They might be able to staff it, but it won't be easy; Update

I got a Posse List email today about a project that looks like the agency might have a hard time staffing. Explanation after the email:

We are staffing a document review project and want to see if you OR ANYONE YOU KNOW are available and interested. Please reply as quickly as possible since the space is limited.
Start: week of June 23
Duration: approx. 3 weeks
Pace: 40 hours/wk anticipated
Rates: $28/hr
Conflicts: form to complete
Location: Metro accessible
Requirements:
Must be DC barred
Prior document review experience
Background check and drug testing required.
If you are interested in this project and meet the requirements, please reply ASAP and:
1. Email me your current resume in WORD format.
2. Indicate your time off needed over the next several weeks, including appointments, holidays, etc. Also, point out any routine scheduling constraints you may have (example, you have to attend class every Thursday at 6pm and would need to leave the project early those nights).
3. If you do any work, outside of contract legal work for agencies, please point it out in your email.

Also, once we submit your resume to the client, you will be deemed to have committed to this project should the client choose you to start. If there is any reason that you may back out, like you’ve been submitted to another project, let me know ASAP.

OK, the list of problems for this agency is long. Short project, no overtime -- not great, but typical these days, so not a huge obstacle. Same for the conflicts form, which can be a real pain in the ass if you've been doing this a while. You never have any idea what might conflict you out (and, thus, what to leave off your conflicts form). The pay sucks, but they'd probably have no real trouble staffing it at below-market rates. The market is busy, but there are a lot of temps out there. Somebody will show up.

Now we start getting to the real impediments. The project I am on is paying $4 per hour more and is adding people -- one new group started today, the agency placed another ad today looking for more. No conflicts form -- just verify you've never worked against certain parties (and only three, at that). Truthfully, I don't recall if my project requires DC Bar membership. Assume it does, and you're even -- except my project pays more than $1,000 a week more, and DC Bar membership is not cheap to obtain or keep. So there's that.

Prior experience is not a problem for most, and certainly not for people with DC Bar membership. They've been here a while. The next big obstacle for these guys is drug testing and background check. You want to hire me for three weeks and yet you require a background check? You might not get the background check back before the project is over (that happened to me on one of the two projects I have taken that required a background check. I always thought it amusing how long they would let me work for them without knowing what they hoped the background check would reveal.). Further, the fact that I still have my bar membership should prove I don't have any serious issues in my background, at least as far as criminal matters go. And if you're worried about my credit, stop. Most temps have shitty credit, and you're supposed to pay me, not the other way around, remember?

As for drug testing, I have no idea how many temps are worried about getting caught by this. I know I've only had to do it once, and it irritated the fuck out of me because it was monumentally inconvenient, especially since I had to do it twice. Who knew that if you drink a lot of water to make sure you can pee, your sample will be "too diluted" and thus invalid? I sure didn't. Anyway, most temps view these measures as far too intrusive to be justified by a short-term project where they'll be lucky if I'm paying attention at all, much less paying enough attention to steal valuable information so I can sell it to their opponents, or whatever. The whole idea is ludicrous.

So good luck staffing that. In the current market, I wouldn't take it.

Update:  Yeah, I forgot one thing. It's about that whole "once we submit your resume to the client, you will be deemed to have committed to this project should the client choose you to start" thing. No one in his right mind submits to only one project at a time -- you submit to everything out there and then choose the best project that accepts you. You're a fool to do it any other way. Once I submit my resume, the agency is not deemed to have committed to hire me, so fuck them if I get a better offer. All the agencies say this, and no one pays any attention to it. Don't know why they keep trying that horseshit, but they do. And temps keep telling them they have the flu when they accepted a better project. "Thanks, but I can't start this project -- I have the flu" is Latin for "Fuck you. Too late, bitches."