singular literary achievement!
I started at “Big Law” two weeks ago and already have enough work to last me to June (yes, its doc review) so I don’t think “Big Law” is dead. True, I may not get 5 years to prove my worth, it’s probably going to be 2 or 3 before they put my class on the chopping block, but it’s not dead. 2L summers of steaks and martinis, well that is probably dead, but not “Big Law.”
@11 – babysitters get paid cash and probably don’t report to the IRS. Take out taxes and BigLaw gets paid more like $41/hr. I have no clue what babysitters make these days though, still seems high.
Maybe babysitters in Manhattan make this much?
Or babysitters with benefits – didn’t Jude Law have one?
12 – You’re right. I checked the last couple “Thanks to This Week’s Advertisers” posts and the NYT hasn’t advertised lately.
7
NYT: all the news that might be true.
It was irresponsible of the NYT reporter to have included the babysitter quote without confirming the statement or providing any qualifying information. This is basically public information and needn’t be left up to a spoiled junior associate.
7 / 19 – Looks like you got Lat to add an update anyway:
“UPDATE: As noted in the comments, the Times has advertised on ATL in the past. (Please treat this as a standing disclosure; we are not going to mention this historical fact every time we link to an NYT piece.)”
This article is neither excellent nor worth anyone’s time. Sure, it’s somewhat well-written, but it doesn’t provide any information that would be new to any young associate, nor is it particularly insightful.
23 – The main reason to read it is because articles like this one, in papers like the Times, shape how your non-lawyer friends and relatives see your job and the profession.
20 = Mouth-breathing Fox News watcher.
The combination of ATL and the NYT is nauseating
The article was pretty lame by NY Times standards. It sounds like the author just read a bunch of blogs and summarized them.
ATL increasingly resembles my first dump of 2010 – nutty, stale, and best left uninvestigated.
“They made the decision to go to law school under a different set of assumptions.”
This is why everyone hates lawyers…lawyers never fess up to a bad career move, as their logic can never be wrong. Have fun reviewing my documents.
shameless plug is shameless
If you can’t swim with the big boys, get out of the kitchen!
$
This article is WAY WAY LATE. Cannot wait until the 2013 article about “Biglaw Recovery!” 3 years after the fact.
2008 – Crash
2009 – Fallout
2010 – Rebuild
2011 – 2012 – Strengthen
2013 – Irrational Exuberance, NY to $190
This whole narrative about Biglaw being going through hardtimes is overblown. Yes, there was a bubble in 2007. The economy slowed some thereafter. Firms adjusted. Things are right back where they were in the good times of 2005.
We paid our nanny $600/wk in Manhattan last year. By agreement, she reported her earnings as taxable income, because we intended to claim deductions for childcare expenses. She worked about 40 hours per week (“work” = studying for school while watching the kid lay in a crib, and feeding the kid every few hours). Comes out to about $15/hr before taxes.
33 – Tell that to my friend who has been looking for a new job for almost a year now!
If things are this bad, then let’s cut those $300K CMOs and their overhead-sucking marketing departments!!!!!!
“Babysitter” might have been the wrong example. How about “SAT tutor” or “college admissions consultant”?
If you figure a first year making $145,000 actually only realizes 60% of that after taxes, then you are left with $87,000. Divide that by 2,500 hours, and you are looking at around $35/hour after taxes. Still a little higher than a nanny no doubt, but not that much if the nanny isn’t reporting income.
16, you are a dickhead. Doc review isn’t practicing law. It’s paralegal grunt work that BigLaw created in order to make big bucks, but it sure as hell isn’t practicing law. I would shoot myself in the head if graduated from law school only to become a doc reviewer. Pay aside, you are dickhead.
Lat, did you have to wait all that time after he was fired from the NY Times before hiring him so he could gain the requisite 300 lbs or was it more a matter of taking the time to have his name legally changed from Jayson Blair to Elie Mystal?
“Lawyers who entered the field as recently as a few years ago could reasonably expect a life of comfort, security and social esteem.”
________________________
I don’t think that has ever been true. Life in a big firm couldn’t possibly have a greater lack of comfort and security, even for partners. Life in a small firm doesn’t come with much social esteem (and it’s even doubtful for big firms).
Guys in my high school used to make $67/hour sitting on babies all the time. It was no big deal
~FRAT STUD
41 – Maybe not “life,” but certainly a good run of eight to ten years, if you graduated at just the right time.
And then, after not making partner, you could go in-house (which is almost impossible these days).
35 – I never said that EVERY lawyer in this country has a job. Your friend is one of an unlucky very few. The Biglaw firms themselves (and the attorneys who work there) are doing just fine, back to 2005 or 2006 levels in terms of revenues and staffing. The adjustments we are seeing in comp, etc. are being done opportunistically, not out of necessity.
43 – can litigators go in house too?
39: Like everything else, doc review is what you make it. You can do it like a machine, or you can do it like someone who wants to be a good lawyer some day. Doc review can teach you vast amounts about a client’s or an opponent’s business, knowledge you’d never get elsewhere, and knowledge you can use to good effect with both clients and partners. Those who haven’t read the docs are always going to be at the mercy of those who have and know what they’ve read.
I’m a DLA Piper attorney. As a matter of course, I only read 85% of articles so I have no fucking idea what y’all are talking about. (Actually, I understand about 85% of it).
Enough talking up articles that quote ATL or an ATL editor. Such blatant self-congratulations, self-stimulation, and self-promotion — why not just include a bold (TREATISE CITED) parenthetical?
Rosebuds are forming again on the Biglaw stem.
At least this is a more honest picture of the biglaw market than Lat/Kash’s breathlessly stupid “Why Lawyers Make So Much” bullshit in the Washingtonian…
Walked by Wilmer Hale’s DC Office today on “MY” day off as a gov’t attorney making 160k, going to Founding Farmers for a late lunch and then to go see the Terra Cotta Warrior exhibit. I had a very big grin on my face and my GF wanted to know where it came from. I did not want to burden her with the details, so I just said, “I just know I made the right career choice” while in my head I knew there were paranoid associates pandering to psychotic partners just because they needed to bill to get the big money to pay their student loans on my day off!! And they still will likely get fired for not responding to some innocuous e-mail sent at 2 AM from some partner with a bad dream! Well, Uncle Sugar paid for my degree, and I do not owe anyone a dime and unless I break a bright line rule I just cannot be fired!! Good luck losers, I’ll send you a pic from the exhibit from my iphone, but don’t waste time opening and looking at the pic, you cannot bill for that time!!
“What has died, rather, is a certain version of Biglaw, full of fabulosity, fun and frothiness — think Biglaw, circa 2007.”
With sentences like this, do we really need a byline?
The real question is placement of lawyers in jobs that pay enough to make up for the expense of a law school education and are physically accessible? Is that happening? I don’t see a lot of it. What good is a law degree if a lawyer cannot find a job after being an associate or has to work for an income comparable to a college graduate’s? My observation- even in good times, it is hard to find work after a law firm stint.
I think we should get data – on law school placement and firm placement. The question is whether the economy supports the current big firm hiring system, or if many lawyers are finding a few years of employment and then nothing. If the latter is true, maybe other training or internships or even secondment is needed to get lawyers who have come out of law firms meaningful work that can last a lifetime.
Bomb the Terra Cotta Warriors back to the Stone Age!
DOJ SECURE
More on Jeff Fenster and less on the legal industry. Go Michigan!
SCROTUM SECURE
Let me know when you so the Death of Midlaw and Death of Small Law posts- they are in trouble too and are undergoing similar transformations as BigLaw- they just don’t get the same air time because they are not as high profile
Measure success by the values you keep and not the amount of money you make and you’ll never have the sort of problems these “big law” attorneys are having right now.
EXTRA! EXTRA!: Elie Mystal does NOT work on MLK, Jr. Day.
hahahah… have fun doing doc review and due diligence for asshole partners who send emails to your blackberry at 1am on a saturday night. Sure you get paid 160K+, but nothing is worth that.
Here, here #9. I love ATL, but this NYTimes article was just fluff – and months late. A quote by Lat and reference to Sweet Hot Justice doesn’t make it well-written.
And no wonder that it’s the #1 emailed article. EVERY NYT article about lawyers always ends up at #1. A huge % of its online readership is the legal crowd.
Yawn.
I have never called for an IP ban before, but 308 on the last thread should absolutely be banned. Then he should be shot and set on fire. What a tool.
Elie- how is it that you write a blog called the black side, and you dont even bother to give a cursory MLK day post?
Why do black people leave shopping carts all over the parking lot rather than returning them to a cart corral?
Article is bullcrap. Biglaw is back to normal. Not the goldrush times of 2007, but thriving and prosperous all the same.
I think the reason so many associates hate big law is that for most of them this is there first real job. I’m a second career guy who recently started as a Biglaw associate and, I’ve got to say, it’s not that bad. Sure we’re expected to put in a decent day’s work, but if you’re efficient you can bill 8 hours and still be out the door by 6. Yeah you have to stay late sometimes, but not that often. In my last job before I went to law school I worked about as much as I do now, for 25% the money.
What’s my point? My point is that working is, well, work. If it were entertainment you’d be paying someone else for the privilege. And, outside of the public sector, job-security is vulnerable to shifts in the economy. That’s part of the risk-taking bargain you agree to when you accept more money to work in the business-world than you would receive working for the government.
I’m not denying that things are worse than they were for new attorneys a few years ago. But those of us who are employed are still way, way better off than most working schmucks in this country. So if you want to go to law school, work hard, and get a Biglaw job, and you’ve actually got what it takes to do so, that’s still a pretty good plan.
65=very funny
Yet Katten NYC Corporate pussy pass associate got in to Biglaw, survived the great recession lay offs, and then parachuted out.
Unfrggin beliveable.
$160k is pre-tax obviously. In Obama’s brave new America, you’ll get maybe $80-90k, and that’s before he barfs out more bailouts of the UAW and the pending collapse of Social Security. That’s what — maybe $35/hour? You won’t starve to death, but with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, most of your 20s a grim blur, and nothing to fall back on but that worthless liberal arts degree, it’ll stop feeling like a deal pretty darn fast.
Oh, and the dollar has lost 25% of its value under Obama, and that’s not even counting the grotesque bloat in the monetary supply he’s purposefully spearheaded. When it’s all said and done, your $35/hour will have the purchasing price of about $12/hour in the years prior to 0 B.O.
New here.
Who/what is the Katten pussy pass? Is this a particular woman, or a generic concept? And why Katten?
Being an associate at a big firm also has opportunity costs. Being “on-call” at all hours, ready to drop any plans when a partner says it is an “emergency” prevent you from taking a part-time job. Unpredictable late nights and weekends prevent you from taking traditional part-time jobs (bartending, waiting tables, stripping, SAT tutor). The pay is not just about the number of hours worked.
Let’s not pretend this isn’t a sweet gig, when you can get it.
If you are married living in NYC and make $160K it is actually around $106K after tax.
I only work 3 days per week, 9 months per year.
ACADEMIA SECURE
Biglaw used to be decent place to work when the money flowed easily. Now, it no longer does and firms have developed a “your lucky to have any job” attitude which will make work at Biglaw quite intolerable. People who are denying the current sweatshop mentality are associates suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
67 – I am also a second career guy, but agree and disagree with your point. I agree that these shell-shocked 25 year olds have no idea what it means to hold a job and complain more than is necessary. However, for me it’s not the raw hours (I worked almost as much before, not quite, but comparable). Rather it’s the complete inability to leave work at the office. Checking my blackberry every hour all weekend, and having my plans ruined unexpectedly by an over-anxious partner or skittish client. To me, THAT’s where it ceases to be worth it. Agreed biglaw pays more for that reason, but it is increasingly apparent that the extra money is not worth it for me. I am actively seeking more stable employment that will better suit me. Glad for those who enjoy the biglaw culture — it’s not for me.
Look, if you wanted the NYT to publish this earlier you should have just convinced them it’s classified information that’s vital to our national security.
You didn’t. Now quit complaining. That is all.
Gotta love it – I was laid off from a biglaw firm and landed an in-house job which pays more and now I only talk to partners and tell them what I need them (or their bitch associates) to do over the weekend.
anybody have any idea what clerkship bonuses are like nowadays?
Good lord what has journalism come to that the Old Gray Lady has to recycle from this crappy blog to fill its pages.
52 – Founding Farmers is way overrated.
Yes, I have been reading for a while, but don’t know about pussy pass, and really want to.
I can only assume that it is material of a purient nature that many of us (relative) newbies would appreciate.
@ 77:
As am I, for the same reasons. Good luck with your search. Mine has been arduous, but appears (I hope) to have reached a wholly positive conclusion this week.
@ 77 and 84
I wholeheartedly agree, and I too am hoping for something better (although I do not actively search – way too paranoid).
84 – That’s awesome to hear. I just made the decision to start looking a week ago, so I am in the earliest of stages. It definitely gives me hope that others are having success finding what I am looking for. Congrats, and I hope everything goes well in the new (knock on wood) job.
82 – You’re crazy, I love Founding Farmers! Fried shrimp are great and chicken and waffles are official. Chicken and waffles are better at FF than at Creme Cafe. There. I said it.
- 77
79 or anyone else who knows,
As a 2L, how should I position myself to transition in-house as quickly as possible? Are certain departments or specialties preferable ? Are there any classes I need to take before I leave school? Any experiences I should seek out? As someone asked earlier but has not yet been answered, can a litigation attorney move in-house very easily?
Thanks for the advice,
In-house hopeful
The problem is that too many Jews work in BIGLAW – Jews ruin everything they touch.
I used to think only accountants are losers, but now I think lawyers are just as pathetic. Way too much preoccupation with hours and working on the weekends and on holidays, all for 160-200K to pay down massive loans.
89 = paralegal secure
87: abandon hope, all ye who enter here
(I considered “Arbeit Macht Frei”, but decided it was in bad taste, no matter how appropriate)
Amen 77/84/85. Second career attorney in my 8th year, and for the very reasons expressed by 77 I’m having an interview for an assistant GC position next week. When it’s 6pm, or Thanksgiving, or the day before Christmas, I’d rather send my work out to someone who enjoys the BigLaw life than make the extra few bucks living the BigLaw life.
It was fun while it lasted, but it is time to move on.
Bah! This is a bunch of media hype. Most of Biglaw is chugging right along. Sure, a small handful of firms are struggling – you see that even in the best years. Sure PPP and revenue is down slightly from ‘07 – but no sane industry measures his health against the peak numbers of a bubble economy. As someone else noted, firms’ metrics are right there where they were in 2005 and 2006. And most classes that were deferred have already started work. What recession?
82-Founding Farmer’s food was good and reasonably priced for the district. Service could have been a little better, but overall I must disagree with you. It was my first time there, and I would go again if my plans take me that way. 52
founding farmers is just ok, but why all the wilmer hate?
omg, 82 FTW. anyone who thinks founding farmers is worth the hype belongs in government.
We need to bomb the worthless academics of the world back to the stone age!
-DOJ Secure
Rock and Roll is Dead, just like the eggman, this site and the WALRUS.
95 – The only Wilmer Hate out there is from within their associates ranks. They just happen to be across from Founding Farmers, represent biglaw and the first firm I came across while I was enjoying my MLK day-off activities. GF thought the lobby was tacky, but that is as close to any thoughts of “hate” either of us had.
Why do allegedly learned officers of the court who should be more thoughtful and well versed in preventing biased and not jumping to erroneous conclusions seem to be the ones that are most egregious in doing so?
Just so no one’s confused, here are some things that only lawyers can do: take depositions, sign pleadings, initiate litigation, sign up clients, appear in court.
Here is something that does not require a JD or license: doc review.
The end of Biglaw? Well, I don’t really think that the end can be assessed as of itself as being the end because what does the end feel like? It’s like saying when you try to extrapolate the end of the universe, you say, if the universe is indeed infinite, then how – what does that mean? How far is all the way, and then if it stops, what’s stopping it, and what’s behind what’s stopping it? So, what’s the end, you know, is my question to you.
PAUL HASTINGS — MEMORANDUM
Date: January 19, 2010
To: All Paul Hastings
Subject: Welcome!
To All First Years: Welcome!
To All Others: Beware the Ides of March.
Tim “Beancounter” Wright
Los Angeles Office
The ship be sinking…
The grey lady no longer has the same power it once had unless you live in NYC and think you’re hot stuff for no reason other than you live in NYC.
The Indians are coming!
The Indians are coming!
THEY WANT YOUR JOBS.
104 – You wrote “think” instead of “know.” HTH.
We should keep another fact in mind:
Even in the best of times, Biglaw work sucked. I was in during the halcyon days and it was 6-years of hell.
I can’t even imagine – and don’t want to – just how horrible it must be now.
107- If you want to know just how much it sucks now, pay us a visit here at Paul Hastings New York (a/k/a the “Torture Shack”).
Big law may be at ‘05 numbers, and the stock market might be back at ‘05, but when the dollar is worthless, that doesnt mean much. Everything is still supressed about 20-25% of its original value. If the dollar was like this in ‘05, we’d be looking at like dow 14,000 or 15,000 levels.
108, I would, but I’m now boutiquing it in a secondary market.
Best of luck.
- 107
Biglaw Babysitter in Silicon Valley.
I routinely make $22/hr babysitting, under the table. But I babysit on weekends to pay down my loans–it’s not an FT gig or anything….
The article is not “excellent” because it fails to mention 50% of the reason why one should not go to law school– the cost. (The cost plus the lousy job market being the full reason.) Writing an article about the legal market without discussion the enormous amounts of debt that many (if not most) recent law graduates owe is completely half-assed.
Also, why should the Times be applauded for discussing something that’s been known for more than two years? Maybe if major publications like the Times had been more out in front of the story, there would be fewer desperate 1Ls and 2Ls sitting in law school right now. Oh wait, we should applaud the two-years-too-late article because because it mentions you, Lat. What a joke. Barf.
Hey 70:
Go fuck yourself, Rush Limbaugh
113 is an excellent example of the current mentality of the Democratic party and why they are goint to get spanked today in Massachusetts. “Go f*** yourself Rush Limbaugh” although exceedingly clever, is not really all that compelling. 113 we all await your next post in which you blame everything from the public’s rejection of health care legislation to your mother’s hemorrhoids on George W. Bush
The Bloom is off the Proskauer Rose
wooo! no obamacare! 41 in the senate…nothing sinks faster than a reformer that doesn’t reform
wooo! no obamacare! 41 in the senate…nothing sinks faster than a reformer that doesn’t reform
Girls at my high school used to make $80+/hour as babysitters all the time. It was no big deal.
… of course, they also had to give the baby’s father a BJ when he got home.
118-119: Where I can I hire these girls?
You guys are wrong. Take the salary/number of hours – taxes – student loans – rent – COL and you’re not making anywhere close to $ 41
You guys are wrong. Take the salary/number of hours – taxes – student loans – rent – COL and you’re not making anywhere close to $ 41
You guys are wrong. Take the salary/number of hours – taxes – student loans – rent – COL and you’re not making anywhere close to $ 41