The Buckingham

This past Halloween weekend the law firm of Steven J. Baum threw a company party in which employees dressed up in costumes throughout the whole work day but only partied until noon.  The annual holiday festivities bring back to mind for one former employee last year’s degrading costumes.

A former employee of the firm, who chooses to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, recently sent photos of last year’s party to Joe Nocera  of the New York Times.  What the photos reveal is a complete insensitivity toward the homeowners’ plight.

Not all employees joined in on the company’s idea of fun, but many did.  Several employees dressed in dirty and tattered clothes as a jab toward those who lost their homes, holding signs that said things like “3^rd party squatter.  I lost my home and I was never served.”  The part about never being served is supposed to poke fun at those who use that as a ‘typical excuse’ as an attempt to escape foreclosure.

The anonymous source of photos claims they are an accurate representation of the firm’s attitude.  She claims Baum only cares about one thing, and that’s making foreclosures however they can.  All employees are ingrained with this principle throughout their time with the firm.  They never even try to help those on the verge of foreclosure to modify their mortgages or do anything that will help them avoid it.

One photo reveals portions of the office decorated as homes that have been foreclosed on.  One section holds a sign over it titled ‘Baum Estates.’  Some office areas are even decorated as a mockery of homeless camps and contain fake foreclosure signs.

Steven J. Baum denies such activity taking place within his law firm.  He claims the article written by Nocera is another one of the New York Times’ attempts at attacking the firm’s work.  The photos one can find by doing a simple Google search though make that statement hard to believe.