On A Clear Day You Can See Forever[1]
This has been another terrible week in our profession. It's been terrible beyond our usual, run-of-the mill terrible. That's really all the Unemployed Lawyer can see. I guess the day just isn't clear enough to see beyond that.
First, I mourn the passing of our colleague, Paul Ottaviano, a good lawyer and very pleasant to work with. I can't see at all how or why he died when and as he did. My deepest condolences to his friends and family.
Second, I shake my head in wonder and sadness at Marc Dreier's alleged behavior. Whatever could have possessed him to walk into a Canadian pension fund office and impersonate another lawyer, effectively ending his own career, and likely sending the 250 attorneys and all the staff employed at his firm packing en masse? The Unemployed Lawyer can only guess that certain of us have some moment of madness, some "irresistible impulse"[2], in our lives that pushes us into an alternate plane where we believe that the unthinkable is only natural. Look at O.J., also featured in legal news this week. These acts are beyond my understanding. They are hidden deep in the fog of the murkiest of days.
Then there are this week's firings. They were terrible. They were brutal. They make me sick. They make me see.
They make me see that I can't hate the law firms, much as I would like to do, for all that has happened to us. The nightmare at Reed Smith cleared my head and focused my vision. Call me a sucker, call me naive, but I can't accept that the partners in any law firm (and I truly know that they are ruthless in business and many of them are just plain cold)[3], would wilfully, recklessly, negligently or indifferently cause such distress and pain to such large numbers of people who were their very own. I'm waiting for the tomatoes to start flying, but I stand by my statements.
Everyone can see that law firms make money by billing clients. The law firms use part of that money for partner distributions, associate salaries and bonuses, and staff salaries and bonuses. So everyone should be able to see clearly that if the law firm makes less money because clients pay less money or even cease their operations, e.g., Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., then the law firm has less money to pay all three of its internal groups. More than half a million Americans lost their jobs in November. Citigroup has or will cut approximately 25,000 this year. AT&T plan to cut 12,000. Pity the firms that represent them, except maybe on employment matters. Except for bankruptcy prep teams, pity the law firms that used to earn large from the Big 3. Pity those who represented Lehman Brothers before the crash; at least Weil Gotshal's got a warm place to fiddle while Rome burns.
You can see that Law firms are firing people because they aren't making enough money from clients. Clients are spending less on outside counsel and firing their own people because they aren't making enough money from somebody else. And so on, down the line.
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[1] Paramount Pictures, 1970, directed by Vincent Minelli, starring Barbra Streisand. This is the first time The Unemployed Lawyer has ventured into this particular realm, but I advise you not to see this movie. It's one of the worst I've seen, made by creating a star-vehicle hash of a wonderful play by the same name.
[2] Anatomy of a Murder, Carlyle Productions, 1959, directed by Otto Preminger, starring James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell.
[3] Not movie related and not meant to be an insult. It's business, and ruthlessness seems to be prized in business. They're where they are because of how they are, while all the rest of us are unemployed.
[4] English Nursery Ryhme.
First, I mourn the passing of our colleague, Paul Ottaviano, a good lawyer and very pleasant to work with. I can't see at all how or why he died when and as he did. My deepest condolences to his friends and family.
Second, I shake my head in wonder and sadness at Marc Dreier's alleged behavior. Whatever could have possessed him to walk into a Canadian pension fund office and impersonate another lawyer, effectively ending his own career, and likely sending the 250 attorneys and all the staff employed at his firm packing en masse? The Unemployed Lawyer can only guess that certain of us have some moment of madness, some "irresistible impulse"[2], in our lives that pushes us into an alternate plane where we believe that the unthinkable is only natural. Look at O.J., also featured in legal news this week. These acts are beyond my understanding. They are hidden deep in the fog of the murkiest of days.
Then there are this week's firings. They were terrible. They were brutal. They make me sick. They make me see.
They make me see that I can't hate the law firms, much as I would like to do, for all that has happened to us. The nightmare at Reed Smith cleared my head and focused my vision. Call me a sucker, call me naive, but I can't accept that the partners in any law firm (and I truly know that they are ruthless in business and many of them are just plain cold)[3], would wilfully, recklessly, negligently or indifferently cause such distress and pain to such large numbers of people who were their very own. I'm waiting for the tomatoes to start flying, but I stand by my statements.
Everyone can see that law firms make money by billing clients. The law firms use part of that money for partner distributions, associate salaries and bonuses, and staff salaries and bonuses. So everyone should be able to see clearly that if the law firm makes less money because clients pay less money or even cease their operations, e.g., Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., then the law firm has less money to pay all three of its internal groups. More than half a million Americans lost their jobs in November. Citigroup has or will cut approximately 25,000 this year. AT&T plan to cut 12,000. Pity the firms that represent them, except maybe on employment matters. Except for bankruptcy prep teams, pity the law firms that used to earn large from the Big 3. Pity those who represented Lehman Brothers before the crash; at least Weil Gotshal's got a warm place to fiddle while Rome burns.
You can see that Law firms are firing people because they aren't making enough money from clients. Clients are spending less on outside counsel and firing their own people because they aren't making enough money from somebody else. And so on, down the line.
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.[4]
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[1] Paramount Pictures, 1970, directed by Vincent Minelli, starring Barbra Streisand. This is the first time The Unemployed Lawyer has ventured into this particular realm, but I advise you not to see this movie. It's one of the worst I've seen, made by creating a star-vehicle hash of a wonderful play by the same name.
[2] Anatomy of a Murder, Carlyle Productions, 1959, directed by Otto Preminger, starring James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell.
[3] Not movie related and not meant to be an insult. It's business, and ruthlessness seems to be prized in business. They're where they are because of how they are, while all the rest of us are unemployed.
[4] English Nursery Ryhme.
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