Recessions Effect on Lawyers

Who are they trying to kid? There has been a glut of lawyers on the market for a generation; I'm working on a project with an attorney who graduated from Law School in 1976 and says the market was bad then and has never improved. They keep churning out lawyers.

In my state, there are four law schools and there were too many attorneys graduating before the 4th school opened. In fact, the university started its own law school only after having been rejected in its bid to buy the stand-alone law school.

While I saw an ad today, many of the 25 or so attorneys with whom I last worked on a project are currently out in the cold, collecting unemployment. I met up with four experienced attorneys for cocktails a couple of weeks ago, only two of whom were working at the time. A corporation that was a steady workhorse for one of the agencies outsourced its document review to its location in India a year ago. At first, they had a higher level review done in-house, but I think they've even stopped that; they're just not using contractors in their US facility.

The last review on which I worked was quite complicated; it was a techno-IP project and I don't believe the associates at the firm really understood everything. We muddled through it, with protocols determined, some of which were later changed, and learned to notice the keywords we needed. We worked closely with the associates, unlike on most reviews so came through it pretty well. I'm skeptical that it would be done as well in a foreign country; while I know some companies in India have their outsourcers work the afternoon shift, so they're in the office during US office hours, not all of them do so.

There will be more and more innovations and fewer and fewer traditional law practices but I doubt it will stop anyone from applying to law school. I have a neighbor who wants to go to law school. She's planning on going in 2010. I think she's nuts and so do her parents; she thinks she'll be the exception and be the one to get the high grades and get the job that she wants. Because I know her education history, I'm a bit skeptical that she'll get the grades and the job.

She wants to work in the non-profit world, which is great if the economy is doing well; it sounds easy to get into an entry-level position, but one of the things you don't necessarily see coming is someone from a big law firm or the AG's office downsizing their life once loans are paid off. No matter what experience you or I have, those people trump it.

Case in point? I worked with an attorney who saw a posting for the perfect non-profit job for her. She procrastinated a bit and wasn't one of the first people to respond. Even worse for her? An attorney who had experience with the AG's office applied and, of course, got it based on his experience with the AG. Another case? One of my networking contacts worked for BIG law for a few years, paid off her loans and downsized to the AG's office. After several years there she moved to an environmental non-profit.

I hope my neighbor realizes that with the economy in shambles, borrowing for an expensive private law school isn't going to be the best bet for her future. I wish I had had someone to un-recommend law school for me when I applied.