Not so serious
Prenda is hiring! Apply here! Positions fill quickly!
Every time John Steele (or one of his minions) appears at this and DietrollDie’s forums, he never fails to mention his intention to hire new lowlifes. I have no idea why he thinks that it will help scaring readers into submission, but he persistently tries to plant into our minds the idea that Prenda is legion. In reality, the times are hard for Steele and trolls in general: information about the copyright trolling scam is spreading fast. As a result, it is hard to find an attorney who will risk his reputation at the dusk of extortionists’ day. Even in Florida, Steele’s firm is having problems finding a replacement. One reputable attorney was tricked into cooperation recently, but ran away as soon as he learned what Prenda is about. The prospect to find anyone soon in Florida is seemingly grim to the extent that Chicago’s Paul Duffy, the nominal Prenda’s boss, has to appear pro hac vice to represent Steve Lightspeed in a farcical CFAA lawsuit that lingers in the Miami-Dade county court. In Texas, long-time faithful servant Douglas McIntyre decided to leave the sinking ship Prenda this week, a noble action that any self-respecting rat performs when the time is right.
Northern California is not a fertile ground for new trolls either. As I said, it is very hard to find anyone who is willing to risk his future career, especially if the salary that is offered is a joke. Nothing is impossible for a California’s Prenda attaché, brave Brett “Pinocchio” Gibbs, though, and our restless young man posts a job ad to Craigslist. If you access this text from the future, the link is most likely invalid: the lifespan of a Craigslist ad is short, that’s why I preserved a screenshot:
No copyright experience needed! $40K/year! I knew these people are vile, but did not expect them to be so cheap. My mood was already elevated after reading this ad, but Raul chimed in and made my day: I did not have such a good laugh for a long time. Below is Raul’s translation from Pinocchiolean:
|
Full-Time Apprentice Copyright Troll (mill valley)
Mill Valley Of Counsel to Copyright Troll Firm, Prenda Law, seeking full-time apprentice troll to help maintain the caseload provided by a nationally disdained Chicago-based copyright troll firm specializing in a barely legal extortion racket. Currently, this is a one-person scumbag operation, and will be looking for someone to work with that one person directly to accomplish the tasks presented. Very sleazy environment in the office but we keep lots of beer on hand to please our leader, Master Troll John Steele, in case he visits us from sunny Florida. A lot of opportunities to appear in State and Federal courts to receive lashing by judges, potential sanctions, and unanimous contempt by others in the legal profession. Necessary Qualifications: Bonus Qualifications (not necessary): NO copyright/litigation experience/background necessary as we fly by the seat of our pants.
• Compensation: to be defined (need to call the Department of Labor to learn the current minimum wage).
• OK to highlight this job opening for persons with mental disabilities: we hired Lutz and Duffy after all. • Principals only! Recruiters, please don’t contact this job poster unless you wish to be sued for copyright infringement. • Please, no phone calls about this job! (as if you can find my phone number in this ad — LOL) • Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests such as malpractice insurance. |
Fight © Trolls 
Holy freakin shit 😀 😀 😀
Can’t decide what’s more funny: the screenshot or Raul’s translation.
Holy freakin shit!!
OMG. That is funny has hell, and Raul’s translation is priceless! I’ll have to keep an eye out for an ad for a Texas attorney, because Douglas McIntyre claims he is done with Prenda. Sorry, troll Steele, another one bites the dust!
Prenda’s recruiting from Craigslist? Are you shitting me? Freakin’ pathetic!!!!
Craigslist? How appropriate. It’s on the same site people use to find prostitutes and used furniture. Salary of $40,000? Wow, way to scrape the bottom of the bottom of the barrel, Gibbs. I knew the job market for JDs is bad but is it THAT bad? Glad I decided to go the MBA/CPA route…I still wish that I’d have taken that job with the IRS so I could flag Prenda for an audit so thorough that it’s the financial audit equivalent of a cavity search.
Great article!!!!
Raul, that was priceless. I can’t believe that I make a little under what Gibbs/Prenda is offering. These are supposed to be “lawyers” and they are making hardly anything. But, it seems that Prenda is sweating bullets for newbies if they are posting on Craigslist. As far as Douglas McIntyre leaving Prenda, seems kinda fishy to me. Perea said the same thing, yet his name is still on their documents. Maybe it’s true though. Maybe he finally found the light leading out of Steele’s ass and decided to crawl out. Now maybe he can start being an honest straightforward attorney. I’m not holding my breath though.
Once again, great article! Down with all Trolls
I’m also suspicious about the attorneys that appear to be leaving Prenda, but in Perea’s case, we do have that letter to the FL Bar where he doubles-down on his claims that he is severing his ties with Prenda, and that his “mistakes” were due to the logistics of tying up the loose ends as he makes his exit.
Even if it’s not really true, and they have a ruse planned like Steele’s “retirement,” renaming Steele | Hansmeier to Prenda Law and putting up Duffy as the figurehead, someone believes there is value in making an effort to appear unaffiliated with Prenda. If that is the case, it is because there is something wrong with being affiliated with Prenda, and if even the Trolls believe there is something wrong with being affiliated with Prenda, it can only be good news for us.
Also, LOL on the “NO copyright/litigation experience/background necessary.” That says it all in their own words. How did you guys find this? The add is still up BTW. I’m amazed at the power of The Internet to dig up dirt but we are indeed legion to stumble on stuff like this. This almost seems too good to be true, sorry to be a skeptic SJD but I almost wonder if the job listing is prank too… Did anyone try responding to it pretending to make a serious inquiry and get a response from Gibbs? It can only be Prenda and Gibbs if it’s real, but are you sure someone didn’t punk you?
I do not, for one second, believe that Perea has severed ties with Prenda. For one, he has been harassing me about an Illinois case filed and dismissed by Duffy….7 months ago. Also, consider it from a common-sense business perspective. Would you as a business owner allow an employee (attorney, accountant, or any other professional) to take on clients, then leave within a very short period of time and take said clients with him or her? No. I’m not even speaking from my experience within the professional field (I’m a CPA, NOT a lawyer). Non-compete clauses are pretty standard in fields that are client-oriented such as banking, law, and public accounting. Upon resignation or termination, I cannot practice my profession within a specified radius for a specified period of time (I’m not disclosing terms of my non-compete) but Prenda would have to be a giant shit sack of morons to not make its attorneys sign non-competes, especially since the terms of the agreements between Prenda and its clients are a 90/10 split (aka fucking ridiculous). I believe Perea is still affiliated with Prenda but in a fashion shielding Prenda from any liability arising from Perea’s misconduct…it couldn’t have happened too soon, or could it have?
Steele, well shit. We all know but can’t prove that Steele is still the puppetmaster of Prenda. Duffy is just the proverbial figurehead. More like the Queen or King of England would be today. The name “John Steele” is as toxic as a helping of strychnine. The Judges in the Northern District of Illinois all know him by name. Judge Milton Shadur told Steele to never bring one of these suits in front of him again so any time Duffy gets assigned Shadur he immediately dismisses. I’m not sure if Steele meant it as a ruse to appear unaffiliated with Prenda so much as he did it out of necessity to keep milking the cash cow. I do believe Steele is benefiting financially from this and that, although he may be done practicing law, he’s not retired from collecting money from this huge scam.
Being affiliated with Prenda will and likely is toxic to any attorney’s reputation and, as in any profession, reputation is everything. If I had been a partner at Arthur Anderson, I would be unemployable. I would also likely very old given that I’m only 30 but that’s not the point. Put “Prenda Law, LLC” on your resume and guaranteed, no one will hire you so the lawyers there better make as much as they can, as fast as they can because no semi-reputable law firm or even hick county public defender’s office will wanna go near them afterward. Their reputation, tainted. Freshly-minted JDs associated with Prenda, wow, they’re boned.
It should be known that Prenda just sued AT&T AND Comcast…take your pick, either of the two have more daily revenue than all of the porn purveyor clients combined than the aggregate of Prenda’s clients and have legal departments larger than the staff of all of Prenda’s said clients. AT&T is #11 on the Fortune 500 and Comcast is #49. In my opinion, and I’m sure in others’, Prenda just signed its own death warrant. AT&T has been known to fight its own subscribers over a few hundred dollars…gee, I wonder what they’ll do to two lawyers from St. Clair County, Illinois and an egomaniac from Chicago? It’s like poking the sleeping giant, but there’s two of them. The lawsuit will kicked up to federal court and AT&T and Comcast will have their way with Lightspeed first, dispatching the claims, then will go after Lightspeed and bleed him dry. Unlike Yuen’s suits, these companies won’t stop at just the plaintiff. They’ll go after plaintiff’s counsel for whatever they can find just to make an example out of Prenda.
OMG!!!!! What a laugh. Thanks SJD & Raul. That makes my Friday. $40K a year in the SF Bay area???? Ever heard of the cost of living? Even for a low-life lawyer willing to do this, the pay stinks. The person would have to have a couple roommates and still communte 30-60 mins to and from work each day. You guys are soooo cheap. Keep up the great work! 😉
DTD 🙂
Found a canidate here. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/81004257/PrendaJob2.JPG
LOL!
Still wanted 🙂 See the illustration above.
Both pics are great! Wondering if this week’s Friday Beer Thirty was somewhat a little more sober seing what the previous Friday’s shenanigans has produced this week? Trust me, next Friday we are going to all have our Beer Thirty by 3.
No experience required, why does that not surprise me. None of them have any experience except in lying to courts, other attorneys, victims, and their own clients.
You know what makes me laugh the most about this ad? Prenda calls itself a “Leading Intellectual Property Law Firm,” yet they have to put job requisitions up on Craigslist. If they were actually a leading IP law firm, and I’ve worked with reputable IP law firms (those lawyers know their shit) they wouldn’t even need to advertise. They’d have a recruiting pipeline straight to top law schools, or at least be developing a recruiting pipeline. My guess, Harvard, the University of Chicago, Yale, and Stanford don’t want ANYTHING to do with these clowns.
Absolutely priceless. So I’m fresh out of law school and want to sell my soul to the devil for a grain of sand. Think mom will be proud of the first lawyer in the family now?
I know people working in factories making more than that!
Perhaps, the trolling business is not so high paying after all!
Don’t forget any freshly-minted JD would be essentially making themselves unemployable because Prenda will be a very very familiar name within the legal community, if it isn’t already. I’ve heard Prenda this and John Steele that and I’m a damn accountant but I do meet a lot of people, work with people at law firms, and I do live in Illinois.
When the shit does hit the fan, and it will because Steve Jones just started what I can only describe to be the end of Prenda Law as we know it, ex-Prenda lawyers will have a bitch of a time finding a new job because if they are they really stupid enough to ask for a letter of recommendation from John Steele or Paul Duffy…and then show it to someone? I guess if you’re dumb enough to get a letter of recommendation from a scumbag then you’re stupid enough to actually use it when applying for a job. In this case it’d be Gibbs…haha. Whoever this unlucky person is that Gibbs hires will have references who are either imprisoned, disbarred, sanctioned, or disgraced lawyers. Very few will escape unscathed.
Just had a look at the CalBar’s rules of professional conduct. I’m going to bring this to the attention to CalBar to see if they can review it for any possible violation of their rules of professional conduct. If so, the craigslist poster will have some troubles ahead.
Well I found about 15 probably violations that of the California Bar Association’s Rules of Conduct that Gibbs has committed.
Rule 4-200(A) – “A member shall not enter into an agreement for, charge, or collect an illegal or unconscionable fee.”
Rule 5-120(A) – “A member who is participating or has participated in the investigation or litigation of a matter shall not make an extrajudicial statement that a reasonable person would expect to be disseminated by means of public communication if the member knows or reasonably should know that it will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in the matter.”
Rule 5-130(B) – “Directly or indirectly pay, offer to pay, or acquiesce in the payment of compensation to a witness contingent upon the content of the witness’s testimony or the outcome of the case. (Exceptions do not apply).”
The fact that Gibbs has a wefightpiracy.com email address when he clearly states that he’s an affiliate, not a partner, associate, or an agent of Prenda but would likely classify himself as an independent contractor.
Alright, I digress. Here’s one that I think MAY apply in this case:
I doubt the State of California would certify Prenda Law as a lawyer referral service.
Rule 1-400 (Communication)
“(10) A “communication” which implies that the member or law firm is participating in a lawyer referral service which has been certified by the State Bar of California or as having satisfied the Minimum Standards for Lawyer Referral Services in California, when that is not the case.”
And another:
California defines a “lawyer” to be anyone admitted to practice law in California or any of the federal courts, state supreme court(s), etc. So, basically…read below 😛
“Rule 1-120 Assisting, Soliciting, or Inducing Violations
A member shall not knowingly assist in, solicit, or induce any violation of these rules or the State Bar Act.”
then we have
“Rule 1-310 Forming a Partnership With a Non-Lawyer
A member shall not form a partnership with a person who is not a lawyer if any of the activities of that partnership consist of the practice of law.”
The way I read the ad, Gibbs is soliciting employment of a partner. Why would you be looking for someone with a JD and is eligible to either practice law or is eligible for admission to the state bar? Very liberal interpretation, I know, but I’m biased heh.
As SJD tweeted earlier, it is amusing that with recent law school grads starving in this job market, no one has thus far prostituted themselves to Prenda for peanuts.
Especially since, unless they’re extremely tech-savvy, I doubt they’d find this site or any others. That or they’re staying the hell away because it explicitly mentions “Copyright Litigation Law.” The ones who don’t stay away and get an interview immediately go home and Google Gibbs or Prenda and decide they’d rather stay at their current, no law license required position than ruin their career before it’s begun.
If anyone notices when this ad is pulled, please comment: I’ll update the post.