Lawyers
Cascade County deputy county attorneys unionized recently, and now they received a pay raise. In what one might characterize as the antithesis of grace, lead deputy Joel Thompson carped about the raise in the Tribune. "This is a Band-Aid," he noted, terming his salary "embarrassing."
Aw.
After the raise, Thompson will earn $46,500.00 per year with benefits. He also gets a stipend for being on call during the week and on the weekends. Presumably he also receives county benefits, but those were not valued for the Tribune's story. (The Tribune story was apparently not published, or at least not easily located, on their website.)
The State Bar of Montana recently published a survey of Montana lawyers, including salary ranges. It can be found here. 35% of all lawyers in Montana make less than $50,000.00. Not just wet behind the ears prosecutors like Thompson, but all lawyers.
Further, more Montana lawyers earn in Thompson's salary range than any other. Hmmm.
Further, the lawyers surveyed were asked about the hours devoted to the practice of law. Roughly 71% work more than 40 hours per week. I know, call the County Attorney's office at 5:01 p.m. today, and ask for Mr. Thompson. Drive by their offices on Saturday, and see if his car is there.
In the article, Thompson also uses the old technique of comparing his salary to what is earned by "people with similar experience in Yellowstone, Missoula and Gallatin counties." Ignoring for a moment that the worth of a lawyer is hardly defined by the number of years practicing (I know some lawyers with 2 years' experience I would choose over others with 10 years' experience), the argument is a silly one. What does our economy have to do with three of the four most booming economies in the State of Montana?
This raises a few points. First, I think the salary complaints by government employees are based in large part on a serious misconception of what the private sector is doing. Sure, there are attorneys in Montana making significant money. But the vast majority are reasonably well-compensated professionals who work their a$$es off. They are not all getting rich. Compensating an entry-level, government position at the mid-range of private sector compensation is certainly nothing that should give rise to any 'embarrassment.' Maybe if government employees took a realistic look at the private sector, they might realize they're not so bad off.
Second, I do not believe I have ever encountered a government lawyer handling a pro bono case on his or her own time. Why not? We do it. They don't have any of the obligations of billing for their time, collecting for their time, marketing their services, etc., etc. Why no pro bono work?
Finally, I think the whole notion of comparing themselves to other communities, to other states, is a sham argument effectively offered by government employees. I am sure Yellowstone county attorneys will now be pestering their County Commission claiming the Cascade County guys just got a raise. And they'll probably claim it's "embarrassing" that Cascade County got a raise and they didn't.
5 comments:
I might not use the term embarrassing, because as you point out there are significant non-economic benefits to public service. But I disagree with a few of your points.
On experience, a lead deputy is not "wet behind the ears"--he likely has tried more cases (many against more senior and better-paid criminal defense lawyers) than most of his private-sector peers.
On hours, while you might not find all the deputies at work at 5:01 p.m. on weekdays or Saturday afternoons, you will find them working on searches later that day at 1:00 a.m. or even 5:00 a.m. Throw trials in, and 60-hour weeks are not unusual. That's more than what three-quarters of Montana lawyers work on average.
On market comparisons, since few if any deputies are hired from the private sector (perhaps because most private lawyers don't consider the job very cushy), Cascade County is competing for UM law school grads against Gallatin and Yellowstone; additionally, Cascade is ground zero of Montana's meth epidemic and the resulting crimes demand some of the state's most intelligent and hardworking prosecutors. In this respect, you should expect--and want--law enforcement salaries to be countercyclical with the county's economic indicators. Hardly a sham.
On salary, it is probably accurate that most prosecutors earn in the bottom third of salaries. But given all of the above, the lawyers helping to protect my life, liberty, and property should earn at least that. And remember that when private-sector lawyers work overtime, they get paid for it (either through direct billing or higher salary and partnership shares); public-sector lawyers get comp-time they may not have time to use. I don't know the details of their contract, but I bet those prosecutors would give up most of their raise simply to get paid overtime. You might ask yourself why the county wouldn't give them that deal--it may have something to do with the hours the county knows they work.
On pro bono, everyone could probably do a little more, but most public-sector lawyers I know do plenty of it. Of course, you won't find them doing criminal defense or other high-visibility work against their employer, but as you might expect these lawyers are uncommonly devoted to the public good.
I've gone between the public sector and private sector a couple of times in my career, and never expected to make as much working for the government as I did for paying clients. No government lawyer has. But it's always easy to bash public employees as underworked and overpaid; as Deputy Thompson has found out, it's harder to defend them when they aren't.
Very similar to many of my military brethren -- it angers me to hear so many of them whine and cry that military personnel are so very underpaid. BULL. Military personnel are compensated adequately -- I felt that way as a young two-striper, and I feel that way now as a captain.
Ok, I'll give you the "wet behind the ears." I probably overstated that.
I can tell you, though, that I am close with a former prosecutor, and he told me the jump to private practice was significantly more difficult than he anticipated. He said the breadth of knowledge required by civil attorneys dwarfs that of prosecutors.
To say that private attorneys get paid "overtime" to work "overtime" is wrong. The salaries in the survey are not reduced to 40 hour weeks. I can tell you that I have to put in lot's of extra hours just to make what I make. There's no overtime here.
As far as "uncommonly devoted to the public good," I am not sure I know what you mean, nor do I agree. That is a pretty general statement. The prosecutors I know are no more or less devoted to the public good than anyone else or, I suppose you could say, they are commonly devoted to the public good.
Anyway, I will acknowledge that maybe I was a little hard on Thompson and the deputies. My point is that perhaps they are not as bad off as they think, they should appreciate the fact that they have a decent life, and if they don't like it, prove themselves worth more in the marketplace.
So, I'll try to be nicer.
GGuy--I agree wholeheartedly with your last paragraph. Being a government lawyer has special rewards beyond a paycheck, which is why the government can hire good lawyers at relatively low salaries, but the bottom line must be the marketplace: a responsible government should pay no more than it takes to get lawyers who can and will do good hard work on behalf of the public, but also no less. Unfortunately, market forces don't work perfectly in prosecutors' salaries because it can be hard to value their work--hence this debate, I guess.
Dave--I'm not familiar with other pay grades, but military and federal legal salaries are in a whole other ballbark than state and local government pay: the National Guard recently advertised a mid-level legal position in Helena for $70,000, which is in the range of what a major County Attorney makes. Entry level federal lawyers in Montana make upwards of $50,000, more than not only other public-sector lawyers, but also many entry-level associate salaries in private firms.
Just curious David. You think it's a bullshit argument that an O-3 with 3 years in the military makes more money than an E-7 or E-8 with 15+ years? Glad to hear you felt adequately compensated as an E-3... the rest of your statement sounds typical for an officer.
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