The 89 employees of a New York law firm specializing in foreclosures who dressed as homeless people during an office Halloween party last year have been thrown out on the street.
Steven J. Baum P.C., a firm that specialized in foreclosures, is closing its doors a month after photos showing employees celebrating Halloween by dressing like the homeless surfaced in a New York Times column by Joe Nocera. Nocera wrote a follow up column this weekend, in which he quoted an angry email he received from Mr. Baum himself. The firm announced the shuttering via press release and was reported by the NYT:
“Disrupting the livelihoods of so many dedicated and hardworking people is extremely painful, but the loss of so much business left us no choice but to file these notices,” said Mr. Baum in a press release issued on Monday. A firm spokesman said it would have no further comment beyond the release…On Saturday, Joe Nocera, The Times columnist who originally wrote about the firm’s Halloween party, published another column about the controversy. In it, he quoted an e-mail that Mr. Baum had sent him last week.
“Mr. Nocera — You have destroyed everything and everyone related to Steven J. Baum PC,” said the letter. “It took 40 years to build this firm and three weeks to tear down.”
“I think that’s what they call shooting the messenger,” Mr. Nocera said.
It seems the homeless Halloween celebration did the firm in, but it should be noted that Baum’s firm continuously tangled with both the federal government and the New York Attorney General’s office over its practices.
Check out the TPM slide show the festivities here.
Kyle Leighton
Kyle Leighton is a News Writer at TPM. He graduated from Beloit College (WI) and began working in politics before getting an M.A. in magazine journalism from New York University, where he interned at TPM and the website of The New Yorker.
I have never posted comments about anything online, but this sickens me. May these, as Mr. Baum, says“Disrupting the livelihoods of so many dedicated and hardworking people is extremely painful", well welcome to the world of the people whose lives you destroyed and made fun of this Halloween. You deserved to be humbled, you cruel, insensitive individuals. I wish you good luck finding a job in this economy.
I have never posted comments about anything online, but this sickens me. May these, as Mr. Baum, says“Disrupting the livelihoods of so many dedicated and hardworking people is extremely painful", well welcome to the world of the people whose lives you destroyed and made fun of this Halloween. You deserved to be humbled, you cruel, insensitive individuals. I wish you good luck finding a job in this economy.
I hope they all kept their "costumes"... they'll need them.
rca37073
The reality is, though, that most of the people who've lost their jobs in this are not really going to experience financial hardship as a result, they'll just get jobs at other firms and continue to have it way better than you or me.
uruseibaka
Not really. It's incredibly hard to find jobs with law firms these days; there's such a backlog of qualified candidates and individuals and not enough jobs in the legal industry to absorb them - especially with new technologies like E-Discovery, which can do the work of 500 lawyers (give or take), putting many lawyers out of work. These people are screwed. I hope they learn something out of this episode of instant karma.
What goes around comes around, or as the Bible says, "You shall reap whatever you sow", and "O, how the mighty fave fallen". I feel no sympathy whatsoever for these arrogant, insensitive, boorish bourgeois dweebs. Let them find out what it's like being jobless and living on unemployment benefits. Of course, none of them will likely be that badly off, since they'll probably collect on sweet severance agreements or have comfy little nest eggs that they've accumulated by profiting from the misery of others. Nevertheless, they'll all feel persecuted and bitter for having to trim their lifestyles, even though the reporter points out that the demise of this sleazy outfit is more likely due to their own malfeasance than to his exposé of their crass "let them eat cake" materialism. Welcome to the 99%, jerkos.
What goes around comes around, or as the Bible says, "You shall reap whatever you sow", and "O, how the mighty fave fallen". I feel no sympathy whatsoever for these arrogant, insensitive, boorish bourgeois dweebs. Let them find out what it's like being jobless and living on unemployment benefits. Of course, none of them will likely be that badly off, since they'll probably collect on sweet severance agreements or have comfy little nest eggs that they've accumulated by profiting from the misery of others. Nevertheless, they'll all feel persecuted and bitter for having to trim their lifestyles, even though the reporter points out that the demise of this sleazy outfit is more likely due to their own malfeasance than to his exposé of their crass "let them eat cake" materialism. Welcome to the 99%, jerkos.
I wonder what it feels like when you bitch-slap yourself ? ?
Oh god, I have to look through my Ancestry.com tree and make sure I'm not related to these douche bags.
I normally try to keep Schadenfreude in check, but in this case, I'll make an exception.
Hello, beleaguered 89, welcome to the 99, and don't forget to keep your sign.
At least the loyal employees can feel good knowing that the top brass will undoubtedly divvy up their own personal fortunes so that no one has to feel the sting of a Charles Dickens Christmas this year! Or have their own house foreclosed upon by a cruel economy run amok!
Oh, wait. Never mind.
Maybe the free market works after all. And who is going to hire those people with this firm on their resumes? Hopefully no one. There are far better candidates more deserving of good jobs. These people obviously need to steep a bit in their current predicament and learn a lesson.
Banks that were involved with this firm include Bank of America and JPMorganChase. Wouldn't it be nice if some of the shit actually landed on them too?
Advice for the 89: "Get a job. Right after you take a bath."
I wonder how those poor employees are goingto stay current on their mortgages. Jobs don't suddenly jump out of the walls for those with "worker bee" mentality as those "former" employees suffer from. As for Mr. Baum, 40 years to build a business and three weeks to destroy it? Couldn't have happened to a more deserving bunch of reptiles.
Karma, faggots.
Karma, yes. The other word, no.
jrghays I'd consider a rephrase of that statement if I were you.
Yuck. I wondered what site this was. "Change jobs" is not too far from " Get a job". I have a friend tell me that he could drive to any town in the country and be working within two weeks. He has set the bar at the level he can clear. Everyone else should just crawl into the orner and die because they don't deserve to live.
couldn't happen to a better bunch of shitbirds. Hopefully ALL of them will soon be homeless and unemployed.
Now if some of that mud can stick to the heartless bastard banks that hired these people. I'd like to know which banks they were.
Who else thinks the firm is just going to re-group under a different name, in a lawyer-ly attempt to escape any actual responsibility over this whatsoever...
el_destiny If Baum doesn't lose his license to practice, perhaps. That's always a distinct possibility here and yet to be determined.
What goes around, comes around.
TRICK OR TREAT..... A Halloween to remember . LOL
Yahoo!
if it was so easily brought down, it was built on a foundation of shifting sand.
Karma is a B1tch.. At least they know how to dress the part when they lose their homes also
Ha! Motion for Poetic Justice granted!
Their resumes aren't going to look to appealing to anyone with any humanity.
afblac On Wall Street I believe that is considered a plus.
Maybeafblac Sounds like they should all be lining up at Goldman Sachs.
Maybeafblac BEING a heartless bastard is a plus. But these folks were guilty of being PR tone deaf. Nobody wants THAT sort of person working for them.
Good riddance to BAD RUBBISH!
Guess they never saw the Keith Olbermann special all about them huh?
BecauseIJustDid Sounds like they only looked at their paycheck and all the shiny things they could buy with it.
Gee. I give these people, and their former owner, all the empathy they gave their victims.
If this was the ending of a movie I'd be on my feet cheering. Rare sight to see this much justice in such a small space and time. It's kind of awe inspiring.
gadewan I'm guessing that the head guys walked away with their nests well-feathered. It is the lower-level employees, some of whom probably did not even participate in the nastiness, who will find themselves in trouble.
Maybe Did you see the slide show? Looks like employees at all levels were having "fun" at the expense of their clients.
Bwakfat Maybe How did the pictures get out? Was it an employee who didn't appreciate the theme or did a participant post them online?
OCDem An employee who thought it was abhorrent took the photos and sent them to Nocera.
JJRotheryOCDem Glad to hear that.. It's nice to know that someone in that firm had some humanity.
REVENGA!!!! suck it 1%. your now one of us.
one of us!
one of us!
one of us!
i guess they just jumped onto the unemployment line!
A small slice of justice.
Karma's a bitch.
Yep. They get the same sympathy from me they gave to the families they foreclosed.
Sign the petition please.
http://www.change.org/petitions/dont-let-big-banks...
The closing of these lairs is a great victory.
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