[Nods] Thank you Max, Salmon, Descan, Sirus.
Unfortunately "screening" means basically saying no which has two problems. Obviously, people don't get/buy the services they need. Second, especially in this economy, there are relatively few people who can pay.... Clients are harder to find. Third, the legal profession in the US is hurting in ways it never has (partners being laid off) and perhaps even dying, which is why none of you are to go to law school without talking to me directly first. Originally, the legal profession was divided in two: those who worked for the corporations and those who did not. The former were well taken care of. Then corporate cost cutting happened.... Yeah.... Did I mention law firms were needlessly and heavily invested in real estate/the stock market, which both crashed spectacularly. I pointed out that law firms had no business in real estate and was softly chuckled at as a naive upstart who didn't know what he was talking about. Now, I make it a point to rub it in, relentlessly and long after the point of being asked to stop. "How are those real estate investments doing...?" <-- I ask this too much, because fuck the people who made this decision the entire profession is paying for.
Now slashed corporate budgets mean they're letting everyone go, including legal. Lowered incomes mean people can't afford lawyers. Corporations have decided not to.... No one is hiring, rather they are firing, this has never happened in the law before....
My old boss has given up and is basically waiting to die. Half his clients don't pay him and he won't let me go after them, because it'll raise his malpractice insurance. I do it anyhow when I can and dare him to fire me. He never seems to have a problem taking the money I get.... Not sure how much longer he'll hold out (in terms of him bothering to come to work). I'm looking into accepting credit cards to make this someone else's problem though.
Then of course if you work for the ultra rich you don't even know there's a recession going on, but how many of them do you think there are? Everyone has a penny, no one has a dollar....
People do not understand that being a lawyer is rarely glorious. You don't get to give speeches like on Law and Order, or Perry Mason, or whatever. You end up basically going through tons of books and papers and people don't understand what you do or why you do it. They think that because they told you something, you shouldn't have to spend time researching the facts. They forget the judge won't believe them, because the judge doesn't believe anyone/everybody lies to the judge. I just have to laugh a little when they say things like "I'm innocent." Gee really, why didn't you say so? We'd have let you out 20 minutes ago.... Everybody in prison says "innocent....." Same thing with civil suits.... They don't get it/don't wanna get it. I'm the bastard telling them things they don't wanna hear, because doing otherwise would be a disservice.