Building a Better Legal Profession

Hello BBLP,
Last week, The New York Times published another strong but tough look at contemporary legal education through the experience of Valparaiso University's School of Law.

A few conclusions arise from the piece:
- For prospective students: Buyer Beware. Know what you're getting into, how much law school will cost, and what your prospects are after graduation. If you will carry a massive debt load, be wary of attending a school that does not produce graduates who earn top-dollar. If high-stakes corporate law isn't what you want to do, consider less expensive schools and pursue scholarships.
- For law schools: The days of charging high tuition to pay for professors who produce a lot of scholarship while accepting too many students than the legal market can employee seem to be ending. Consolidation, shrinking enrollment, and tuition caps are good options. Law schools need not be businesses that maximize profits. Instructing the young and giving them the tools and inspiration to pursue justice should be the sought-after goal.

Take a read and share your comments below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/business/dealbook/an-expensive-law-degree-and-no-place-to-use-it.html

An Expensive Law Degree, and No Place to Use It Thousands of debt-ridden law school graduates highlight a once unthinkable question: Should their law schools close?

The NY Times has an interesting article about work policies at elite firms (law and not). Notably, it reports a detectable shift: "[T]here are some signs of change, as more and more young highly credentialed workers acknowledge that they can’t fulfill their responsibilities as husbands, wives, parents and friends while ascending through their organizations....Alternative work arrangements [at law firms] are proliferating, and many previously elite firms are finding they no longer have the profits or the partnership slots to make the Cravath system work, abandoning the field of play to only a tiny number of ultrasuccessful firms." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/business/work-policies-may-be-kinder-but-brutal-competition-isnt.html.

Work Policies May Be Kinder, but Brutal Competition Isn’t Top-tier employers may be changing their official policies in a nod to work-life balance, but brutal competition remains an inescapable component of workers’ daily lives.

Big News out of the Big Apple regarding its Big Test:
"In his speech, the chief judge said adopting the uniform exam 'is a huge step towards a national, uniform bar exam for the entire country,' which he characterized as 'not only desirable but necessary for the mobile, interconnected society in which we live.'"
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/nyregion/new-york-state-to-adopt-uniform-bar-exam.html

New York to Adopt a Uniform Bar Exam Used in 15 Other States The state’s chief judge said he expected the move to result in a “domino effect” with the remaining states, given New York’s prominence in the legal world.

The New York Times has an important piece on the Class of 2010. In short, they graduated at a very difficult moment for the legal profession and many have struggled. "About 20 percent of law graduates from 2010 are working at jobs that do not require a law license . . . and only 40 percent are working in law firms, compared with 60 percent from the class a decade earlier." While the outlook for lawyers now entering or graduating from law school is better (see previous post), the Times article reinforces the importance of reforming law school to educate lawyers who meet actual demand, and the need for prospective law students to enter law school with their eyes open. The prospective student should ask him/herself: (1) What do I want to do? (2) Where did I get in? and (3) How much will it cost? For instance, the article quotes a lawyer who attended South Texas College of Law. He wanted to do high-stakes M&A work and took out loans to finance his education. Now, he's a solo practitioner working family law. Truth is, there are only so many M&A law jobs out there, they tend to be located in NY and employ students from a certain set of schools. The takeaway: Caveat emptor ("buyer beware). http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/business/dealbook/burdened-with-debt-law-school-graduates-struggle-in-job-market.html

Burdened With Debt, Law School Graduates Struggle in Job Market About 20 percent of 2010 graduates have jobs that do not require a law license, a new study shows, and only 40 percent are working in law firms.

An interesting piece on -- a reduced supply of students may improve law applicants' chances of admission, while giving them more power to build a better law school community and a better legal profession.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/business/dealbook/despite-forecasts-of-doom-signs-of-life-in-the-legal-industry.html

Law Schools and Industry Show Signs of Life, Despite Forecasts of Doom Changes in the job market have led to declining enrollment at law schools, but several new studies show reasons to be optimistic about a career in law.

From Stay-at-Home Moms to Back-to-Work Lawyers Retraining programs and internships are helping onetime lawyers get back in the profession.

Interesting story from today's New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/education/law-schools-applications-fall-as-costs-rise-and-jobs-are-cut.html

Law Schools’ Applications Fall as Costs Rise and Jobs Are Cut Applications are headed for a 30-year low, reflecting increased concern over soaring tuition, crushing student debt and diminishing prospects of lucrative employment upon graduation.

Amlaw reports that most elite law firms exclude women from their management committees. It's not a surprise since most elite law firms have only 15% female equity partners. Do you think they are going to put the secretaries on the executive committee? The problem is insufficient numbers of female partners, period.

http://abovethelaw.com/2013/01/leading-lady-lawyers-ranking-the-am-law-100-by-women-in-leadership-roles/

Biglaw apparently is known for being especially inconsiderate of the feelings of employees. Not a surprise. As firms get bigger and social distance between managers and associates grows, it is easier to have your employees work long hours with less appreciation.

Inside Straight: Are Law Firms Unnaturally Mean? Are corporate legal departments "nicer" than law firms? If so, why? In-house columnist Mark Herrmann, a former partner at a major law firm, offers his thoughts.

Why Women Still Can’t Have It All It’s time to stop fooling ourselves, says a woman who left a position of power: the women who have managed to be both mothers and top professionals are superhuman, rich, or self-employed. If we truly believe in equal opportunity for all women, here’s what has to change.

And please don't take the fax machine. This is so silly...

More evidence that the legal profession is extremely regressive on diversity. The decline since 2000 is almost certainly explained by the retirement of the Carter appointees and the "moderate" politics of many of the Clinton appointees. How will the next 15 years look as the Clintonites retire and the Bush appointees dominate the courts? Turn a whiter shade of pale.

Statistics show no progress in federal court law clerk diversity The federal courts made no progress last year in their push to bring more diversity to the ranks of judicial law clerks, according to the latest statistics released May 2 by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/dewey-leboeuf-crisis-mirrors-the-legal-industrys-woes/

Dewey & LeBoeuf Crisis Mirrors the Legal Industry's Woes Michael H. Trotter, a partner at Taylor English Duma in Atlanta, says the struggles facing the law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf reflect a change in the industry: too many lawyers and not enough work.

Missed BBLP's Getting to 50/50 event w/ Joanna Strober & Kristin Major? Watch here! Prof. Michele Dauber moderates a frank discussion about how men AND women can balance a demanding legal career and family. http://voirdire.stanford.edu/student-orgs/wsl/20120424_BBLP_Getting50_50-video.mov

http://voirdire.stanford.edu/student-orgs/wsl/20120424_BBLP_Getting50_50-video.mov

Bingham McCutchen cuts billable hours and increases benefits! Already ranked number 3 in the SF bay area for diversity, Bingham's new policy may work to improve its female attrition rate of 21% in 2011. http://abovethelaw.com/2012/04/a-biglaw-firm-institutes-a-smaller-hours-requirement/ -153211

A Biglaw Firm Institutes A Smaller Hours Requirement One Biglaw firm is actually lowering its hours requirement. And instituting a new adoption / surrogacy benefit too. Could these trends spread?

Chen quotes BBLP friend Pat Gillette about the uselessness of women's initiatives, which Chen calls giant time-sucking black holes that firms throw women into with abandon.

Are Women's Initiatives Distractions? - The Careerist Women aren't getting ahead because they're wasting too much time on women's initiatives, diversity, mentoring, and other soft programs, says Sallie Krawcheck.

The Death Spiral of America's Big Law Firms How some of America's top law firms devoured profits before the Great Recession, got too fat, and are now suffering the consequences

How do you know you have billed too many hours?: "I can’t recall the taste of food, nor the sound of water, nor the touch of grass. I’m naked in the dark, with nothing, no veil between me, and the wheel of fire!”

How Many Billable Hours Do You Have to Work Before You Are ‘Busy’? This is how a law firm tries to manage your time...

SAVE THE DATE!

Join Building a Better Legal Profession for lunch on Tuesday, April 24, for what is sure to be an interesting discussion on work/life balance, parenthood, and marriage. Our discussion will be led by Joanna Strober, the co-author of the groundbreaking book Getting to 50/50, and Kristin Major, a former Skadden partner, current HP in-house counsel, wife and mother. This will be an excellent opportunity to ask questions and learn from lawyers who have succeeded in and out of the traditional legal profession.

Location and food to be announced! Mark your calendars now -- Tuesday, April 24, from 12:45-2 in the law school.

More from the front lines of the law firm employment crash:

From J.D. to Food Stamps: The Personal Cost of Going to Law School A recent grad qualifies for food stamps, and the other costs of going to law school...

First they took away his corner office...and then they took him out back and shot him. Nice post by David Lat.

Biglaw Blind Item: Paradise Lost For a Biglaw partner, is there anything more humiliating than being stripped of a corner office?

BBLP series on the future of the billable hour:

http://www.lexisnexis.com/community/lexishub/blogs/careerguidance/archive/2011/12/07/the-future-of-the-billable-hour.aspx

The Future of the Billable Hour

“Working with BBLP has completely shifted the way I look at law firms. If BBLP stands for anything, it’s the conviction that students and young lawyers do not have to accept the flaws in the system. We have the ability to make changes before we even start working, if only by asking questions and focusing attention on issues we think are important.”

Check out what BBLP is all about in the new issue of the Riverside Lawyer!http://riversidecountybar.com/barpubs/1202RL.pdf

http://riversidecountybar.com/barpubs/1202RL.pdf

Watch for our cool new mobile site, coming soon!

Dewey pumped their profitability estimates by misleading Am Law, according to the NYT.

Defections Continue at Dewey & LeBoeuf The latest departures add to the virtual decimation of Dewey's insurance practice, which has lost more than 20 partners. Insurance has long been regarded as one of the firm's premier practices.

BBLP Blogger Yan Cao was just named Editor in Chief of NYU Law Review! Congratulations Yan! We love you!

Lured to a firm by pro bono opportunities? Biglaw pro bono hours decreased significantly in 2010.

Hard times for law firms spell pro bono cuts - Fortune Management While a still uncertain economy pushes more people into poverty, some law firms are decreasing the amount of hours they are devoting to pro bono work. By Elizabeth G. Olson, contributor FORTUNE – The promise of pro bono work with a corporate law salary is alluring, especially for budding lawyers...

BBLP Friend Mary Kay Henry arrested on Brooklyn Bridge standing up for workers' rights to decent jobs and good working conditions. We

SEIU President, Union Leaders Arrested in OWS Brooklyn Bridge Protest Demanding Job Creation Thursday's protest marking the Occupy movement's second month anniversary coincided with an event planned months earlier by unions and others. Marches were held on bridges across the country to draw attention to how federal funding to fix ailing infrastructure in the country could put unemployed peo...

Women Dominate New Partner Classes at Wachtell, Cleary, and King & Spalding - The Careerist At several firms this year, women made up the majority of new partners!

Nat'l Assoc. of Women Lawyers reports fewer women entering Biglaw, and bad news for women in once they get there. http://goo.gl/oxC1z

National Association of Women Lawyers Annual Survey

Prof. Michele Dauber just spoke at the Chicago Bar Association conference on Building Bridges and Breaking Barriers. Pictures to follow!