This gig is a bizarre mix of shitty and not bad

Under normal circumstances, in a world where most jobs in the industry right now are only offering 40 hours a week, I would be happy to take one that pays more than 20 percent more per hour. Of course, I'd be happier if the job were going to last more than two or three days.

Picked up a gig yesterday that started today (not until nearly 2 pm, alas) and probably will be done Monday, certainly no later than Tuesday. That's the bad news. The good news is it is direct hire at a law firm I like, with no agency involvement, so much of the usual bullshit is not present, and it pays much better. Which brings us back to the whole shitty/not bad mix. We are capped at 40 hours a week. Which is bad. But we are paid at a much higher rate, which is good. But we'll be done well before we reach 40 hours. Can't win, right?

This can't be a good sign

The law firm we've been working for recently got a new boss, as the company the law firm is working for got bought. Naturally, the new owner-client has brought in their own lawyers to run things. The firm we've been working for isn't fired, but things are, shall we say, in flux.

Which is why today it was announced that instead of a 7 am-9 pm work window five days a week, Fridays will be cut to 7 am to 6 pm "until we figure out what direction we're going to take." We can still work 60 hours a week, we'll just have to push harder earlier in the week to get there. So in that respect, this announcement has no impact. Also, since most people on the project don't work 60 hours, it really has no impact. Some of us are a little nervous, though.

First of all, as the initial move on this review by the new boss-man law firm, this is not good news. Obviously, how late we can work on Fridays has no bearin on "what direction we're going to take." It is a cost-cutting move, pure and simple. And since most folks on this project don't work the maximum, the new boss firm has no reason not to cut the maximum. Which means, if they are inclined that way, they will. And it appears that they are inclined that way.

Second, the new boss firm prefers to use direct-hire contract attorneys, not work through an agency. I know this, because I am registered with them as a direct-hire candidate. Direct-hire usually means more money per hour, but often no overtime. Depending on the hourly rate, the break-even point of higher wage versus overtime can favor the contract attorney, or punish the contract attorney. If they go that route, we'll have to see. Of course, we'll also have to see if people on the project now are the ones who get hired by the firm. Lots of uncertainty out there.

Ultimately; we have no idea what this means. It could mean nothing. But in Temp Town, downward adjustments to hours are never a good thing. We'll have to see where all this goes, but my natural pessimism about this industry just got pretty situation-specific.

More trouble in the Big Law community

Those of you who drank yourselves insensate over the holiday weekend, or who ate so much hot dogs, hamburgers and potato salad that you found yourself unable to partake of any news, may not have known that Dewey & LaBoe was in trouble. Well, Reuters (among others) reports that Dewey filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday night. This means no reorganization, they're just going bye-bye.

The implications for Temp Town should be obvious and boil down to: we got trouble, yes trouble, right here in River City. Those troubles take several forms. First, there obviously will be one less firm to work for, and Dewey was a big one. According to Reuters:

The result of a 2007 merger between Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Green & MacRae, Dewey & LeBoeuf had about 1,450 attorneys at its peak, according to The National Law Journal.

I don't care how you count it, 1,450 lawyers is big. That made them one of the largest in the world. If those guys can fail, we need to start wondering, who can't? Why'd they go away? Again, from Reuters:

But the firm was eventually undone by a combination of the economic downturn, excessive compensation and governance problems, according to former partners and others in the industry. In particular, Dewey's management promised millions in packages to about 100 partners, according to the court filing, leaving it strapped for cash when revenues fell during the recession.

Oh, killed by the recession, just a one-off, no real long-term problems for Temp Town here, right? Dream on, Aerosmith. If one of the largest and most successful firms in the world has "excessive compensation and governance problems," do you think these kinds of issues might be more widespread than many realize? Most lawyers are not business gurus, and law firms are run by lawyers. Besides, it's not like Dewey is the first -- in the last year or so,
Coudert Brothers, Heller Ehrman and our beloved Howrey all went down, and those are just the big ones.

In addition to a potential source of work for temps disappearing, the demise of Dewey will inevitably dump at least a few associates into Temp Town, even if only temporarily. Big Law firms are not hiring associates the way they used to -- they cost too damn much.

Face it, Big Law's business model is changing, and Temp Town inevitably will be affected. We're already seeing a lot more use of predictive coding, ediscovery firms that use their own staff or a minimum of temps, and don't forget the growing popularity of direct hiring. Sure, it pays more, but it is a lot more work for temps to keep up with dozens of law firms than to maintain ties to a half-dozen or so agencies. (Yeah, yeah, most temps are registered with more than that, but they can't keep them all straight and they generally only actually do work for a few. That is changing, too, of course.)

What does all this mean? Hell if I know, but I suspect it resembles Woody Hayes' misgivings about the forward pass: only three things can happen, and two of them are bad.