Who Watches the UCAN Watchdog?

Totally a smear job. This piece is sad. 1st of all, the way lawyer's fees work is pretty universal - the organization (usually a partnership) makes the hourly rate and the lawyer gets a salary and a bonus if they are hard workers (or lucky, or are sleeping with a partner), usually that bonus is based on them taking more than a set number of billable hours a year and frequently is known up front by all parties. That's how you get to be a partner anyway. 2nd, UCAN charged the amount for Shames that a non-lawyer expert is allowed to charge if they have more than 13 years of experience, which dude obviously has if he's been doing this since the mid 80s (some of that time as a lawyer, too). If you want to suggest there was fraud, where's the harm? He's charging no more than a non-lawyer would be making (less, in fact, than he even could be under the rules) and the entity he's representing (which he runs right?) surely knows he's not providing them legal counsel (which you would never hire your director for anyway). Even if dude is a jerk and the organization eats babies you're better off writing about that than what you wrote about. A little research might actually help too, unless that would be too "journalismy" here's their IRS filing. 2009: ~$1.3 million in revenue, around the same in salaries and professional fees. http://foundationcenter.org/findfunders/990finder/ here's the PUC info on compensation rates (for a legislatively mandated program): http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PUBLISHED/FINAL_RESOLUTIO… average (of 5000) non-profit CEO salary is $150K, with low ones in places like montana and winston-salem (none from San Diego): http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=top… and a whole corner of the internet devoted to the subject on CEO compensation for non-profits: http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/resources/reso…
— July 27, 2011 10:26 p.m.