2015 at the halfway point

Seems I recall this blog exists and become motivated to post an update around July. No idea why.

I hit in the $70k range last year. On track to do it again, if I can hold it together for the rest of the year. I've been at a small firm for a year and half. It's been pretty limited, actually. Not much room to grow, learn new things, etc.  All the usual complaints we've all heard before. If you want to improve your situation, you must do so yourself.

I'm looking at new things, keeping an eye on the job postings, speaking with attorneys about short-term contacts and small projects. Anything to turn a buck. I've got two kids and a house payment. That's all the motivation I need to stay in the grind.

Am I making it? Yes, Crux is making it. For now.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I make an effort to check the other scamblogs and news to see if any law schools have closed, particularly the one I attended. I think that speaks volumes.

Best of luck to all of you.

2014 at the halfway point

I can now see my year-to-date earnings for 2014 with some clarity. It appears I may bring in $70k this year.

That's where I'm at.

Is it good? That depends, right? The famous law school answer. What is "good"? Let me say I'm not sure what "good" is or should be, but whatever this is, it could be far worse.

For some folks, it is far worse.

I'm making it. That's good enough.

Still here

Short update time. Just banging away. Nothing important to share.

I try to read the scamblogs every few weeks. I'm too busy to do so daily or even weekly. The news is as one would expect, I suppose. Change takes time.

There are only a few people from my law school class that I know anything about. Some are really struggling. Others are making it.

A few weeks ago I spoke with an individual with $200k in student loans. This individual did not attend my law school, the highest I had heard from my graduating class was in the $150 range. Bad news, to be sure, but $200k is a whole other level of crazy. I inquired if this individual was on IBR. The response was affirmative.

I honestly didn't know what to say. Offer condolences? Offer a hug? Run?

I keep meeting people that are just buried in debt. Buried.

Document Review Job Posting

I got an email from my proud alma mater this week. I'll give you the high points in bullet point form:

• Document Review Attorney
• If you are employed with us, you are considered a staff attorney so there are no benefits or paid time off. 
• The hourly rate will be between $20 and $27 flat fee with no overtime depending on the project while most pay around $25. 
• On average, individuals work Monday-Friday 45-55 hours per week. 
• Weekends may be required but you will be told in advance or asked to volunteer. 
• The facility is open from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM and we expect you to work your hours between that time frame.

That sounds like ten miles of bad road...

To be honest, I did some work last year for $25 an hour. Sometime you just gotta take what you can get. 

Best of luck to all of you.

Sun's out, guns out

Reflection time. Sorting out my 2013 taxes means I get to see, in hard numbers, all my income from the past year. All from being a "lawyer."

It looks like it totals just around $60k for the year (it was actually closer to $50k, see update below). I don't have it all in front of me as I really didn't plan on posting anything this morning. Instead, it just kinda occurred to me that it was time to check in on the 'ol Cruxy website as the day went on. If I'm way off, I'll correct the number later. It is likely very close to my total gross income for 2013. I had four different employers last year, three part time gigs and one that was kinda full time, but kinda varied on occasion. Basically, it was a shit show and totally unpredictable. Many of you reading this will know exactly what I'm talking about.

All in all, not too bad. Models and bottles, 24/7? Not hardly. But, I am covering my expenses, paying those things that must be paid, and generally just living my life. So, I've got that going for me. That's nice... (hat tip to Bill Murray).

I will have ticked off six months with my new employer in April, the "small firm" I mentioned back in November. I'll take a look at what I've billed, what I've been paid, what it looks like going forward, how many clients owe me money, etc., next month.

Yeah, people don't pay you in this business. Good times.

The gig seems OK so far. I get on with everyone well. The work is consistent, sometimes overwhelming, and challenging. I've actually turned down clients recently. I feel confident saying this the first stable job I've had since becoming a lawyer.

Honestly, I've meet some nice folks over the last year. About 15 - 20% are nice, honest, decent, and hardworking human beings. The remaining 80 - 85% are the bastards. Full stop.

Best of luck to all of you.

Update: I actually made about $50k in 2013, not the $60k I wrote above. That's a difference of about 16%, thus enough that I thought I should update the figures provided. Ouch.

Goodbye contract

I'll try to type a short update. I have let the contact position go and accepted a full-time position at a small firm. Yes, I am now learning a new area of law. No, you do not get paid to learn a new area of law. You get paid to produce. My production level will increase as I learn this new area of law. We've always been at war with Eastasia. And, so it goes.

Here's the kicker... The guy who offered me the position is someone I have known for over a decade. We were not the best of friends, of course. I had never been to his house, he had never been to mine. But, we were on a first name basis and ran in the same social circles for over ten years. Thus, I got this job because of a friendship fostered well before I attended law school.

It's not what you know, it's who you know.

I'd be laughing if that wasn't so damn sad.

Best of luck to all of you.

A six month extension is not stability

I was offered an extension on my current contract. Same terms as the one I signed in May (I'm not sure I could have modified any of the terms because I have no leverage). The upside: I have an income stream for another six months. The downside: I have an income stream for only the next six months.

This is unreal.

It is also strangely comforting, as well. Six months of something is better than six months of nothing. I know I can provide my children a better Christmas than I could a year ago. If nothing else, I have that going for me.

I only keep in touch with a few people from law school. A handful, really. Through them, I am aware of the situation of a few others. Thus, I hear about the lives of 15-20 people from my graduating class from time to time via phone calls, social media, and the like.

Of those, most are struggling. One or two landed gigs because of their family connections (father, uncle, etc.). A few are really fucked. I've been told one guy landed decent gig, but that appears to be the exception rather than the norm.

I don't want to come across as too grim. I am paying the bills, putting food on the table, and putting money into savings every month. I keep an ear to the ground. I am picking up short term contacts whenever I can. There is very little work offered to me that I have turned down - scheduling conflicts have been the only reason to decline an offer thus far.

There is a long term prospect that looks interesting. I have no idea, really, if it will pan out. But, it exists, there have been talks, and it may lead somewhere.

Best of luck to all of you.

Another contract position

I haven't posted here in a while. I guess that is because there isn't much to say that hasn't already been said. I feel like I'm treading water, and barely at that.

I graduated law school in May of 2011. I have yet to find full-time, permanent employment. You know, like the kind I thought I'd find with a law degree. The J.D. is so versatile, after all. You can do almost anything with a J.D. In fact, you will do almost anything with a J.D.

I thought that investing in my education would create more stability. Boy, did I ever have that wrong. There is nothing "stable" about what I've been doing. I'm always looking, always networking, always applying.

I accepted another contract position back in May. This one is scheduled to last six months. The work is enjoyable, and money good. I'm actually really busy with this one. So busy, in fact, that I haven't been doing any work for other lawyers. That's a first. Previous to this, I was always working for several people at once.

I make a good bit more than I had been. Still, it's only a six month gig. It could be extended, I suppose. I hear such things sometimes are. But, then what? I can hold on for another six months and make it a year of employment? Then do I cross my finders and hope for a year and a half?

This won't last forever. That's the reality. It will end.

I'll be out beating the streets again. As if I ever stopped, right? Always be closing... Always.

It's been like this the last two years. Contract gigs. Nothing but contract gigs. I've managed to stay busy and build up my resume with actual legal experience. I'm way beyond listing law school achievements or law professors as references. I now have more professional (read: practicing lawyer) references than I can use. I guess that's an upside.

I shouldn't complain. I know some folks who have it worse than me.

Best of luck to all of you. To all of us.

The numbers

Staying with my plan of sharing my current fortunes, here is the day's post. I made $2,200 gross in February between the two part-time legal positions I currently hold. In March I pulled down $2,400.

Do the math. If you work full-time, 40 hours a week, and gross $2,200, you are getting paid at the rate of $13.75 an hour ($2,000 / 160 hrs = $13.75). I am on track for a $28k year. I made more than that at a retail position back in 1998 or '99.

That was when I was in my twenties. 

I am now trying to get back to where I was in my twenties.

How depressing is that?

It gets better. No only was I making more money back then, the rest of my financial situation was glorious by comparison. My wife and I had purchased our first house, a three bedroom ranch. We were both working full time. Her job paid a fair bit more than mine did (go figure, right?). Our house payment was about $700. We owned one car, a Honda Civic, but we owned it outright. Were not paying a note on that car. It was a few years old, and had about 55,000 miles on the odometer.  But, that baby ran great. All that car ever needed was oil, tires, and brakes. Neither of us had any student loans from our undergraduate educations (those were the days!). And, we had about $35k between saving, a small money market fund, and a handful of stocks.

Things were looking great. Just great.

That was then, this is now. I've been applying to damn near every job I find that sounds either remotely interesting or that I am remotely qualified for. Some of these jobs are for legal positions, and some of them are not. I'm not proud. I just need more income.

I'm not sure the J.D. is hurting me, because, really, how do you prove that? (Inversely, how do your prove that the JD helps? Answer: you cannot.) I can say in all honesty that it doesn't appear to be helping any.

I don't hear anything back about half of the time. No response at all.  No letter, no email, no nothing. Certainly no phone call. The other half are split between a paper rejection letter and an email. I have about a dozen recent rejection letters now. Three or four of them were for legal positions. Two were for what amounts to entry level office work: administrative assistant.

They're are simply form letters, with boilerplate language, and no reference to the actual position applied for. At least two are nearly identical. Go figure.

"We have decided to pursue other applicants show qualifications more closely reflect the requirements for this position and the needs of the department."

That phrase, or something very close to it, appeared in most of the letters.

"We have had a good response to our recruitment efforts and received applications from many well qualified individuals."

You get the idea. Bland, non-specific, form letters.

I'll keep knocking on doors. Because, really, what other choice do I have?

A rebuttal of sorts

Upon reading through a discussion on reddit which references one of my recent posts, it appears I need to clear a few things up.

1. Desire to be an attorney.

Look, my wife is an attorney and has been for nearly a decade now (9 yrs & change). I knew plenty of other attorneys before I applied to law school, both through her and through my own networks. I knew what law school would be like, I knew what the bar exam would be like, and I knew what the work of being an attorney actually entailed. I went to law school to become an attorney. For the most part, I have enjoyed being an attorney.

The issue not whether I "really wanted" to be an attorney. The issue is the lack of employment opportunities in the practice of law.

2. Debt load management.

It is a brute, and it is a major portion of our monthly outlay. My situation is a lot better than the five or six folks I staying in contact with since graduation. That does not mean my situation is what I'd like it to be. Are we swimming in discretionary income? No. But, we can manage. Barely some months.

Our debt load is not the issue. The issue is the lack of employment opportunities. My wife works in a solid, full-time position and makes a decent living. She has a decade of experience. Yes, we are still paying her student loans. I work two (might soon be three) part-time gigs. The reality is that I made a more money before I earned a J.D. Therefore, I would likely be in a better position to contribute if I had not gone to law school.

3. Lack of research.

I should just call this point "blame the victim" or "I am a special snowflake." See 1, supra. Far too often the first response to the bitter economic situation of many recent law graduates is that he or she didn't go to the right school, get good enough grades, or network enough, etc. The inference is that the recent graduate is either the sole cause of their own misery, or the majority contributor to it (i.e., it is somehow deserved). The added point, either stated or inferred, is that the responding writer is going to succeed where others have failed because he or she will go to the right school, get good grades, network it to the max, etc. (i.e., the writer is a special snowflake that will beat the odds).

Yeah, right. I did the research. I spoke with several attorneys. I read the materials my law school provided me detailing employment rates nine months after graduation and average starting salaries. What I expected a reasonable return on my investment of time and money. I went to a poorly ranked law school because (as I have already explained in an earlier post) it was located in the state my wife is licensed to practice law. It was not the only in-state school; it was the in-state school that accepted me. I could have left the state and attended a school of higher rank. However, I did not want to relocate my family. We could not afford a terminate my wife's income.

I am sick and tired of people, current law students in particular, who cannot seem to get their heads around the fact that you are tied to the state you are licensed in. Moving to a different state is a big deal when you'll be out of work for half the year until you can (a) sit for the bi-annual bar exam, and (b) get your results. There are not a lot of employers whom will pay an unlicensed attorney to sit around doing non-attorney work. Sure, such opportunities exist (a friend of ours did so around 2003 or '04), but those opportunities are few and far between, if they even exist at all anymore. Instead, my wife was able to leave one position and start a new one a week later because we did not leave the state she was licensed to practice law in. Our income stream barely rippled. Moving out-of-state would have been a big deal for us. It should not be discounted so quickly.

4. Bad life choices.

This is more of that "blame the victim" noise. Yeah, I get it, it's my fault. I bought the ticket, now I get to take the ride. Awesome. High five later.

Ultimately, all I wanted was a chance to sit for the bar exam. I got that. But, damn if that three year program of study couldn't have been reasonably compressed into two at most.

Seriously, is it so hard to understand that the law schools are in the practice of publishing job placement and earnings statistics that are misleading at best and simply untrue at worst? The mandatory grade curve and resulting attrition rate are not exactly advertised on the front page of those glossy brochures the schools sent out to anyone and everyone who signed up for the LSAT. That rather nasty surprise was discovered during the first year of school, not before.

The "law school scam" movement was in it's infancy when I was applying to law school. It is a far different landscape now. Go back seven years to 2006. That's where I was standing. That's the landscape I had before me. It was different then.

Two notable websites that come to mind are Third Tier Reality and Inside The Law School Scam (there are many others). These two sites were not in existence until 2009 and 2011, respectively. http://thirdtierreality.blogspot.com/2009/08/third-tier-reality.html; http://insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2011/08/welcome-to-my-nightmare.html (yeah, yeah, last checked today). These websites and their authors have made a rather large impact on the discussion. And, the second one, ITLSS, isn't even an active website anymore.

As a related and important point, I am an attorney. I am currently working as an attorney. I'm not some pretender. This is my life. 2012 was bullshit (we moved between cities, I was Mr. Mom, see related posts I'm too busy to link, blah, blah, blah), but 2013 is shaping up. Am I making a good living? No. Not hardly. Am I busting my ass? Yes. I am looking for work everywhere, applying to any number of positions that I find every week, and saying yes to every short-term contract opportunity I find. I'm going to win at this game because I am too big to fail.

I do not cringe at your criticism.

I do not want your pity.

All this blog can stand for is what happened to one middle aged guy who thought it would be a good idea to go to law school. Then the bottom fell out of the economy. Life is a lot different now than it was 10 or 20 years ago. For me and a lot of other people. It is not going to get better overnight. Rather, it is going to take few years. Or, decades.

What happened to me also happened to many others. And, it may happen to you.