Cheaper by the Hour

Robert A. Brooks is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Criminal Justice at Worcester State University in Massachusetts.

• ContentsPreface 1. Degraded and Insecure: The “New” Workforce 2. “Basically Interchangeable”: The Creation of the Temporary Lawyer 3. Life on the Concourse Level: Doing Document Review 4. Box Shopping in “Nike Town”: Struggles over Work 5. “Keeping Count of Every Freakin’ Minute”: Struggles over Time 6. “A Glorified Data Entry Person”: Struggles over Identity 7. “I Would Rather Grow in India”: The Emerging Legal Underclass Appendix A: Document Review Project Summary Appendix B: The Questionnaire Appendix C: The Attorneys References Index

"Law schools paint bright illusions of their graduates’ earnings potential. This book is the reality. Nowhere near courtrooms or plush offices labor an exploited, minimally paid underclass of lawyers in a Dickens-meets-Dilbert world of 'document review,' in which professionals with advanced degrees live tenuous existences sorting documents into categories, work that ninth graders could accomplish and with nothing lawyerly about it.... Brooks presents a firsthand account of his own experiences and interviews coworkers in these dead-end jobs with no benefits, no chance for promotion, and no possibility to even act as a lawyer. It’s a scary world showing that nobody has any security. VERDICT Would-be law students must read this look at the profession’s dark underbelly... this is essential for law school libraries and a good purchase for comprehensive labor collections and large public library systems, as well." -Library Journal