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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Which category is she in?

There are two kinds of contract attorneys on projects who ask questions: temps who are hoping to impress the associates with the keen insight demonstrated by their questions, and temps who just don't get it. Well, the associates from the firm came by today, as they do at least once a week, to see if we had any questions. Many people have been on this project since the beginning -- a few weeks short of two years now -- and no one has been on the project for less than three months. Realistically, you either have no questions, or you are hopelessly clueless, because the associates are never impressed by the keen insight of your questions, and they are damn sure not impressed two years in. So shut the fuck up, right?

Wrong. There is a woman on this project -- she's very nice, make no mistake -- who has a question almost every single time the associates come by -- or, God help us, when a partner comes by. Partners are much quicker to recognize, and get rid of, fools. But this woman always has a question, and today, when the associates came by, it was no different.

The problem here is, she makes it clear that yes, there is such a thing as a stupid question. Most of her questions would have been stupid two years ago when they all first started. Now, they make you wonder if a brain scan would show any activity.

This, of course, raises a question for me. If you're an associate on a case, and a person still has very basic questions every week nearly two years into a project, why the fuck do you keep that person? She obviously has no fucking clue what she's doing. Unfortunately, I know the answer, and it says a lot about our legal system today. Maybe later I'll tell you. Maybe not.

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