According to a recent column by Boston Globe’s conservative columnist Jeff Jacoby, federal civil servant employees’ salary is rising and holding a comparative advantage vs. private sector employees.
The figures are quite astonishing, actually. The federal civil servants enjoyed an average annual salary of $79,197, whereas the private employee was earned $49,935. The numbers are even more stark when taking into account the benefit packages: $119,982 for federal civilian vs. $59,909 for private employees. It should also be noted that these figures came from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis but the study that compared federal civilian employee salaries vs. private sector employee salaries was done by the Cato Institute, a right-leaning think tank.
These statistics are not misleading in of themselves, but they don’t illustrate the whole story. They do not, for example, take into account types of profession or geographic region. The statistics are essentially raw data that lumps compensation together into one pool. The Cato Institute is not necessarily distorting data, but it is leaving out some essential information for the reader. For the reader who might want to accurately compare a lawyer in private practice in Montana vs. a lawyer in Washington, D.C the study, unfortunately, falls short.
October 4th, 2009
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The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division is reportedly undergoing significant policy and organizational restructuring according to a recent New York Times article. These changes could lead to new hiring within the division and a revamping of what has long been considered an historic division within DOJ that recently has been under some serious scrutiny.
To the new hiring, the article conveys that the Obama administration is working to reverse many of the current trends of the Civil Rights Division. With that comes new hiring. “To bolster a unit that has been battered by heavy turnover and a scandal over politically tinged hiring under the Bush administration, the Obama White House has also proposed a hiring spree that would swell the ranks of several hundred civil rights lawyers with more than 50 additional lawyers, a significant increase for a relatively small but powerful division of the government.”
The division has had a significant presence within the DOJ from the height of the civil rights movement to modern day (including an episode when former President Clinton attempted to appoint Professor Lani Guinier to lead the division). Only time will tell to see how many new appointments there are, but significant policy shifting should be expected.
September 11th, 2009
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The DOJ’s Criminal Division, in efforts to back up the recent talk of the Obama Administration, is beefing up its fraud unit. As reported in the National Law Journal, the DOJ is looking to hire as many as 10 trial attorneys and a new “superstar” to lead the fraud section. The fraud section already represents the Criminal Division’s largest litigation unit. By adding in new litigators, the Division and unit can amp up their work on health care, which Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. has reportedly been wanting to do.
The article continues, “(F)raud section attorneys are often described as a “rapid response team” that jumps into districts around the country to target the crime of the moment. Five of those 10 trial lawyers would be assigned where needed, said department officials. But the other five spots are new positions dedicated to the prosecution of health care fraud. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. has declared the fight against health care fraud to be a top priority.”
August 20th, 2009
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It has already been well documented that nationally, legal aid is being hit hard by the economy and the Madoff scandal. In Massachusetts, a state that has a long history of providing legal aid to low income and individuals in need, has seen its funding seriously reduced. Greater Boston Legal Services, the largest legal assistance agency in the region, will be cutting its staff by over 20% in the fall. Other organizations across the state have had to cut staff and close on alternate Fridays.
As mentioned in a previous blog post, much of the funding comes from the interest gained on an obscure pooled account called the Lawyers’ Trust Account program. This account contains money from certain escrow funds that is set aside by lawyers to serve clients. More money the lawyers put in, the greater money available to clients who need legal defense. The less money that comes in and the lower the interest rate (which is the case right now), the less there is available to serve clients.
This Globe article highlights the struggles occurring in Massachusetts legal aid organizations.
August 20th, 2009
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The ABA Journal recently wrote up an article about what practice areas are “thriving” in the legal industry. While all listed might prove to be interesting to the public interest-minded people, below are some key ones:
1.) Prepaid Legal Services – A sort of hidden secret of the legal industry. As the article describes, “Employers sign up for prepaid legal service plans and let employees participate for a small monthly fee. Participating employees then have a lawyer to call for a variety of problems either free or for a discounted fee, while other matters are not covered.”
2.) Environmental & Energy Law – Much of the environmental work is born out of the Obama Administration’s push to change environmental practices and shift to renewable energies. The article reports that much of the available legal work will be related to logistics (i.e., transportation of energy sources, where to set up new energy systems, etc.)
3.) Consumer Protection – As debt collectors fight to collect money owed, consumer protection lawyers fight to ensure collectors are following the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Consumer Protection practice often booms during economic downturns.
August 7th, 2009
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Reuters recently reported that more and more college graduates are choosing Washington over Wall Street for their first jobs. While many students – approximately 80% – have reported having no jobs after graduation, they now feel the strong pull of public service and quite frankly, see that Washington D.C. is one of the few places currently hiring. It is hard to pinpoint any one reason for the influx of college graduates to D.C., it is clear that the combination of the economic downturn, the appeal of president Barack Obama, and the growing desire to commit to public service all have contributed to this shift.
June 14th, 2009
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On the Cal Law blog Legal Pad, David Coleman, a Public Defender in California believes it unjust and counter-productive to place deferred associates in public defenders offices. Coleman, an HLS alum had some pretty strong remarks about the placement of deferred associates in public defenders offices. It is not fair to young lawyers who have willingly chosen the public sector at “50 cents on the dollar” for what big firms pay to have their opportunity to accrue trial experience diminished so that same trial experience can be obtained by a civil firm lawyer who 1.) eschewed lesser compensation in favor of high salaries and bonuses, 2.) had less interest in the criminal justice system and 3.) is destined (chomping at the bit) to return to Big Law as soon as the Firm will have them back.”
To read the complete blog post, click here.
April 29th, 2009
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This article in the New York discusses how Skadden Arps has taken a bold step in this troubling economy: offering $80,000 to all of its associates worldwide and a year off. One of the associates, Heather Eisenlord is planning on taking the year off to teach English in Sri Lanka or bring solar power to the Himalayas.
This is not the only option on the table, as the firm is also trying to find pro bono work for its associates and others are attempting to pursue different avenues of work for a year, “So far, the majority of the lawyers are looking for worthwhile legal work, Skadden says, to keep them as competitive as possible; but yes, some will take the year off to spend time with their children or look after a sick relative. Someone’s planning to wrap up his Ph.D., someone else is looking into legal work for a news organization, and another associate will be joining Ms. Eisenlord on her round-the-world adventure.”
The fact that any of these options exist at all, however, can be pretty astonishing to most Americans.
April 19th, 2009
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Joe Davidson, Columnist for the Washington Post, wrote a column on how the federal government is squandering opportunities in developing its workforce. “Uncle Sam” he comments, is constantly behind the times with cultivating, developing and ultimately hiring interns that come through the various federal government offices. “Unlike private employers, Sam does not view interns strategically, as young professionals who should be cultivated into valued members of the federal workforce. He thinks doing a good deed by giving students experience is enough, while playing down the potential long-term benefit to the government the students represent. Sam puts most of his intern eggs into a basket with a big hole at the bottom. That basket is the Student Temporary Employment Program, which had 75 percent of the federal interns in 2007. It is “not designed to connect to career or academic goals, and . . . offers no direct route to students for full-time federal employment,” the report says. Temporary-employment interns don’t necessarily work on substantive projects. They may be assigned clerical or unskilled jobs.”
April 10th, 2009
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Questions are rising about who exactly will cover the hidden costs of those new graduates who have been deferred from their law firms for a year. While many law firms have agreed to subsidize their these new lawyers upwards to $75,000, and the non-profit and public interest organizations are in many instances happy to take on the new staff, there is the issue of cost that still needs to be answered. An article in the American Lawyer Daily, quotes Mitchell Kamin, the president and CEO of Bet Tzedek Legal Services in Los Angeles, who explains some of the less obvious costs associated with bringing on a new attorney “Kamin estimates the added cost of taking on an intern for one year at his organization will come to roughly $10,500 to cover office supplies, parking, and postage (an additional $3500 will be necessary for the added training and supervision costs for these newbie lawyers).”
Some employers believe the firms had not anticipated some of the costs involved in bringing on a new associate. Non profits have reacted to the situation, in some instances, by asking firms to provide funds to cover training fees which the non-profits believe could benefit the firms long term and also step-up their fund raising efforts to cover other costs like medical benefits or malpractice.
April 5th, 2009
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