End of Days or Time for a Broader Education
The National Law Journal published an interesting article in its December 14th issue, entitled “Is It Worth It.” The secondary caption sets up the article by saying, “A J.D. used to mean a first-class seat on the gravy train. Now? Not so much. Critics say law schools have a duty to warn.” Although a well-written, this article is only a wave in the sea of “end of lawyer glamour” articles that came out in 2009 (and will surely continue into 2010). We have even seen the New York Times jump on the bandwagon (“No Longer Their Golden Ticket”), although they made sure to tie-in the commercial appeal of ABC’s new lawyer show “The Deep End.”
For me, this feels like Groundhog Day. I came out of law school in 1992 when the market was horrible, simply horrible. New York law firms were laying off lawyers by the hundreds (I was in DC where, well, New York “woes” tend to run downhill) and over 50% of my fellow students joined me in taking the bar exam without a job. Every article I read about lawyers during this time spoke to how the Golden Days of the legal profession had come to an end and people like me were suckers for sinking the price of a small house into my legal education. It was all so depressing. I was debt-laden and possibly headed for the golden headset at the Burger King drive-through.
So, when I read any of these “End of Days” articles, it digs up all sorts of complex feelings; so allow me to get a couple of them on paper:
To start, the idea that law schools have a “duty to warn” is ludicrous. People going into law school are big kids; and, if all they are focused on is the money, I can’t think of a better money-related lesson than to not get the anticipated return on their law school investment. Law school has seldom been a “golden ticket” or guaranteed “first-class seat on the gravy train.” If you don’t understand that your early legal career will be determined by, among many other things, supply and demand, your class rank and how much you hustle, then I can’t feel sorry for you. Nothing, and I mean nothing, in life is guaranteed and to hold your legal income to a different standard is silly.
That being said, I don’t see law schools as an innocent bystander in all of this. If they have a duty, it is to give lawyers more tools in the event that that their legal income is less than expected. One area that law schools and bar associations fall woefully short is in helping lawyers become better businesspeople. Marketing for them is a still a dirty word and, even though a supermajority of lawyers will one day run their own legal businesses, there is nary a mention of these concepts in the law school curriculum or ongoing legal education. “We teach lawyers about the law” is common retort; but that is like teaching someone to eat, but failing to let them know that there are these cool things called forks and spoons.
During these difficult times, we encounter at Avvo lawyers that have no idea how to start building a legal practice. They have no clients, no money and no business understanding to help propel them to a higher station. Maybe they are just out of law school, maybe they were just dumped from their firm, maybe they are reentering the work force after a long absence. They can only eat with their hands, and as a consequence they cannot get a date with any potential client. I hope that in my life time I see classes in each law school year focused on the *business* of law. I hope that I see more state and local bars giving CLE credit for marketing- and business-related courses. I hope I see short-sighted state regulation of attorney marketing fade into the sunset. We can only hope.
Successful lawyers are successful businesspeople. Pass it on.
