Re: Palin's 2012 Running Mate?
 

Yeah, but at least he knows that the military won't "answer" to our commander in chief.

Re: Lost Generation
 

They ought to shift to a merit system. We can fire a whole lot of govt employees if we start giving out bonuses to performers and pink slips to laggards.

Why not? Having governmental ideals and capitalist ideals in a 50/50 mix on Wall Street would have allowed enough regulation to have averted this crisis in advance. Well, govt wastes a tremendous amount of money. Why not inject some capitalist thinking into its hierachies?

You can't get talent without money and you can't get money to pay talent with a pack of no-value-added bureaucrats on the dole. We could easily fire 10% of the govt and give the money to productive employees.

Whether I'd want that in places like the IRS is another question...

Re: Lost Generation
 

10% of Federal, 50% of state and local, at least in Illinois (and I assume Penna).

Re: Lost Generation
 

Law firms need to reconfigure their model alltogether. Lockstep pay is insanity and the goofy premium paid for Ivy School credentials is unwarranted. Law's a trade, and the degree should be treated as the moderately valuable license it is. The Big 4 and consulting outfits don't pay such close attention to silly nonsense like "prestige" and neither do clients, who are shopping by value. If partners had any brains they'd stop with the lockstep silliness and fixation on finding the next Clarence Darrow or Lipton and go out and hire blended classes of associates from various schools at bargains. Make them compete against one another at whatever salary the kid was able to negotiate coming in the door. Why paid $160k to untested people? Smash lockstep, pay them all between $90-120k and make all other bonuses contingent on performance or business production. If they don't work out, fire them quick and pick up new bodies to fill the slot. And make the sky the limit. If you bring in X in business, you get X percent, no matter how huge that number might be, and no matter how angry it might make other associates. That'll incentivize people.

Hell, I've worked in five different areas, with and against some pretty impressive lawyers. Law isn't brain surgery. That's a bunch of bullshit we sell to people as a barrier to entry and fee justification. Managers can commoditize this work (well, at least litigation) a lot better than they have, and lower the employee costs radically.

I know... "They're already doing this, Sebby, you clueless bastard."

Re: Lost Generation
 

I disagree, at least to the extent that the firm is both sufficiently profitable and capable of paying at premium levels. I don't see many associates leaving lockstep firms because they are so outraged over not getting paid more than their colleagues (in part because leaving often means getting paid less).

Agreed. Although to some degree it helps justify the premium rates.

Huh? There are only 4 of them. That fact alone is entirely a function of "prestige." People don't go to number 5 because they want a name that investors know and trust.

ETA: Sometimes the value is the prestige, btw.

Re: Lost Generation
 

If you mean to say "fuck you hank", say it,

my last biglaw grew rapidly just before i got there. it grew from a single office in a backwater town to several offices with lots more lawyers. we kicked ass. we were paid on merit. the people who built the firm and really drove the growth were from shit law schools. we had practice group leaders who went to Cooley for goodness sakes. they all had a chip on their shoulders from being looked down on and busted their asses day after day. in short, we were what you say firms should be.

once we got big? we stopped hiring from shit schools and started looking at U of M grads, or some out of state places. turned out to be a bad idea.

Re: Lost Generation
 

I've always been a fan of doing away with most local govt. Have a mayor, police and fire department. School boards should not exist. They're cesspools for local political hacks to wield influence and get themselves wired to get rich in the favors machine.

In PA, every town agency has it's own "Solicitor." Can you fucking believe that? A pile of locally-wired assholes with law degrees each get a couple grand a month just to advise the head of each little agency on code, or replying to subpoenas or other similar tasks it would take you or me fifteen minutes to complete. I've dealt with a bunch and it's appalling. Nine out of ten don't do shit. I had to contract with municipalities through a few and they have to be the laziest, most useless bags of plasma I've ever worked with.

Each county in PA spends hundreds of thousands on these people every year. Can you imagine that? Is this common or something unique to this shithole?

Re: Lost Generation
 

We're in a long term "productivity" cycle. It's worsening and it's only going to lay into law with an increasing vengeance down the road.

The concept of "prestige" will hold in places like NY and for super-well heeled clients who can afford the premium. But in places like PA, NJ, etc... I see a lot more concern with short term cash flow in buyers. I just talked to a buddy of mine who's an assistant GC. Does a lot of hiring for litigation purposes. For everything but those "could be a monstrous verdict" cases, he's being pressed by the bean-counters to seek bargains. I doubt he's alone.

I don't see associates leaving lockstep either. I see management abandoning it.

Re: Lost Generation
 

Agreed. Not everyone can command the kind of premium rates that are necessary for lockstep to work. Which is why almost no one does real lockstep anymore.

Re: Lost Generation
 

Huh.

I'm going to put a pin in this one, just to see if someone wishes to respond.

Re: Lost Generation
 

Is "putting a pin in it" the same as "killing the board"?

Re: Election Eve Fire
 

To be clear though they have not yet determined whether it was a hate crime.

Link

I can't find a link at the moment but I'd read earlier that there had been tension with the neighborhood because the church was being built in a residential area.

Re: Lost Generation
 

Apparently so. I haven't smushed the board like that since admitting Flinty's and my forbidden love.

Sorry, y'all. Carry on.

Re: Lost Generation
 

Can't. Office holiday today, and I don't post on the Boards during Me Time.

Re: Election Eve Fire
 

The original article Thurgreed posted said that.

Although even if that was the motivation, I'm not sure it equates to not being a hate crime. Aren't churches generally in residential areas?