While the economy is bad everywhere, this story out of Cleveland caught our eye.
It seems the legal profession is suffering some downsizing of its own—5,500 legal professionals lost their jobs between January and February, according to BNA.
In the case of Jim Schoen, a supervising attorney for the United Auto Workers (aka the Union of Ailing Workplaces), his layoff apparently came as a shock.
“I never would have thought in a million years that I would have been let go,” says Schoen.
Perhaps he was right in his thinking. His layoff does pose some interesting questions about his employer, the UAW.
Mr. Schoen’s former employer, the UAW is a labor union and labor unions have a time-honored tradition of honoring “seniority” (or at least they used to).
Since Jim had 25-years in his role as a supervising attorney, was he himself a member of a union?
If so, didn’t his union contract allow him to “bump” less senior UAW lawyers?
Were junior lawyers let go before Mr. Schoen?
If not, this prompts yet another question:
If junior employees were retained while Mr. Schoen (at the age of 57) was let go, does Mr. Schoen have a claim for age discrimination?
Schoen recalled, “it really affected me hard because I had given my heart and soul to my career as a lawyer.
“We went to law school and always thought there would be a market out there for good lawyers.”
It doesn’t sound as though Mr. Schoen was looking to move on from his job, does it not?
Fortunately for Mr. Schoen, however, there is another place to use his sharp skills….That is wielding a knife at the Dish Deli.
According to Dish Deli owner Donna Chriszt, the timing was perfect.
Chriszt added, “we were at a spot where we needed to take on an investor and it was perfect timing. It’s like the gods [or the UAW] made it happen.
“Jim has all the basics that I would look for to hire somebody anyway. And having a mature adult professional really makes the difference.”
Video: Former Attorney Slicing & Dicing in a Deli
Hat-Tip to Jim Gray