Contract Attorney?

[kddani]

Not an attorney who practices contract law, but one that is contracted by a firm for specific projects. There's been several of these groups at my school with info tables, I couldn't stop by b/c I was at work.

Do any of you GC legal eagles have any experience with these types of companies that recruit contract attorneys and also do placement for full time?

[HelloKitty22]

I think what you are talking about is a legal recruiting service, but I'm not sure. If you are talking about legal recruiting for temp work, that is usually mostly for document review or semi-paralegal work. Some require that you be admitted, others are willing to take people awaiting admission or even people who haven't yet taken the bar. I've never done legal temp work but from what I hear it pays pretty good. However, I also hear it is super boring (since it's basically document review for big firms who don't want to bore their own associates to death). Also, it is only a temporary solution. It doesn't teach you any skills and you are more likely to get hit by lightening then get picked up as a full time employee by one of the firms you are working at. The only time people I know have done it is when they can't get a job and they need to pay the rent or need something to hold them over before a new job starts.
There are also legal recruiters who recruit for associate positions at firms. That's a totally different thing. Those are for legitimate full time jobs. While some are shady, the vast majority are reputable head hunting firms. However, to be recruitable by these firms you must have already worked. You don't have to have much experience (I've only been working a few months and I get unsolicited calls from legal recruiters asking me if I want to switch jobs) but legal recruiters aren't generally interested in you if you are still in school.
That is the low down, at least from here in NYC.

[AGDLynn]

An advisor was talking with a collegiate member who should have turned in required paperwork months ago.

A - So, what is your major?
M - Political Science
A - What area?
M - I want to go to Law School.
A - I think you need to rethink your career path.
M - Why?
A - Because you hate paperwork and being a lawyer requires lots of paperwork.

[rho4life]

Some of the happiest lawyers I know are contract attorneys. HOWEVER, these are all people who did the firm thing for at least 5 years before getting out. The ones I encoutner like it b/c they can say yes or no to assignments, and take vacation when they want, and they avoid office politics. A fair number of SF firms use contract attorneys for some of the stuff that they either don't want to train their associates to do [specialized depositions] or for a big push before a trial [ie we need to review this entire room of documents ASAP].