BCG Attorney Search, Harrison Barnes, Law Crossing BCG Attorney Search Runs Fake Job Postings As Front for Spamming of for-pay Resume and Job Search Services No Access to Actual Decision Makers Within Law Firms Grand Rapids Michigan

Yesterday, October 29 2009,I tried to post a mostly constructive criticism/comment on A. Harrison Barnes' blog in response to what I think is a long trend of posts that seem poorly written as they are painfully long and rambling. I also took note that Harrison Barnes seems to have a fixation with writing about his marriage and about the many beautiful women who have been interested in him (come on Harrison, does the fact that they are beautiful add anything to your commentary or are you just trying to tell the world something about yourself). Harrison also likes to dwell on the fact that he mingles with wealthy people and lives lavishly (take a look at blog this past week where her goes on and on and on about his luxurious trek through the Swiss Alps with his wife).

Anyway, I posted my brief critique reflecting my personal opinion of his peculiar blog. What is so ironic, hypocritical and indicitive of his paper thin ego housed within a controlling persona is that he deleted the contructive comment from his site (again, it was my opinion only) yet he both keeps the kooky positive comments that reek of being planted, and at the same time uses his attorney to threaten and sue anyone who writes negative things elsewhere.

It also looks like Barnes's blog isn't really a blog at all because it doesn't allow for reasonable discourse like most other reputable blogs (most people into blogging screen out profanity but allow most everything else, even if unflattering). The Barnes blog seems to be a full-fledge marketing site run by a person who holds himself out as a public figure and self proclaimed guru (his words) on jobs and employment. Tack on that it is well-known that he has paid people to write the positive reviews and comments on his blog (and elsewhere) and probably also uses employees for the same and there is no doubt that sincerity and honest discourse are at the bottom of his priorities and faux marketing and advertising are his prime objective. This thin-skinned manipulating individual is skating on very thin ice when he tries to legally harass people through frivolous law suits and tries to scare them into thinking that they might owe him ten million dollars should they dare express their opinion of Barnes or any of his companies. Put it all together and no wonder 35+ sites including 100s of people question the integrity of Barnes and his companies (and I doubt these people are paid to provide THEIR opinions).

Now, ladies and gentlemen, here is the critique, word-for-wordthat I posted on the Barnes blog but the control-freak deleted from his site yesterday (he would have been more nobel if he just responded with a "thank you but I disagree" comment):

"Harrison I think you are out of your mind. Your missives are amusing but only because they are rambling tangents. Although I appreciate your attempt to relate dancing to something career related, why in the world do you do it in a painfully long and rambling narrative? Also, although an occasional reference to a wife or family member is fine you seem obsessed with sharing long stories about OTHER people, especially women. And what is it with you constantly mentioning that all the women you dated were beautiful? It's like you want people to believe that you have some capacity to attract the hotties (even if you can't dance).

Honestly, you just seem like a very strange person who draws random conclusions about life. Maybe there is a hidden genius about that but there is something in your blog that reeks of a desperate attempt to prove yourself to the world.

Suggestion. Keep it shorter, don't put in so many personal details (especially if they just don't make sense) and share some of your stories about your academic experiences and your experiences at your law firms. They seem like they would be much more relevant than all of the asphalt stuff. You write about the asphalt business so much that it seems like it is the only job you ever enjoyed.

In other words, get a grip."

Harsh? Maybe. Constructive? Yes. Personal opiion? Yes. Out of bounds for someone who holds himself out to the public as an authority on jobs, employment and life? Absolutely not. I respect Barnse's right to control his blog,but I doubt that he respects my right and the right of others to comment elsewhere. In my opinion, If Harrison really posessed authority with regard to his stated subject matter of expertice, and had real gonads, he would have let the comment stand instead of erasing it and paying others to distract with poorly written positive coments.

Mr. Barnes, it is time for you to stand up for yourself AS A REAL BUSINESSPERSON and stop hiding behind shanty and frivolous lawsuits and Indian, Phillipine and Pakistani people to defend you as they saturate the Internet. Your first step might be to just make some effort, even a small one, to improve your services. The previous poster was correct when s/he stated that you may want to figure out why the BBB rates you as an F and sites like (((Redacted))), (((Redacted))), and so many other UNPAID persons find fault with your businesses and then FOCUS OB THOSE PROBLEMS first before you attach the Alberts and Joe Cs and Origomal Prices and maestros and anyone else you randomly choose to sue. I bet that would be more lucrative for you than your frivolous lawsuits.

Godspeed Mr. Barnes

i don't get it.  2 of a. harrison barnes companies have had f ratings from the bbb for years and long before anyone wrote anything here.  this is what the bbb says about the barnes companies

"We strongly question the companys reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the laws licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the companys industry is known for its fraudulent business practices."

in 2007 someone named kim from the bbb even wrote a special article to warn people to stay away from the company.

my question to the lawyer who keeps threatening everyone is why are u only going after a select few people who noboday ever head of until about a year ago when there are so many complaints about the barnes companies that started aound 2006-7?  it seems like barnes should have known that he was doing something wrong all of this time and been able to fix the problems.  but the bbb still uses words like "misleading" and "fraudulent" to describe the companies.

geez!  all these people did was use their own experiences to just repeat stuff that was already out there for a long time .  i think the whole idea of trying to scare people to not speak their mind is stupid.  it just sounds like barnes is a little boy throwing a temper tantrum because kids in the playground made fun of him.  any laywer who would take something like this is either out of work or a cheap hack or both.  you should leave these people alone and just try to figure out why the bbb and so many other people have been saying how bad the companies are for years.  just for suing these people i hope the lawyer and barnes find out that karma can be a real b***h.

Dear Originalprice:

I am litigation counsel for Harrison Barnes. As you may know, Mr. Barnes recently filed a lawsuit against you and others for allegedly false and defamatory statements posted on Ripoffreport.com. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, case number GC041766. If you have any specific questions about the case, you can send me an e-mail at paul@berra.org.

Over the next week or so, Mr. Barnes will be filing an application in an Arizona court seeking permission to serve a subpoena on XCentric Ventures, LLC, the company which owns and does business as Ripoffreport.com. The subpoena will require XCentric to reveal your name, address, and other contact information. Arizona law requires that I give you notice of this pending discovery request via the same medium that the allegedly false and defamatory statements were originally published. By this post, I hereby give you notice of Mr. Barnes' pending discovery request.

If you would like to respond to the discovery request, please send me an e-mail at paul@berra.org. If you would like to challenge the request in Arizona court, I suggest that you retain a lawyer to assist you.

Sincerely,

Paul S. Berra, Esq.

It looks like BCG Attorney Search may not be around for long. Since January 2009 recruiters have left the company in Boston, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Texas, Los Angeles and Washington DC. Last year the manager of BCG quit the company because he was tired of putting up with Harrison Barnes's shady methods and other recruiters left in Atlanta/Charlotte and New York. Right now there is one recruiter that has not done any work this year for personal reasons and at least two other recruiters are planning to leave.

BCG now has a couple of people in NY, 1 in DC, 1 in TX 2 in Chicago and a couple in southern CA but only a few of those are active. Morale is terrible and Harrison never discusses departures honestly with the rest of the recruiters so it is not clear if these people were fired or quit. One thing for certain is that departures are usually bitter and Harrison Barnes speaks very poorly and disparagingly of his employees after they leave. What he says is much worse than anything written by the people he is suing and none of it is true. Harrison Barnes takes pride in running his businesses in secret while deceiving everyone including his employees. For example, during 2009 he constantly told the recruiters that BCG was strong and growing while the company was falling apart. The reason he speaks so poorly of other employees is so he can blame them for the problems that are entirely of his own making.

Part of the 2009 breaking point came in April when Harrison harassed the recruiters to attend a recruiting convention in DC and told the recruiters how important it was that everyone attend. Some people thought they would be fired if they didn't attend. Then, instead of attending the convention himself, Harrison races off to a multi-thousand dollar motivational seminar (probably paid for by the company) and then continues to vacation in the Pacific. Harrison also annoys recruiters to fill their free in this bad economy time by writing articles and blogs even though he doesn't pay any recruiters anything except for commissions and is less than honest with how he pays his recruiters.

I used to like Harrison Barnes but he couldn't hide his true self this year. He became the Emperor with no Cloths and nobody would tell him the truth because he usually fired anyone who disagreed with him. I think the reason so much of the background is coming out now is because so people have left and are still leaving and have nothing to lose by revealing the truth. Every former and remaining recruiter at BCG are great, hard-working and caring people. It is a shame that it took so long for everyone to learn his true nature. My guess is that just about every remaining recruiter will leave at the first opportunity, especially as the economy gets better.

It does look like A. Harrison Barnes manipulates people. On Hound.com, Harrison Barnes claims that he was "ranked 1st" by a certain blog (applicant.com) and he provides a link to the story. Turns out that the article that he referenced was just a random laundry list of 30 job sites and the blog merely listed Hound as first among a list of equals. For Harrison Barnes to turn around and proclaim that the article "ranked" Hound first in an article that did not at all state any preference among the 30 listed sites is at best disingenuous and at worst it is a DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO MISLEAD. How much are we to trust an employment website when the owner itself distorts facts into lies and then threatens people with lawsuits if some of those people choose to challenge his lies?

He is making money off of the unemployed and underemployed through disingenuous means in an absolutely terrible economy while Harrison Barnes lives in luxurious homes and toys about in his expensive cars on Las Vegas race courses when he is at his new Vegas vacation home. Don't believe it? Look at his own web-site and look at the pictures. He's standing next to a Ferrari then driving aside it.

Then there are the issues about how Harrison Barnes tries to remake the blogosphere to bandage up the fact the web-world discovered that he is hemorrhaging with lies and truth-shading. A site called complaints.com has complaints against both Legal Authority and EmploymentCrossing. What is strange is that 15 days ago a poster named yahiknow2 first provided a comment rebutting a blogger who posted because she claims to have been "ripped-off" by EmploymentCrossing. That same yahiknow2, on the same day, posted on a separate board within complaintsboard.com a positive response in favor LegalAuthority.com after another blogger complained getting "ripped-off" by its services.

What a coincidence!!! In both blogs yahiknow2 uses the same language that can be boiled down to "I can't believe you would use such libelous language against a company that got me a job." Monsieur yahiknow2, how is it that A. Harrison Barnes got you a legal job through Legal Authority and another job on EmploymentCrossing at the same time and you still have time to defend both sites. Just please come out of hiding and explain this peculiarity.

Cathy Gellis's blog details how Harrison Barnes was kicked off of mTurk after she discovered that Harrison Barnes had paid people to target her site in response to negative comments she posted about LawCrossing and Vanara. Looks like Harrison Barnes SO believes that shading the truth and manipulation is a cornerstone of existence that he had to start Short Task to continue the scam Internet activities.

Nobody should throw even a penny towards any of his companies until Harrison Barnes learns how to run a company legally. That shouldn't be too difficult for a lawyer, you think?

This whole A. Harrison Barnes thing just keeps getting stranger and stranger. I looked up the names that americanmaestro mentioned in his blog as co-conspirators and a whole bunch of questionable items came up with regard to Carleen Trapp (nothing came up for John Simpson or Dean Jones but others have said that they spoke with Simpson and he sounded like he was in a Pakistani call center so maybe those aren't real names). If you do a search for Carleen Trapp there are several hits for advertisements to rent homes in Malibu. Then there are also hits for her as the single point-of-contact for Vanara, several financial companies, and even other pages that have her speaking about Legal Authority and Lawcrossing. All of the contact phone numbers are the same (the prefix puts her in Pasadena but other people have said that they contacted her in Utah so that is also strange but another hit has someone with that name listed as participating in an event in Ogden Utah and some of the company sites and blogs list offices in Utah).

I looked up Harrison's South Lake Properties web site (southlakeproperties) and, sure enough, it shows the same two Malibu rental homes as owned by that company. No problem because he is operating a rental business, right? Not so fast. Look up Harrison's address on White Pages and it shows that his home address is the same as one of the South Lake Properties homes. He also puts personal pictures up on his personal web site that seem to show him living in the same house. So the accusation that Albert and Joe C. made on this site that he lives in expensive Malibu mansions paid for by his companies seems vey plausible. It also makes me wonder if the accusation that the company pays for an expensive group of cars is also true. Several other blogs seem to confirm that he at least owns one Rolls Royce but there is no way to find out on the Internet who owns and pays for it.

The Internet is full of complaints that some or all of his other companies are scams. Until that accusation is fully resolved there is still a picture emerging that sort of substantiates that Carleen Trapp is in fact helping Harrison Barnes to pull in cash from questionable companies (supporting americanmaestro's assertion that Harrison Barnes is not the only one pulling this off) and she is also helping Harrison Barnes live a lavish life with the proceeds (nothing shows whether or not she has ownership interests in any of the companies). Why lavish? Take a look at the rental rates for the two houses, he owns at least one uber - luxury car and claimed a couple of weeks ago to have either leased or bought a condominium in Las Vegas. It would be great to shed some sunshine on this in a lawsuit. Maybe Harrison Barnes is a brilliant lawyer or Carleen Trapp is a brilliant lawyer (she didn't show up on either CA, UT or NV bar association listings) or Harrison Barnes hired a brilliant lawyer who set this up so it is all legitimate legally and from a tax perspective, but it all seems very fishy.

Can anyone who is a current or former employee add more information about Carleen Trapp or who really owns and pays for Harrison Barnes houses, cars, etc.? Don't let Paul Berra scare you because if you describe the truth then you are safe. The accusations all over the web by both former supposed employees, irate consumers and the BBB seem to completely justify some sort of formal inquiry.

Mr. Berra: The person you represent is despicable but you might be worse. Your contact e-mail is at a .org. That would imply that you are a not-for-profit entity. Please clarify for the benefit of all those that you threaten to sue. Are you taking the scam matter of A. Harrison Barnes pro bono or are you a bona fide charitable organization?

Mr. Berra: The person you represent is despicable but you might be worse. Your contact e-mail is at a .org. That would imply that you are a not-for-profit entity. Please clarify for the benefit of all those that you threaten to sue. Are you taking the scam matter of A. Harrison Barnes pro bono or are you a bona fide charitable organization?

If this attorney is for real then he is an idiot by talking about some back door way to add everyone in the country. If what was posted on your site by someone who responded is true then A. Harrison Barnes is guilty of multiple misdeamenors, has avoided paying taxes on his companies and EVERY SINGLE PERSON who ever did business with any of his employment companies can, according to CA Civil Code 1812.503 (thank you legalauthorityscam.blogspot website), rescind their contracts for at least a full refund (with the potential for treble punitive damages) with every one of his employment companies that hasn't filed the proper paperwork with the state.

All it would take is one lead plaintiff and a good class action lawyer could serve a discovery request on A. Harrison Barnes and all of his companies for a list of ALL individuals who paid money to every one of his employment related companies, certify the class because there is a sufficient nexus of interests among all people who paid Harrison Barnes money via any of his employment related companies and effectively bankrupt him, shut down all of his companies and create sufficient grounds for disbarment. There may be other causes of action based upon consumer protection given that the representations that he makes on his sites appear incredulous and federal and state can-spam laws. (Is he really the largest portal of job opportunities in the world? It sounds like he might have the largest database of companies but that doesn't mean that a job exists - see below). If a civil suit couldn't cause disbarment then the multiple misdemeanors and failure to pay taxes would stand a chance (the failure to pay taxes, at least in CA, might be the reason that A. Harrison Barnes announced on his own blog that he changed his residency to NV and is moving there). Unlike the jerk of a lawyer representing the scamming and spamming A. Harrison Barnes, this would be an "in your face" easy font door way to wreck the man. Also, I'm not sure if he has officers in the company or people with similar status but they might be liable also.

I would take the case myself (my firm does class actions in CA) but I am an associate and the partners aren't interested. In this economy there should be some hungry lawyer interested in this matter. Until that happens at least someone who has been affected by the antics of A. Harrison Barnes should start reporting him to the law enforcement authorities in Los Angeles or Pasadena or Malibu or any other place in CA as the statute states that "the Attorney General, any district
attorney, or any city attorney may prosecute misdemeanor actions." The CA Bar Association might also be interested. All of this can occur even if he doesn't proceed with the libel suit.

Paul Berra is also an idiot because he doesn't seem to know how close he is to inviting an anti-SLAPP suit which, if A. Harrison Barnes does proceed with a libel case, acts like a severe motion to dismiss with severe penalties.

BTW, my firm is very annoyed with his Lawcrossing site because he has either posted positions that never existed or were filled within a week yet maintained the posts for months despite our repeated requests to be removed. I've heard similar stories from other firms.

A. Harrison Barnes and Paul Berra would both be smart to keep their mouths shut and their heads down and maybe consult with a criminal defense attorney before threatening others with very tenuous lawsuits. The rest of the employees may want to get as far away from that company as possible until he straightens out his legal and tax problems.

Dear Joe C.:

This is the second legal notice that I have sent to you. As you know, I am litigation counsel for Harrison Barnes. Earlier this week, Mr. Barnes filed a Rule 30(h) application in Arizona superior court seeking permission to serve a subpoena on XCentric Ventures, LLC, the company which owns and does business as Ripoffreport.com. As I indicated to you, the subpoena will require XCentric to reveal your name, address, and other contact information.

If you would like a copy of the application or have any questions regarding same, please send me an e-mail at paul@berra.org. If you decide to challenge the application in Arizona court, I suggest that you retain a lawyer to assist you.

Sincerely,

Paul S. Berra, Esq.

Dear Joe C.:

This is the second legal notice that I have sent to you. As you know, I am litigation counsel for Harrison Barnes. Earlier this week, Mr. Barnes filed a Rule 30(h) application in Arizona superior court seeking permission to serve a subpoena on XCentric Ventures, LLC, the company which owns and does business as Ripoffreport.com. As I indicated to you, the subpoena will require XCentric to reveal your name, address, and other contact information.

If you would like a copy of the application or have any questions regarding same, please send me an e-mail at paul@berra.org. If you decide to challenge the application in Arizona court, I suggest that you retain a lawyer to assist you.

Sincerely,

Paul S. Berra, Esq.

Dear Joe C.:

This is the second legal notice that I have sent to you. As you know, I am litigation counsel for Harrison Barnes. Earlier this week, Mr. Barnes filed a Rule 30(h) application in Arizona superior court seeking permission to serve a subpoena on XCentric Ventures, LLC, the company which owns and does business as Ripoffreport.com. As I indicated to you, the subpoena will require XCentric to reveal your name, address, and other contact information.

If you would like a copy of the application or have any questions regarding same, please send me an e-mail at paul@berra.org. If you decide to challenge the application in Arizona court, I suggest that you retain a lawyer to assist you.

Sincerely,

Paul S. Berra, Esq.

Dear Joe C.:

This is the second legal notice that I have sent to you. As you know, I am litigation counsel for Harrison Barnes. Earlier this week, Mr. Barnes filed a Rule 30(h) application in Arizona superior court seeking permission to serve a subpoena on XCentric Ventures, LLC, the company which owns and does business as Ripoffreport.com. As I indicated to you, the subpoena will require XCentric to reveal your name, address, and other contact information.

If you would like a copy of the application or have any questions regarding same, please send me an e-mail at paul@berra.org. If you decide to challenge the application in Arizona court, I suggest that you retain a lawyer to assist you.

Sincerely,

Paul S. Berra, Esq.

This from americanmaestro.blogspot.com:

Barnes Threatens To Sue Internet Critics??
On Thursday, May 28, 2009, I got a telephone call from an man who identifed himself as Paul Berra. Mr. Berra claims to be an attorney in Los Angeles and says he represents A. Harrison Barnes.
He informed me that Mr. Barnes has filed a massive lawsuit against numerous people on the internet for negative comments and blogs written about him and his phony businesses. Mr. Berra threatened to amend his lawsuit to add me (The American Maestro) to his lawsuit if I did not immediately remove my blog post.??
I informed Mr. Berra that I was willing to amend my post to take out certain parts. Specifically, I told him I was willing to remove the portion where I state that Barnes "is under investigation by the feds" and to remove references to his co-conspirators. My reasoning is that I am unable to show proof of the investigation by the feds, b/c as with all investigations, they cannot be made public until its conclusion.
I further reasoned that my allegations regarding Barnes' Co-conspirators was based on a telephone conversation wherein I concluded they were not being honest with me. While dishonesty made be suspicious it is not necessarily proof positive of complicity.??I further informed Mr. Berra that I would be willing to remove my entire posting and would not blog about A. Harrison Barnes anymore if he could demonstrate that ANY of the jobs posted on Barnes' websites had actual employers behind them. I told him this was only fair since in any lawsuit for defamation, he would be required to prove that my allegations are false. Mr. Berra did not really seem interested in demonstrating that my allegations were not true, instead, he thought he could simply intimidate me with the threat of a lawsuit.
I told Mr. Berra "bring it on".??I informed Mr. Berra that the LA Superior Court had no personal jurisdiction over me since I have never been to California and that he would have to sue me in federal court. Mr. Berra informed me that he had some backdoor way of legally adding everyone in the country to a lawsuit in California state court.
Mr. Berra also implied that his goal was to break American Maestro by forcing me to hire a California attorney and defend a lawsuit in California local court. I responded by citing the federal and state versions of Rule 11 and warned him that I would pursue sanctions against him should he attempt that since he had advanced knowledge that California courts had no personal jurisdiction of me. Moreover, I specifically cited case law opinions issued as recent as March 2009 indicating that what he was trying to do would not pass legal muster.
Nevertheless, I gave Mr. Berra my proper mailing address and told him that I would accept any certified mail sent to me.??I am anxiously looking forward to mixing it up with Barnes and his lawyer assuming they are serious about suing me. Litigation will give me the opportunity to get to the bottom of Barnes's schemes and fully expose what I learn. One of the first things I will do is depose Barnes and several people associated with him. I will post EVERY document relevant to any litigation on this blog in its entirety. That also means deposition transcripts, videos and items turned over during the discovery process.??
For now, I am monitoring the mailbox.

Dear Joe C.:

I am litigation counsel for Harrison Barnes. As you may know, Mr. Barnes recently filed a lawsuit against you and others for allegedly false and defamatory statements posted on Ripoffreport.com. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, case number GC041766. If you have any specific questions about the case, you can send me an e-mail at paul@berra.org.

Over the next week or so, Mr. Barnes will be filing an application in an Arizona court seeking permission to serve a subpoena on XCentric Ventures, LLC, the company which owns and does business as Ripoffreport.com. The subpoena will require XCentric to reveal your name, address, and other contact information. Arizona law requires that I give you notice of this pending discovery request via the same medium that the allegedly false and defamatory statements were originally published. By this post, I hereby give you notice of Mr. Barnes' pending discovery request.

If you would like to respond to the discovery request, please send me an e-mail at paul@berra.org. If you would like to challenge the request in Arizona court, I suggest that you retain a lawyer to assist you.

Sincerely,

Paul S. Berra, Esq.

Dear Joe C.:

I am litigation counsel for Harrison Barnes. As you may know, Mr. Barnes recently filed a lawsuit against you and others for allegedly false and defamatory statements posted on Ripoffreport.com. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, case number GC041766. If you have any specific questions about the case, you can send me an e-mail at paul@berra.org.

Over the next week or so, Mr. Barnes will be filing an application in an Arizona court seeking permission to serve a subpoena on XCentric Ventures, LLC, the company which owns and does business as Ripoffreport.com. The subpoena will require XCentric to reveal your name, address, and other contact information. Arizona law requires that I give you notice of this pending discovery request via the same medium that the allegedly false and defamatory statements were originally published. By this post, I hereby give you notice of Mr. Barnes' pending discovery request.

If you would like to respond to the discovery request, please send me an e-mail at paul@berra.org. If you would like to challenge the request in Arizona court, I suggest that you retain a lawyer to assist you.

Sincerely,

Paul S. Berra, Esq.

I can corroborate everything Joe C. posted here about EmploymentCrossing (fromerly Juriscape) which is essentially a service you can get for free by doing it for yourself. I too am a former employee who was -- ironically -- laid off in October along with the rest of my department (that is, the editorial team).

Truth is, all EmploymentCrossing does is collect jobs from other FREE websites and then charges members $29.95 a month simply for collecting FREE information and putting it in one place. Why do they charge job seekers instead of posters like most websites? It's a job market ponzi scheme, if you ask me, with an unfortunate number of the unknowing duped into signing up.

The company's press releases read that EmploymentCrossing is home to "500 happy employees" etc. Well, about 490 of those employees work in India as programmers who are forced to update the Crossing sites weekly with unreadable drivel collected by the editorial team from freelance writers who have neither the skill nor intelligence to be published in an elementary school newsletter, much less a psuedo job market web board. Have you ever tried to read any of the articles online? Have a look and tell me what you think. It is ATROCIOUSLY UNREADABLE. It is a joke, plain and simple, and those third rate videos they've taken to putting up on the sites does not cover up this blatant reality.

Of course, this wouldn't be a problem were it not for the one and only A. Harrison Barnes who runs the company like a sweat shop while he sits on mounds of money. Case in point: around this time last year, EmploymentCrossing was a growing company of about 25 websites with content written in house (in Pasadena, California) by a team of five or six talented and dedicated writers and editorial coordinators running about five or six sites each. There were probably about 20-25 people who worked in the office on any given day handling customers and other company related activities. At the time, it was a decent place to work.

Cut to a year later: there are now 3 (yes THREE) writers managing 100 websites, all of whose content is derived from third party sources (mostly located in the Philippines and in India) solely for the purpose of raising the sites' Google rankings. Like much else at the company, quantity trumps quality -- and how. So all those claims about having "access to the latest industry information" is an out-and-out lie. Unless you consider getting your latest technology information from a second grader in Manila equivalent to a one-on-one from Steve Jobs.

The office is now reduced to a ghost town with only 6 or 7 people working daily, five of which are writers. The universally loathed and mocked CEO Barnes deigns to pop in the office about once in three weeks when he is able to tear himself away from his rolls royce, yacht, and mansion in Malibu (yes, he is a living cliche of the worst kind) and yet he continually robs his employees of pay raises, extended health benefits, garage parking, and pretty much every other basic courtesy an employer can bestow upon his employees. Sadly, I am forced to confirm his existence to the skeptical others who have posted here. He is real, as real a snake oil salesman as Donald Trump and his comb over. Yes, that is him in the picture, chin on fist. Ick.

About a month after the stock market crash of Sept 2008, the editorial team was told the company sustained critical losses and that the editorial team was being eliminated. I wish I could believe him.

Whether or not his purported boyhood tales of growing up poor in Michigan in the foster care system are true, I do not know. How he was ever accepted to law school or the University of Chicago remains a mystery to me (believe me, I once had to edit a piece he had written for the website and it was horrendous -- there's no way he can make any claim to being literate). His awkward manner with his employees is universal (he will NEVER walk up to a new hire and simply say "hello" or "welcome aboard") and he has a reputation for being, um, crazy: while I was there, the head of the editorial dept would regularly mock his habit of coming up with strange ideas, demanding that they be somehow implemented, and then forgetting all about them in a matter of days.

As one of my colleagues so blithely put it in an email after we were all let go, Barnes is a "cretinous shyster."

I soundly advise EVERYONE to stay far, far away. His is not a sustainable business model; EmploymentCrossing will likely be out of business in the next year or two. Schadenfreude? Hardly. More like the market correcting itself. And rightly so.

I can corroborate everything Joe C. posted here about EmploymentCrossing (fromerly Juriscape) which is essentially a service you can get for free by doing it for yourself. I too am a former employee who was -- ironically -- laid off in October along with the rest of my department (that is, the editorial team).

Truth is, all EmploymentCrossing does is collect jobs from other FREE websites and then charges members $29.95 a month simply for collecting FREE information and putting it in one place. Why do they charge job seekers instead of posters like most websites? It's a job market ponzi scheme, if you ask me, with an unfortunate number of the unknowing duped into signing up.

The company's press releases read that EmploymentCrossing is home to "500 happy employees" etc. Well, about 490 of those employees work in India as programmers who are forced to update the Crossing sites weekly with unreadable drivel collected by the editorial team from freelance writers who have neither the skill nor intelligence to be published in an elementary school newsletter, much less a psuedo job market web board. Have you ever tried to read any of the articles online? Have a look and tell me what you think. It is ATROCIOUSLY UNREADABLE. It is a joke, plain and simple, and those third rate videos they've taken to putting up on the sites does not cover up this blatant reality.

Of course, this wouldn't be a problem were it not for the one and only A. Harrison Barnes who runs the company like a sweat shop while he sits on mounds of money. Case in point: around this time last year, EmploymentCrossing was a growing company of about 25 websites with content written in house (in Pasadena, California) by a team of five or six talented and dedicated writers and editorial coordinators running about five or six sites each. There were probably about 20-25 people who worked in the office on any given day handling customers and other company related activities. At the time, it was a decent place to work.

Cut to a year later: there are now 3 (yes THREE) writers managing 100 websites, all of whose content is derived from third party sources (mostly located in the Philippines and in India) solely for the purpose of raising the sites' Google rankings. Like much else at the company, quantity trumps quality -- and how. So all those claims about having "access to the latest industry information" is an out-and-out lie. Unless you consider getting your latest technology information from a second grader in Manila equivalent to a one-on-one from Steve Jobs.

The office is now reduced to a ghost town with only 6 or 7 people working daily, five of which are writers. The universally loathed and mocked CEO Barnes deigns to pop in the office about once in three weeks when he is able to tear himself away from his rolls royce, yacht, and mansion in Malibu (yes, he is a living cliche of the worst kind) and yet he continually robs his employees of pay raises, extended health benefits, garage parking, and pretty much every other basic courtesy an employer can bestow upon his employees. Sadly, I am forced to confirm his existence to the skeptical others who have posted here. He is real, as real a snake oil salesman as Donald Trump and his comb over. Yes, that is him in the picture, chin on fist. Ick.

About a month after the stock market crash of Sept 2008, the editorial team was told the company sustained critical losses and that the editorial team was being eliminated. I wish I could believe him.

Whether or not his purported boyhood tales of growing up poor in Michigan in the foster care system are true, I do not know. How he was ever accepted to law school or the University of Chicago remains a mystery to me (believe me, I once had to edit a piece he had written for the website and it was horrendous -- there's no way he can make any claim to being literate). His awkward manner with his employees is universal (he will NEVER walk up to a new hire and simply say "hello" or "welcome aboard") and he has a reputation for being, um, crazy: while I was there, the head of the editorial dept would regularly mock his habit of coming up with strange ideas, demanding that they be somehow implemented, and then forgetting all about them in a matter of days.

As one of my colleagues so blithely put it in an email after we were all let go, Barnes is a "cretinous shyster."

I soundly advise EVERYONE to stay far, far away. His is not a sustainable business model; EmploymentCrossing will likely be out of business in the next year or two. Schadenfreude? Hardly. More like the market correcting itself. And rightly so.

I can corroborate everything Joe C. posted here about EmploymentCrossing (fromerly Juriscape) which is essentially a service you can get for free by doing it for yourself. I too am a former employee who was -- ironically -- laid off in October along with the rest of my department (that is, the editorial team).

Truth is, all EmploymentCrossing does is collect jobs from other FREE websites and then charges members $29.95 a month simply for collecting FREE information and putting it in one place. Why do they charge job seekers instead of posters like most websites? It's a job market ponzi scheme, if you ask me, with an unfortunate number of the unknowing duped into signing up.

The company's press releases read that EmploymentCrossing is home to "500 happy employees" etc. Well, about 490 of those employees work in India as programmers who are forced to update the Crossing sites weekly with unreadable drivel collected by the editorial team from freelance writers who have neither the skill nor intelligence to be published in an elementary school newsletter, much less a psuedo job market web board. Have you ever tried to read any of the articles online? Have a look and tell me what you think. It is ATROCIOUSLY UNREADABLE. It is a joke, plain and simple, and those third rate videos they've taken to putting up on the sites does not cover up this blatant reality.

Of course, this wouldn't be a problem were it not for the one and only A. Harrison Barnes who runs the company like a sweat shop while he sits on mounds of money. Case in point: around this time last year, EmploymentCrossing was a growing company of about 25 websites with content written in house (in Pasadena, California) by a team of five or six talented and dedicated writers and editorial coordinators running about five or six sites each. There were probably about 20-25 people who worked in the office on any given day handling customers and other company related activities. At the time, it was a decent place to work.

Cut to a year later: there are now 3 (yes THREE) writers managing 100 websites, all of whose content is derived from third party sources (mostly located in the Philippines and in India) solely for the purpose of raising the sites' Google rankings. Like much else at the company, quantity trumps quality -- and how. So all those claims about having "access to the latest industry information" is an out-and-out lie. Unless you consider getting your latest technology information from a second grader in Manila equivalent to a one-on-one from Steve Jobs.

The office is now reduced to a ghost town with only 6 or 7 people working daily, five of which are writers. The universally loathed and mocked CEO Barnes deigns to pop in the office about once in three weeks when he is able to tear himself away from his rolls royce, yacht, and mansion in Malibu (yes, he is a living cliche of the worst kind) and yet he continually robs his employees of pay raises, extended health benefits, garage parking, and pretty much every other basic courtesy an employer can bestow upon his employees. Sadly, I am forced to confirm his existence to the skeptical others who have posted here. He is real, as real a snake oil salesman as Donald Trump and his comb over. Yes, that is him in the picture, chin on fist. Ick.

About a month after the stock market crash of Sept 2008, the editorial team was told the company sustained critical losses and that the editorial team was being eliminated. I wish I could believe him.

Whether or not his purported boyhood tales of growing up poor in Michigan in the foster care system are true, I do not know. How he was ever accepted to law school or the University of Chicago remains a mystery to me (believe me, I once had to edit a piece he had written for the website and it was horrendous -- there's no way he can make any claim to being literate). His awkward manner with his employees is universal (he will NEVER walk up to a new hire and simply say "hello" or "welcome aboard") and he has a reputation for being, um, crazy: while I was there, the head of the editorial dept would regularly mock his habit of coming up with strange ideas, demanding that they be somehow implemented, and then forgetting all about them in a matter of days.

As one of my colleagues so blithely put it in an email after we were all let go, Barnes is a "cretinous shyster."

I soundly advise EVERYONE to stay far, far away. His is not a sustainable business model; EmploymentCrossing will likely be out of business in the next year or two. Schadenfreude? Hardly. More like the market correcting itself. And rightly so.

I can corroborate everything Joe C. posted here about EmploymentCrossing (fromerly Juriscape) which is essentially a service you can get for free by doing it for yourself. I too am a former employee who was -- ironically -- laid off in October along with the rest of my department (that is, the editorial team).

Truth is, all EmploymentCrossing does is collect jobs from other FREE websites and then charges members $29.95 a month simply for collecting FREE information and putting it in one place. Why do they charge job seekers instead of posters like most websites? It's a job market ponzi scheme, if you ask me, with an unfortunate number of the unknowing duped into signing up.

The company's press releases read that EmploymentCrossing is home to "500 happy employees" etc. Well, about 490 of those employees work in India as programmers who are forced to update the Crossing sites weekly with unreadable drivel collected by the editorial team from freelance writers who have neither the skill nor intelligence to be published in an elementary school newsletter, much less a psuedo job market web board. Have you ever tried to read any of the articles online? Have a look and tell me what you think. It is ATROCIOUSLY UNREADABLE. It is a joke, plain and simple, and those third rate videos they've taken to putting up on the sites does not cover up this blatant reality.

Of course, this wouldn't be a problem were it not for the one and only A. Harrison Barnes who runs the company like a sweat shop while he sits on mounds of money. Case in point: around this time last year, EmploymentCrossing was a growing company of about 25 websites with content written in house (in Pasadena, California) by a team of five or six talented and dedicated writers and editorial coordinators running about five or six sites each. There were probably about 20-25 people who worked in the office on any given day handling customers and other company related activities. At the time, it was a decent place to work.

Cut to a year later: there are now 3 (yes THREE) writers managing 100 websites, all of whose content is derived from third party sources (mostly located in the Philippines and in India) solely for the purpose of raising the sites' Google rankings. Like much else at the company, quantity trumps quality -- and how. So all those claims about having "access to the latest industry information" is an out-and-out lie. Unless you consider getting your latest technology information from a second grader in Manila equivalent to a one-on-one from Steve Jobs.

The office is now reduced to a ghost town with only 6 or 7 people working daily, five of which are writers. The universally loathed and mocked CEO Barnes deigns to pop in the office about once in three weeks when he is able to tear himself away from his rolls royce, yacht, and mansion in Malibu (yes, he is a living cliche of the worst kind) and yet he continually robs his employees of pay raises, extended health benefits, garage parking, and pretty much every other basic courtesy an employer can bestow upon his employees. Sadly, I am forced to confirm his existence to the skeptical others who have posted here. He is real, as real a snake oil salesman as Donald Trump and his comb over. Yes, that is him in the picture, chin on fist. Ick.

About a month after the stock market crash of Sept 2008, the editorial team was told the company sustained critical losses and that the editorial team was being eliminated. I wish I could believe him.

Whether or not his purported boyhood tales of growing up poor in Michigan in the foster care system are true, I do not know. How he was ever accepted to law school or the University of Chicago remains a mystery to me (believe me, I once had to edit a piece he had written for the website and it was horrendous -- there's no way he can make any claim to being literate). His awkward manner with his employees is universal (he will NEVER walk up to a new hire and simply say "hello" or "welcome aboard") and he has a reputation for being, um, crazy: while I was there, the head of the editorial dept would regularly mock his habit of coming up with strange ideas, demanding that they be somehow implemented, and then forgetting all about them in a matter of days.

As one of my colleagues so blithely put it in an email after we were all let go, Barnes is a "cretinous shyster."

I soundly advise EVERYONE to stay far, far away. His is not a sustainable business model; EmploymentCrossing will likely be out of business in the next year or two. Schadenfreude? Hardly. More like the market correcting itself. And rightly so.

I have been getting a ton of spam on my blog recently from this guy, advertising a "search site". The funniest part of the spam (and why I visited the site), was because of the last sentence of the spam message:

"I really trust [web site name] because it does not advertise."

Right - it just spams!

So anyway, I checked out the site and saw there was a page on there about the "CEO". Sure enough, it was A. H. Barnes' biography. I googled to find the BCG site and eventually, this one. That guy should be disbarred, if he even exists.

Hello,

If you are reading this, then it's likely that you have been affected by scheming and unethical business practices of EmploymentCrossing, owned by Andrew Harrison Barnes (aka Harrison and A. Harrison Barnes). In the interest of effectiveness and brevity, I will not delve into everything but give the readers enough information so that you can avoid getting associated with such a fraudster.

Background:

Employment Crossing is an umbrella corporation that runs a bunch of web sites, including some 50 odd crossing.com's (lawcrossing.com, internshipcrossing.com etc.), bcg attorney search, resume apple, judged, attorney resume, legal authority, law school loans etc. You can get the list of web sites by visiting employmentcrossing.com.

EmploymentCrossing's office, and their only office, is in Pasadena. Employment Crossing has a picture of a building posted on their web site, which they call their "research facility". However, they do NOT own that building and in fact, they just have a few rooms and a hall on the 2nd floor of that bulding (in suite 200). And, NO research goes on there.

How I know all this:

I worked there.

Detail:

Given the number of web sites run by EmploymentCrossing and all the rhetoric about hundreds of "research analysts" gathering jobs, one would think that EmploymentCrossing must staff at least one hundred people in their office in Pasadena. Total BS. In the pasadena office, you can expect to find 10-20 people at any given time depending upon whether Andrew Harrison Barnes is in hiring mode (planning to launch a new web site) or firing mode (rest of the year).

Given the technical nature of the work involved (web sites etc.), one can expect a good sized team of programmers behind the effort in Pasadena. Actual count: two.

The reality is that Andew Harrison Barnes runs a sweat shop in India, where all the work gets done. The sweat shop in India has about a hundred people and the average salary is $100 to $200 per month. Yes, you read it right.

The office in India is in the state of Gujarat:

303-GNFC Info Tower,
S.G. Road,
Ahmedabad
Gujarat 380054
India

My colleague was sent to India to train the workers there, and he had a lot to say about the setup there. A few things are:

1. Ultra Cheap labor

2. BIG privacy breach - you are giving access to your personal information, including SSN, Credit Cards to people in another country, who may not even know the importance of SSN.

3. Software Piracy - none of the computers use genuine software. All computers have pirated versions of Windows and other software. I guess Microsoft will be very interested in this.

All the call center staff also operates from the sweat shop. I guess users would already know this by the non-American accent of the operator on the other side.

By the way, did any EmploymentCrossing user notice that you can NOT cancel the subscription online. Not even via email. That's right. If you want to cancel your subscription, you need to call the help line, and that, too, during business hours. So, if you are at work and you plan to call them when you get home or over the weekend, you can't do that. Nice trick to let people keep paying, isn't it?

SPAM effect: If a user gets unlucky enough to get his/her email address listed in any web site run by Andrew Harrison Barnes, then NO one can save that poor fellow. That email address is blessed with SPAM for eternity. Why do you think Andrew Harrison Barnes lets you try the service for free for a week --- to capture your email address. So, even if you cancel the subscription after the free trial, you still gifted him your email address. He will email you to the grave.

Data theft: There is this service that Andrew Harrison Barnes runs: Legal Authority, which is nothing more than buying printed resumes stacked in an envelope and addressed to big companies in your state based on your occupation. And, he charges you thousands of dollars for that. Where do you think he got the data (address and contacts of those companies)?

Hint: Sweat shop in India and Dun & Bradstreet database subscription for one month. Yes. He subscribed to Dun & Bradstreet contacts database for a month, got his workers in India to rip through the database and create a parallel version of their own. Then, he started selling it for thousands of dollars per user. Can you believe that? Well, you have to. If you ask him, guess what he'll say? "I had my researchers in India crawl through all the web sites in the world and create this unique database".

There are plenty of other weird things about that I can get into but I think you got the picture. It's not fair for folks without jobs to pay $30 per month for something that's free and already out there. Imagine Google News charging you $30 per month for reading news at news.google.com.

Plus, it's not fair that Andrew Harrison Barnes engages in fraudulent activities with other vendors, such as Microsoft, Dun & Bradstreet, Adobe etc., rips-off innocent consumers and lives in a multi million dollar mansion in Malibu Beach (California), drives a Rolls Royce, Mercedes S class, Mercedes CLR and more. Owns another beach house and puts it up for rent (http://www.malibubeachhouseforrent.com/), lies about having a troubled childhood on those stupid videos on his web sites and takes everyone for a ride.

People need to know that Andrew Harrison Barnes and none of his fraudulent companies deserve a single cent of their hard earned money.

It is rather coincidental that the four responses to this report were provided within 25 minutes of each other, and within 24 hours of this report being posted. It is hard to believe that with the vastness of the internet, four people who don't work for BCG not only found this report, but decided to provide positive comments about this company, all within 24 hours. Looking at other ripoff reports about this company and the responses provided to them, it appears that Harrison Barnes or someone acting at his behest is registering multiple accounts and providing fake comments in support of the company and/or to contradict the original poster's story. This is far more plausible than the idea that four disinterested individuals all independently found and responded to this report within 24 minutes of each other.

I know a pair of close friends who utilized the BCG Attorney Search service in the past year as they graduated from law school, and I did not hear them complain about the services that BCG provided them. They were able to be placed (as far as they told me) fairly quickly by the search firm into practices where they began working, and as far as I know are still very happy in their employment. One of them told me, though, that referral services like these aren't always able to guarantee placement for employees, and as a result shouldn't be vilified by those who were not placed by these firms. I understand that the complainant is upset by not having been placed by this particular firm despite their credentials, but it shouldn't be something that should be held against the firm, and I sincerely hope that you don't continue to have a begrudging attitude towards the firm.

I think one of the most difficult things to do would be to hire someone with data collected over the internet.

I believe this company's intent is to be a quality placement company; when you review their website, that becomes apparent.

I was particulary impressed with the fact that they average one placement per business day on a national basis. I can only imagine how many resumes, etc. they must have to review to get to that!

I have empathy for this particular person whose experience was bad. That doesn't mean the company is a bad company.

I am writing here in response to BCG Rip-off Victim' of Grand Rapids, Michigan. I too had recently applied for a position at BCG, all of my qualifications were in order and I was hired on within a week. BCG is definitely NOT spam!

I am writing here in response to BCG Rip-off Victim' of Grand Rapids, Michigan. I too had recently applied for a position at BCG, all of my qualifications were in order and I was hired on within a week. BCG is definitely NOT spam!

I am writing here in response to BCG Rip-off Victim' of Grand Rapids, Michigan. I too had recently applied for a position at BCG, all of my qualifications were in order and I was hired on within a week. BCG is definitely NOT spam!

I have used BCG Attorney Search and it has introduced me to my current job as an attorney. I am actually very impressed with the service; I was able to obtain employment quickly and efficiently. I have never received any type of spam or false information from BCG.