The Job (the temporary one)

A lot of people have been asking me about my new job. Today was my fourth day, and I'm getting the hang of it, though I won't lie and say it's fun. I will, though, tell you a little about it. If you aren't a lawyer, you might be surprised what some lawyers spend their days doing.

Before I begin, I want to say that I am really thankful to have a job as an attorney that pays decently, especially considering the state of the economy, which has been quite hard on lawyers (but yeah, I know you don't pity lawyers!). So far everyone is treating me well and my co-workers seem very nice.

I'm working as a temporary document review attorney in the workroom of a medium-large law firm in downtown Baltimore. Supposedly most of us will be working this case for about 2-3 months, but it could get cut short, or it could go on long past that. About 25 lawyers sit in the room with me, all of us at tables; about 10 more sit in an adjoining room. There are two workspaces per table. A workspace consists of a hard drive, a large flat screen, a keyboard and a mouse. There are no decorations or personal items around, unless you count the cups of coffee at almost every spot. I guess I'm lucky. I sit on the end of a row, and the lawyer who shares my table seems pretty nice and easy-going.

All of the attorneys I work with are employees of an attorney staffing firm. Our client is the law firm, whose client in turn is a Fortune 500 corporation. I wish I could tell you more, but confidentiality rules won't allow it.

Here's what my day is like: I wake up at about 6:30 AM and leave the house around 7:30 to drive to Baltimore, where I park in a garage and walk to the law firm's building. I put on a name tag (My name and "Temporary Employee," it says) so people in the building know I "belong" there. For the most part, I'm probably not going to get to know any of the permanent firm attorneys.

I sit down at my workspace and send an email to a timekeepers so she knows I've arrived. Then I begin my work: I spend 8 hours looking at my flat screen, searching manually through hundreds of computer-scanned documents: emails, letters, spreadsheets and power point presentations. Like everyone else in the room, it's my job to decide whether each document is relevant to the case and whether we legally must produce it to the opposing party's law firm. Most of the documents are not very exciting (to say the least), and I often see what appears to be the same document multiple times. The work is very repetitive, but it's important to be diligent and not take anything for granted. The most difficult thing about the job is staying alert enough not to miss anything important -- thus the coffee, which I do not ordinarily drink.

I don't talk to anyone very much. Everyone is concentrating. Sometimes people listen to ipods, but that's the only entertainment anyone has. We don't have access to the Internet or personal emails, and we are required to keep our phones muted. The client is paying us to get the work done efficiently, and besides, it would be rude to distract the other attorneys. During my 30 minute lunch, I try to take a walk outdoors and get a quick meal; I find I'm rather desperate to get out of that room (though it isn't completely unpleasant -- it does have big windows and decent ventilation). At the end of the day, we send an "I'm leaving" email, turn the computers off, and return home.

Who are the attorneys in this room with me? Many, like me, are only a year or two out of law school, and some are working their first job as an attorney. A surprising number of the others have recently been laid off from firms all along the East Coast. Some have small private practices in their "spare time." Others are waiting for a more permanent position. Judging on looks alone, I would estimate that the attorneys range in age from about 26 to about 59. Many seem to be married and have children. From what I can tell, they come from just about every background, race and religion, which I find rather impressive, actually.

One thing I think almost all of us have in common: none of us expected or hoped to be doing this kind of work after spending 3-4 years in law school and in many cases working as litigators or law clerks or patent attorneys or what have you. But more and more law firms are needing to hire lawyers like this to work on massive litigation projects, while fewer of them are hiring permanent associates. Who has the money to hire all these attorneys? I'll let you figure that out on your own. Just know that it's not the "average" guy or gal on the street....