Ooooh, I Hope My $10K Handbag Doesn't Upset My Co-Workers!

The ABAJournal has a funny sidebar about the law firm summer intern that's a little freaked about whether her Hermes handbag, price tag $10,000 might upset co-workers or impact her career aspirations.  Debra Cassens Weiss reports:

"The intern, who works at a big law firm in Singapore, wrote to the Corporette blog for advice. Corporette suspects the handbag, made by Hermes, goes for around $9,000, while the American Lawyer’s Careerist column says the minimum price tag is $10,000.

'I’ve heard two conflicting opinions,' the intern writes. '(1) You should dress what you would like to be, ie, if you want to be a partner one day, dress as such; and (2) dress appropriate to your level in the firm.'

Corporette worries that the bag will convey the impression that the intern is rich, has rich parents or a rich fiancé. Some employers will see that as a good sign, since the intern is there for the love of the job and is likely to have connections with wealthy potential clients. Others will 'worry that you’re biding your time—until the trust fund kicks in, until you get pregnant, or, you know, until your sex tape leaks and you get your own reality show,' the blog says. 'You may find you have to work even harder to get the respect that you deserve.'”
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On a day when I write about debtors' prison it's nice to have this polar opposite for the purposes of ironic symmetry.

I went into the practice of law to represent people who looked like my parents, and childhood friends. 

I did not go into the law for money, and as it turns out that was both a good thing in terms of not being disappointed and a bad thing because what money I made I managed very poorly.  When I became a lawyer I had no idea that people spent fantastic amounts of money for purses, clothes, shoes, boats, second homes, or any other damn thing that was intended for a purpose far beyond function.  I also did not realize that gigantic law firms exist as marble and crystal shrines to greed, avarice, and injustice built on the backs of municipal debt offerings, bonds, corporate mergers (and all that that implies for real humans), creditors and debtors.  I did not realize that corporations like Massey Energy and interests like the NRA and Chambers of Commerce could buy up the law makers and judges.  But these things do exist, and beyond some of the artistry in these material items, these things are merely material objects having no purpose other than to further the misery of most and the shallow joy of a few.

A purse is not a law career, more importantly it is not a soul.  While Corporette gives career advice I would think the Singapore Summer Intern might benefit from a moment of stopping, breathing, and thinking about her soul.    I know, this young woman is an easy target and it gives me a chance to sound pretty self-righteous--with all my terror about my gross incompetence relating to my financial and tax obligations who the hell am I? 

Just one more idiot trying to find an appropriate place in our material world.

Disciplinary Rules Are Made On the Backs of Small Law

The ABAJournal is reporting on the suspension of two NYC law partners who were victimized by their managing partner.  Anthony Bellettieri who was in charge of the trust account, stole money from the firm trust account ripping off his two partners and the small firm's clients.  The Legal Profession Blog had the story on Friday and I planned to talk about it, then, but did not get around to it.

This is from Martha Neil's tidy summary of the story from the ABAJournal.com:

"Two lawyers who themselves were victims of a former partner's $17 million fraud have been suspended for failing to do enough to catch Anthony Bellettieri in wrongdoing as he stole from client trust accounts.  Although Bellettieri, who is now disbarred and serving a prison sentence, oversaw the Bellettieri Fonte and Laundonio escrow accounts, partners Robert Fonte and Tara Anne Laundonio were both signatories and should have paid more attention to red flags, held a New York Supreme Court Appellate Division panel in separate opinions last week.

The appellate panel found that the two violated their "nonwaivable fiduciary duty" to protect the firm's escrow funds, and suspended Fonte for three years and Laundonio for six months, reports the New York Law Journal[. . . . ] Fonte and Laundonio, who were admitted to the state bar in 1986 and 1998, respectively, never even saw bank statements for the firm's escrow and operating accounts, according to a report by special referee Steven Krane. '[W]hen it comes to safekeeping of funds ... the proper approach is 'trust but verify,' ' he wrote.

Given the commingling of personal and client funds by Bellettieri of which they were aware and Bellettieri's refusal to timely provide documents for one account that had been requested by Fonte, he and Laundonio should have asked more questions, the Second Department panel said. Attorney Neil Comer, who represented Fonte and Laudonio, didn't respond to a request by the legal publication for comment.
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Look, there may be extenuating circumstances justifying the suspension of these lawyers, but having been suspended for 2 years in a similar situation you will pardon my yap about how disciplinary rules are made on the backs of small law while much more egregious acts in BigLaw are ignored.  For instance, in Chicago we had the Greenberg Traurig partner who stole a million dollars or more from a greater Chicago suburb;  and, I guarantee you that there will be no disciplinary consequences for the managing partners of this mammoth BigLaw firm.  This happens all the time--it's the natural course of things. 

If Cheryl, my secretary had opened her Home Depot and furniture rental accounts in a BigLaw firm escrow account there would have been no disciplinary action against the partners.  Errors on my level do not become disciplinary suspensions when your law firm is big enough to maintain an accounts payable, payroll, and accounting departments and host the local and state judiciary for brunch, lunch, cocktails and, or sporting events. 

Uh, Boss, That $40 Reimbursement Check from the Firm Bounced . . .

Joan Sanchez, a long time office manager for the Chicago business law firm of Kelly, Olson,
Michod, DeHaan & Richtere went on vacation to Hawaii when an attorney in the firm sought to cash a $40 reimbursement check for expenses, bummer insufficient funds.  Turns out, Joan, the office manager had embezzled nearly a million dollars from the firm over a number of years according to a report at the Chicago Sun Times (with a tip of the Borsalino to the ABAJournal website).  Joan returned from Hawaii and is now decompressing in the Cook County jail. 

This story is so common, and not unique to law firms; although lawyers risk ethical violations for these acts.  In the Bad Lawyer's situation, I was so out of touch with my checking accounts, my "office manager" had pegged payment of her utility, furniture rental, and Home Depot accounts to my IOLTA (trust account.)  Talk about willful blindness!  Mine. 

Business law firms tend not to get disciplinary attention when these sorts of malfactoring support staff steal from the law firm.  It's one of the double standards, like when legendary clergy sex abuse attorney Jeff Anderson gets bashed in the the Wall Street Journal for earning lots of money as a result of suing pedophiles and perpetrators in the Church; while, Big Law firms are celebrated for their million dollar plus partner profits and their posh law office digs almost always featured at their websites, check the link for Kelly, Olson!