T14 to Discovery Attorney Forum

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BigJT

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T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by BigJT » Sat Jan 26, 2013 6:34 pm

This has to be one of the more depressing links you will click today.

3 Columbia, 2 Cornell, a Penn, a Northwestern, and an NYU grad all doing time in the doc review dungeon.

At sticker (because let's be honest, these probably weren't scholly kids), that represents about a million and a quarter in tuition.

grapefruits

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by grapefruits » Sat Jan 26, 2013 10:05 pm

At Cravath though. Is there some reason to think they didn't start at $160,000?

BigJT

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by BigJT » Sat Jan 26, 2013 10:15 pm

grapefruits wrote:At Cravath though. Is there some reason to think they didn't start at $160,000?
They are listed as "Discovery Attorney," not as "Associate." Zero chance these guys are pulling down $160,000.

luthersloan

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by luthersloan » Sat Jan 26, 2013 10:15 pm

Paying them 160K would defeat the point of the discovery attorney position. The whole idea is to pay people a lot less to do grunt work. Not sure what they make, but I doubt it is even half of a regular associate's salary.

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stillwater

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by stillwater » Sat Jan 26, 2013 10:17 pm

Did you notice one of those doods didn't even go to law school? He read law instead?

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bk1

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by bk1 » Sat Jan 26, 2013 10:18 pm

You seriously couldn't wait out your full ban? Enjoy another week.

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Bildungsroman

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by Bildungsroman » Sat Jan 26, 2013 10:24 pm

BigJT wrote: let's be honest, these probably weren't scholly kids
:|

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bizzybone1313

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by bizzybone1313 » Sat Jan 26, 2013 10:31 pm

The really sad one is the guy with the JD and the PhD.

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Tom Joad

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by Tom Joad » Sat Jan 26, 2013 10:37 pm

It is 2013, what do you expect? Happiness and success?

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ercmilla

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by ercmilla » Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:07 pm

If they are there because this is the best option for them, then this is very depressing.

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stillwater

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by stillwater » Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:08 pm

at least they get on the webpage. I am sure many discovery attorneys cannot say the same. Though, this puts everyone on notice they are discovery attorneys.

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hume85

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by hume85 » Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:13 pm

Tom Joad wrote:It is 2013, what do you expect? Happiness and success?
This is my favorite post of the year so far.

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JO 14

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by JO 14 » Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:16 pm

BigJT wrote:At sticker (because let's be honest, these probably weren't scholly kids), that represents about a million and a quarter in tuition.
Comment makes me ask. . . 35,000 law students, paying $30K in yearly tuition =
+$1 Trillion per year or $3.150 Trillion over three years. Can that be right??

Figure if 10,000 of those 35,000 students never get into law, schools receive $900M (over three years) for . . . .? (what?)

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bk1

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by bk1 » Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:23 pm

^Your calculation fails to take into account scholarships.

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Tiago Splitter

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by Tiago Splitter » Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:25 pm

bk187 wrote:^Your calculation fails to take into account scholarships.
It also confuses the words "trillion" and "billion"

grapefruits

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by grapefruits » Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:25 pm

luthersloan wrote:Paying them 160K would defeat the point of the discovery attorney position. The whole idea is to pay people a lot less to do grunt work. Not sure what they make, but I doubt it is even half of a regular associate's salary.
Heavens to Betsy!

bk1

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by bk1 » Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:25 pm

Tiago Splitter wrote:
bk187 wrote:^Your calculation fails to take into account scholarships.
It also confuses the words "trillion" and "billion"
:lol:

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JO 14

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by JO 14 » Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:32 pm

bk187 wrote:^Your calculation fails to take into account scholarships.
When all is said and done (not counting COL) you believe $30K is high. . .what is a more realistic?

And yea, big opps it is Billion not Trillion. Blame it on the wine… keyboard or (lets leave it at that). :oops:

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84651846190

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by 84651846190 » Sun Jan 27, 2013 7:59 am

Senior discovery attorneys at firms like Cravath can easily pull down 200k. I know several who make this much at other firms. Some lawyers choose to be discovery attorneys because they hours are extremely predictable, and there's usually a lot more job security relative to normal associates. I'm sure any of these people are smart enough to start their own firms. They choose these jobs because they like predictability, and they've developed an expertise in discovery work.

These aren't contract positions where you're expecting to get fired after big cases settle. I think very few of you in this thread actually understand what salaried discovery attorneys do. If you had actually worked on document review projects, you'd realize that they can be quite complex. Responsible people are required to manage them.

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JO 14

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by JO 14 » Sun Jan 27, 2013 10:50 am

On the other hand, a number of TLS posters have written extensively about their doc review horror stories, portraying doc review as a very low paying, working long hours in the basement with no benefits kind of job.

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by suralin » Sun Jan 27, 2013 10:55 am

JO 14 wrote:On the other hand, a number of TLS posters have written extensively about their doc review horror stories, portraying doc review as a very low paying, working long hours in the basement with no benefits kind of job.
See, e.g., sadsituationJD.

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delusional

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by delusional » Sun Jan 27, 2013 10:56 am

JO 14 wrote:On the other hand, a number of TLS posters have written extensively about their doc review horror stories, portraying doc review as a very low paying, working long hours in the basement with no benefits kind of job.
I think his point is that these are not the same positions as those cellar dwelling doc reviewers.

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reasonable_man

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by reasonable_man » Sun Jan 27, 2013 11:19 am

Biglaw_Associate_V20 wrote:Senior discovery attorneys at firms like Cravath can easily pull down 200k. I know several who make this much at other firms. Some lawyers choose to be discovery attorneys because they hours are extremely predictable, and there's usually a lot more job security relative to normal associates. I'm sure any of these people are smart enough to start their own firms. They choose these jobs because they like predictability, and they've developed an expertise in discovery work.

These aren't contract positions where you're expecting to get fired after big cases settle. I think very few of you in this thread actually understand what salaried discovery attorneys do. If you had actually worked on document review projects, you'd realize that they can be quite complex. Responsible people are required to manage them.
The point is that few if any new attorneys take these jobs by choice. They take them out of desperation and after holding such a job for more than 6 months you are branded as a doc review monkey for life. While there might be added stability in working as a discovery attorney at a big law the reality is that anyone on that linked list is one serious litigation drought away from unemployment and eventual temp-work that is likely to include basement doc review projects. Moreover, at most big laws these positions are viewed as less prestigious than a paralegal position.

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cahwc12

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by cahwc12 » Sun Jan 27, 2013 11:41 am

Biglaw_Associate_V20 wrote:Senior discovery attorneys at firms like Cravath can easily pull down 200k. I know several who make this much at other firms. Some lawyers choose to be discovery attorneys because they hours are extremely predictable, and there's usually a lot more job security relative to normal associates. I'm sure any of these people are smart enough to start their own firms. They choose these jobs because they like predictability, and they've developed an expertise in discovery work.

These aren't contract positions where you're expecting to get fired after big cases settle. I think very few of you in this thread actually understand what salaried discovery attorneys do. If you had actually worked on document review projects, you'd realize that they can be quite complex. Responsible people are required to manage them.
It may have something to do with this recent ITLSS blog post (bolded applies to me as well):

http://insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot. ... solan.html

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Re: T14 to Discovery Attorney

Post by KindleNexusfan » Sun Jan 27, 2013 11:44 am

These are not temp contract workers. These are full time permanent employees who supervise large discovery projects and all make six figures. I know people at other v25 NYC firms with similar jobs and one makes 250k. These are all experienced lawyers and their position is mostly managerial. These are not the temp workers in the basement, these are the people who run the projects in the basement, supervising and coordinating with litigation partners to figure out what basement ppl should be looking for. This people aren't David Boies but it is a solid and stable job.

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