Nice job, guys.
 

Remind me to use the restroom before I visit you.

Nice job, guys.
 

I thought you smelly creatures ate eachother's pee.

Baby Shower
 

Wait a minute- so you give charities the books that a kid would hate? Do you declare them as deductions? WTF? Wouldn't it be better to actually give a few of the 50 "good" books to the charity? Or is it just as well because "those kids" will probably not be able to read anyway?

Most liberals have the blackest hearts. This kind of smugness just gives me the creeps.

'TiqueLaw salary
 

It depends both on how high-end this boutique is and on what your role is going to be. If it is truly high-end and you expect a relationship something like a part-time partner-track associate in a big firm, that may be a reasonable place to start in terms of salary. If the work they are doing is less high-end, or if you would view your relationship as more along the lines of "work hard for 8 hours and then get out of there," you ought to shoot a bit lower.

In either case, you might want to substitute revenue-sharing for some portion of the base (e.g., you get 25% of all the time you bill over, say, 1,200 hours). In order to work out those numbers, you'd need to ask what rate they anticipate billing your time out at and how much billable work they think you'll have to do -- they should be paying a premium over what they would otherwise pay in exchange for you assuming some of the risk. If they do considerable work on contingent fee the calculus will be different, but you might consider taking on some of that risk as well (e.g., I get $x for every hour over 1,200, plus 10% of the premium, if any, generated on my time).

Good luck!

hello again
 

Also keep in mind that your benefits may be affected. In-house benefits, unless you are at a startup, are generally better than law firm non-partner lawyer benefits. You may be able to, or be already, using the family coverage your husband/partner has, but then again, maybe not.

Good luck!

Baby Shower
 

Lots of assumptions here from you. No deductions, but they're books we don't have a use for. Many are duplicates of books we already have, others are one's our kids don't get excited about but others may (for example, hard core "boy books" just don't interest our 12 year old girl, so those are given away; horse books and fantasy stay with us, detective books are given away). But, yes, some are those junky "Golden Books" that I cannot understand anyone having much use for, but apparently some do and they're welcome to them.

I guess I don't find it surprising that a conservative would lack understanding of the diversity out there in the world, and would find an urge to label everything he doesn't want "bad."

Baby Shower
 

Surely you can't be serious, Shirley. Would you prefer he add them to a landfill? Although maybe that's good for your hometown business.

Nice job, guys.
 

I was pulled over in law school with then-BF-now-hubby in the car. Obviously pissed to be pulling people over in the rain without a car (yes, he pulled me over by hand, I shoulda kept going), the cop actually asked "isn't it embarrassing to be pulled over with your dad in the car?"* How do you answer this tactfully to an already pissed cop who has gotten mad at each of your previous responses, including "Good afternoon, Officer." Is being a jerk part of the job description?

-TL

* Yes I was a baby in LS, but he was still under 30 at the time, WTF? Do I really look like I'm 12?

hello again
 

Make sure this isn't bullshit. If he says A but you get there and B is the actuality, then what recourse do you have?

Enjoy it now. Before you know it they'll be grabbing your credit card and buying shit on the internet.

Baby Shower
 

He takes (probably through an agent- i don't think he actually drives them) books no one wants to some charity. one of two things happen:

Poor kids read bad books and decide they don't like to read, or the charity pays to have them thrown away.
Thanks GGG!

Baby Shower
 

You like your Pistons tickets. I would take give them to charity. Does that mean the charity throws them away or some kid has to see a bad basketball team?

Translation for the simple minded: Greedy's and others' tastes aren't identical.

Baby Shower
 

Translation: Burger never watched Seinfeld.

Baby Shower
 

My mistake. I though that you, unlike not from here, actually introduced original material in your posts.

Baby Shower
 

I do. I only rely on Seinfeld for the propostion that charities don't want everything.

GGG buys 100 books- there has to be some garbage in that- he takes 50 and "donates" 50. The garbage is in the 50, even assuming that 10 of the donated books have some value. To fix your analogy, GGG isn't donating Piston's tix, he is donating Atlanta Hawks tickets.

Baby Shower
 

No, the better analogy would be your keeping the tix to the Lakers, Bulls, Heat, Sonics, Suns, and Spurs games, while giving to your clients the tix to see Atlanta, Charlotte, and New Orleans.

Baby Shower
 

Ouch! that's a little close to home. Wait, are you Assistant Intellectual Property Counsel Joseph Gilbert III, from Mega-Corp?

Couldn't you have made this complaint via PM?

Baby Shower
 

I guarantee you, I would donate all these tickets. I would only keep the Celtics, which apparently I didn't get.

To apply it to baseball, I'd happily donate the Yankees seats, but would keep the Mets and Red Sox. Does this mean the Yankees are garbage?

Well, OK, let's stick with the basketball analogy.

(ET correct misspelling)

hello again
 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by pony_trekker
Make sure this isn't bullshit. If he says A but you get there and B is the actuality, then what recourse do you have?

Well to answer a few folks all in one post----
Viet-mom – I took a 40%+ paycut to come to current job so I understand that issue completely. But if he offers me as a base salary what I am making (slightly padded of course when he asked how much I was making here ;) for a 4 day workweek – that’s not a bad deal. Lately, I haven’t actually been getting here at 7:30, but closer to 8:30 and just working while eating but I get to see the kids in the morning and the evening and I like that and so do they. I do think it would be wise to look at this more as flex time rather than part time.

Thanks ‘credit this’ – this was what I needed. They do both plaintiff and defense litigation, with most of the defense work being hourly (won’t give too many names but they have defended Microsoft and Johnson and Johnson) and the plaintiffs work being contingent – so I needed to see what the formula for compensation would look like – I am pretty sure he is contemplating a revenue sharing formula but I wanted to know where to begin the negotiation. I get the impression that ‘em is looking for a mentee so the part time partner track idea is probably where to start. I didn’t know this until the interview but ‘em saw me on our trial team when I was in law school and has been keeping track of me - he knew my resume as well as I did. As I posted, this was the 3rd or 4rth time em has suggested I have a sit down with em. Because firm is small, I also need to think about benefits…not planning on anymore little people, but I provide the household health benefits and need to either add to $ to pay for that or see what theirs looks like. Also not sure what is available for retirement savings etc… but need to factor that into my equation as well…. But you have given me a good start – much obliged…..

Pony – I HEAR you!!! And that is my slight apprehension. I do know that there have been at least 2 other women who have successfully worked part time at this firm – came in part-time and stayed that way – in the past. They both left for other reasons…but not related because of work-load issues….and the 3 year old already says can you get me this on the ‘puter??????

Thanks again… lots to think about….

ml

I have heard friends on p/t schedules complain that they end up working more than their deal, and I would expect that this would be more of a problem at a small shop, for obvious reasons. No one acts for the wrong reasons, but the best-laid plans go awry and all that. So, if I were cutting a deal like yours, I would make sure to have an arrangement that compensates your fairly, if not more, for additional hours. If you really want to discourage them from working you too much, you could bargain to hike your marginal return as you work more. Or something like that.

This was my observation in litigation boutiques, too. People who were "P/T" were rare as hen's teeth, and the ones who did worked something that looked suspiciously like 9 to 5 for something like 40% of RMSC,* which told us bad things about the supposed premium paid in this profession in comparison to standard 9 to 5 white collar jobs, to the extent these exist anymore either.

It's important to be clear on your expectations about requirements to travel. If your case requires a week of depositions in Philly, your firm will quickly forget that it's unfair to pay you 80% for being out of town for 100% of a week, or even 80% in any week in which you're out of town for 24 straight hours. Any day you're out of town, you get paid 100% salary, no matter how many hours you bill, 'cause sitting in a hotel room means you're not with your kids and you're (presumably) incurring childcare expenses. Revenue sharing means you bear the risk of non-billable time away from your kids and your firm has no incentive not to staff you on those cases. I'd push for something that says you get paid comp time for any travel, so the firm knows you'll take it out of their hide if there's unavoidable travel. Getting paid 35% of receivables for a 10-billable-hour day spent 3,000 miles away from your kid is cold comfort. Measure your week based on hours at your employer's disposal rather than billable hours. And if you say in advance "no out of town travel, ever" this won't be worth the paper it's written on if the client says "she's the one who knows this file; send her." When you go to trial, too, getting paid for hours is not fully making you whole for losing that fifth day off.

If you're actually okay with working out of town, I suggest being clear that the firm carries any additional childcare costs over 80% of a standard workweek, so it's not cutting into your bottom line when the firm needs you to work late. Profit is revenue minus expenses, and if you're doing revenue sharing as a measure of compensation you should insist on expense sharing too.

*Because during the time of my observation small firms generally were well below 80% of RMSC for 2000 hour billers to begin with.

You all are a wealth of knowledge and it is much appreciated. I am planning to write out what I'd like as a compensation package and then figure out my dealbreaker at each level .... and the travel is important to consider as I am admitted in NY as well as my homestate so could very easily be asked to work on matters there - i was thinking of requesting additional room etc if we are away for extended time so i can bring my kids ... MIL would travel so....

any other suggestions are welcome - my only experience is biglaw and in house gig and that had very little negotiating compensation.......

ml

So I'm tired of law. Mostly clients, really. And the lawyers. Any ideas what one can do to make money without leaving the babies for very long (besides selling one of them)? OK, unrealistic, perhaps. Maybe I can do something law-related p/t that doesn't involve clients? That would be OK too, even something horribly boring - it would make a nice break, quite frankly.

Yesterday I was hauled into chambers where a judge refused to let me off as corp. counsel until the client gets a new lawyer. Despite the fact that the client does not want me as their attorney, but is too cheap to hire someone new. I've never been keen on the idea of indentured servitude.... To top it all off I have to sit there for 45min (having to pee really badly) while the judge interjects hilarious pregnancy/hormone jokes into the conversation and notes repeatedly that I'm not laughing. Even better when opposing counsel (ass-suck) adds that he has observed that I don't have much of a sense of humor. It was an awesome day.

Do you think you could fake a seizure?

Nutso!

Quite possibly. Tell me more.

Non lawyer jobs/Preggo jokes
 

Here are the non-lawyer jobs that former fellow lawyer friends have gone to after the law:

Westlaw
Lexis
Investment Banks on the business side
Municipal court judge (then you can ban preggo jokes from the courthouse)
Running a law library at a big firm
Claims Adjusting (huge claims under huge policies) at a big insurer
Doing mediation or arbitration in their own business or in another
Legal Recruiter
Teaching - either law professors (but that's almost impossible to do these days without top of the top creds b/c of the competition) or becoming anywhere from K through high school or college teachers with minimal extra schooling.
Real estate agents (mostly single friends b/c the hours are rough - weekends of open houses and constant calls)
FBI Special Agent (but I think you have to be 35 or 33 or something or under) - kind of cool and even better if you speak Arabic
Business and other positions at nonprofits
Marketing/PR
Stay at home Mommy positions (these have the toughest hours and worst pay; but good (non-money) benefits).

For when you get those dumb preggo jokes, you could try being semi-fresh and saying with a smile on your face: "Uh, oh.....here we go with the do-you-play-basketball-jokes about the tall person" or something like that. The subtle point being that you think the jokes are old and played out (i.e., not clever) and you're not saying the Judge is being actionable or personally offensive or anthing. Just silly and you want to move on.

Non lawyer jobs/Preggo jokes
 

a) I have strongly considered doing some mediations - I have the training and if you have the knack for it it is pleasant work. I have some logistics problems that I would need to work out, but this one is definitely at the top of my list.

b) I would definitely consider this when the kneeebiters are a bit bigger - I've looked into the extra training and it's not too bad at all. Teacher pay really is stinky here, but the hours and vacation time is a massive plus.

c) How old do you think I am? ;) I doubt they would want me. I have a good friend who just went into the secret service, btw, and em is absolutely loving em's work.

Ha - I am tall and I know all about the lame BB comments. :rolleyes: As a matter of fact, on the way out of the courtroom, opposing cousel asked me if I used to play sports. My brother is 6'6" and gets the BB thing all the time. His answer? "No, the guitar."

For anyone raising couch potatoes
 

Apparently little couch potatoes are mean.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/paren...eut/index.html

Non-legal Jobs
 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by TexLex
So I'm tired of law. Mostly clients, really. And the lawyers. Any ideas what one can do to make money without leaving the babies for very long (besides selling one of them)? OK, unrealistic, perhaps. Maybe I can do something law-related p/t that doesn't involve clients? That would be OK too, even something horribly boring - it would make a nice break, quite frankly.


I recently changed jobs and now teach legal research & writing at a local law school. Pay doesn't seem great at first- $45K- but I only have to be on campus 2 days/week, average weekly hours are 20-25, and I have entire summer off. (there are 3 weeks/year where I have to be there every day to meet w/students individually). So I could do contract work or something on the side and end up with a pretty decent yearly salary, or, just enjoy the time off. I'd recommend it b/c you can still use your legal background, and students love the anecdotes, etc.

For anyone raising couch potatoes
 

My favorite thing about that story is that the top advertiser link says, "Find a Television at Dell."

book recs
 

Unsolicited book rec: If you have an approx. four year old, consider reading some Daniel Pinkwater books to em. When I was childless I found him annoying on NPR, but now that I have a kid showing glimmers of a goofy sense of humor, I can appreciate Pinkwater's bizarre books. There are many, so start at the library.

book recs
 

Unsolicited feeding rec: upon getting a new high chair for a not-quite-one-year-old (who has nearly outgrown and can escape the "attach to the table" chair he had and therefore has been getting fed while running laps around the coffee table), do not be so inspired by the image of him in his big-boy chair that you decide maybe it is a good idea to let him spoon out some oatmeal for himself.

If you do, don't then fool yourself that the problem is that he has a spoon rather than the fact that he has a big bowl of mush within reach.

If you do that, don't laugh because it encourages him.

If you do laugh, don't let that delay getting the bowl of mush out of his hands before he rubs it into his hair.

If you do, don't wipe off his head while forgetting to get the mush out of his reach so he can spread it all over the new highchair, too.

Trepidation(Baby's back to running around the coffee table until the seat cover gets out of the laundry)Mom

Trepidation_Mom, we have used a cheap strap-to-the-chair type booster seat that can be used with or without the tray since the Lexling turned about 14mos and it has worked out very well.

http://store1.yimg.com/I/barebabies-store_1837_14615416

And what are you thinking giving babies spoons???...might as well give them firearms for the damage they do with them.

Oy, what have I gotten myself into? That's a complex piece of machinery. And this kid is already costing me a fortune -- my take-out lunch cost $19 (out of control fruit craving, meet salad bar).

Well, he's frustrated that he can't control everything he sees. If he sees us eating, he wants what we're eating (which is fine if it's pizza and not so OK if it's steak - yes, we give the baby pizza, call child services). If he sees us talking on the phone, he wants the phone, and he's managed to randomly reprogram the fricking thing with features I didn't even know it had. Don't even talk to me about the TV remote - we took the batteries out of it ages ago so he can click to his heart's content (he's such a guy about the remote).

So he refuses to be a passive participant in his feeding. Sometimes he's content to wave an empty spoon around or bang it while we shovel food into his mouth, sometimes not. Sometimes he's adequately distracted by those little kiddie saussages, sometimes not. Sometimes he'll sit still for a while, sometimes he screams in the chair but eats happily if we follow him around the apartment while he chases his toys or tears up magazines. Once we even gave him the toilet brush (his favorite magic wand) to bang on the toilet and fed him on the floor of the bathroom, which at least made clean-up easier.

At least once he's walking independently the following-around-feeding thing will be easier on my back and knees.

I know nothing about this whole parenting gig, but I'd like to give you an award. The Coolest Parents Of An Infant Award. Unless he's a toddler at this point, in which case I'll have to work on the name of the award.

Child #1 - all home-made organic baby mush, no juice until almost 2 years, etc. etc.

Child #2 - mostly jarred organic baby mush, some sweets and stuff, ice cream and juice around 1 year

Child #3 - 8 mos old - pizza is her favorite food.

Child #4 - table scraps

Child #5 - Bourbon in a bottle.

I'm only on Child #2, so I have much to look forward to.


etfs

Uh, I have friends with Childs 4 and 5, and it's more like:

• Child #2: "Mom, the baby's in the dog dish again!"
  
  Mom: {thinks, then shrugs} "Meh."

My third niece's first solid food was the fistful of combination pizza she grabbed from the table at five months. They decided to reward her initiative by letting her keep the sausage. By the time her two brothers arrived, the standards for panic had sunk to the "It is poo? If no, ignore." flowchart level.

Whew.
 

It's reassuring to know I'm not the only one.

Sort of like the progression of:

Child #1: Sterilize all pacifiers, bottle nipples, etc. in boiling water for 10 minutes, repeat procedure if any of the above come in contact with the floor.

Child #2: Clean under some running water for a few seconds

Child#3 et seq.: blowing off any dust and a wipe on Mom's sleeve ought to do the trick.