Putting Lipstick On A Pig, And Other Tricks From TTT Career Services

As hard as your run-of-the-mill career services professional may work, the level of difficulty is jacked up to hero mode when you work at a TTT law school.

Career services. They are the unsung heroes of the law school experience. Though they only ever appear in our pages when there is a massive screw up (or an ice bucket challenge), they assist countless law students get those coveted jobs — oh and tweak those valuable employment statistics.

With so much riding on the success of that department — for both the law school and the individual students — it is understandable when career services get a little… creative in their presentation. And as hard as your run-of-the-mill career services professional may work, the level of difficulty is jacked up to hero mode when you work at a TTT law school….

This fascinating email comes to us from Arizona Summit Law School; if that name doesn’t seem super familiar its the result of a recent name change — its the artist formerly Phoenix Law School (an InfiLaw joint). And according to our tipster, its a very popular opportunity amongst recent grads.

Well, the opening graph of the email seems promising, if a bit over the top.

Below is a brief description of a 3 week remote project with a great firm in the valley. This is a great way to show current work experience while collecting a paycheck. Please contact the employer directly ASAP. We understand that they are contacting applicants within minutes of receiving a resume. They are recruiting for 80 law clerks. They have already filled 45 spots.

Notice how the email uses lots of emphasis and a sense of urgency to encourage applicants. It sounds like an infomercial urging you to “call in the next 5 minutes.” When you look closer at the details of this “opportunity” the facade starts to crumble. The truth is this is a temporary contract attorney job, not exactly putting the “career” in “career services,” but, as the email indicates certainly better than an unpaid internship/vain attempt to boost your bona fides.

Sponsored

The email continues:

We are currently seeking temporary, contracted law clerks to put in a minimum of 15-20 hours a week (but more is great) at $12/hour. The actual work is straight-forward document coding and data entry into a main database used for class certification, export report comparisons, and class notice – but the legal implications of the case’s outcome are extremely important to the current scholarship and grant/aid landscape of the NCAA.

Ooooh — a whopping $4.10 over the minimum wage. These are exactly the lower salaries we are going to see more and more as the market becomes oversaturated with unemployed attorneys. But at least at this job you’ll be able to take a break from the tedium of coding documents and join the exciting world of data entry. Oh joy. And though the subject matter of the litigation may be termed “sexy” — legal sexy not real world sexy — how much comfort is that really when you are blindly clicking through documents?

The email ends with an encouraging salvo.

While there is potential for additional work after the completion of this project, there is no guarantee of any amount of work assigned to any contracted candidate.

Sponsored

No guarantee of hours. Great.

Read the full job posting on the next page….


Alex Rich is a T14 grad and Biglaw refugee who has worked as a contract attorney for the last 7 years… and counting.  If you have a story about the underbelly of the legal world known as contract work, email Alex at alexrichesq@gmail.com and be sure to follow Alex on Twitter @AlexRichEsq