The Dirt Lawyer's Blog Archive

I know everyone and his or her mother has already commented on the layoffs at many firms yesterday. This is something we haven't seen since the early 90s and even then probably not on this scale. Nonetheless, to close out the week I do have a few comments on the situation. (There is also a good summary here that contains many of these ideas.) The layoffs had to happen not only because of a lack of work but also because of a lack of normal attrition in a down market. Of course, the fact that some law firm managers plan on and expect 25% attrition is entirely another problem. We've let our profession become a business driven by profit and loss. Because of the business model, some move around like nomads either because of it and/or because they know they are almost as fungible as associates. I'm not sure we can close Pandora's Box, but it is food for thought. First year associates are, by and large, overpaid and useless. I know. I used to be one. And now, of co...

I was sad to read at Above The Law that my GWATS (gifts, wills and trusts -- that's what we called the class) professor from law school, Charles Whitebread, passed away yesterday. Most lawyers under age 50 probably know from his lectures for BAR/BRI, the dominant bar exam preparation course. I was blessed to have some great law professors, but Charlie really made learning law interesting and fun, believe it or not. He was more than fun, though. Charlie was also a first rate legal scholar on criminal procedure, the Supreme Court and juvenile law. He'll be missed, and may he rest in peace. Charlie's bio - USC Law School Charlie's Homepage Remembering Charlie Whitebread Susan Estrich on Charlie The Volokh Conspiracy (including comments from my law school classmate Ed Hoffman)

First of all, I hope no one minds the new layout too much. I needed a change and I probably will again soon. I'm planning to retain someone to customize the blog for me and give it a "clean" look. Moving right along: The Tribune's caught up with the trend of reporting on the disparities between high-earning lawyers and their counterparts with this magazine story today , with stories of lawyers working second jobs at bars, people feeling they wasted three years on a degree and other tales, some of which I've seen before. Some stylebook errors aside (referring to firms such as Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz by their first names only on first reference is a faux pas imo, especially in a non-trade publication), it is a good story. My one substantive quibble is that I do not recall it mentioning the fact that successful trial lawyers make the most money of all. I know I am beating a very dead horse, but it bears repeatin...

There's an old saying about law school that goes something like this: the first year they scare you to death, the second year they work you to death, and the third year they bore you to death. With all due respect to my professors, I found the third year utterly useless. I had classmates that did not attend one class the entire 3L year, and they did just fine. We were all worried about getting jobs in an awful economy. Now the Law Blog tells us that Washington & Lee Law School is replacing its entire 3L curriculum with practical things such as time-tracking, client interaction...things you actually do as a lawyer! How refreshing. I've advocated for some years reforming legal education to including something similar to articling, as they do in Canada. The broad based training these people receive for their first year out of school is, in my view, a very good idea. I think it creates a more well-rounded attorney. Of course, I am speaking as a former litigator, so I ha...

Read this . Only a handful of law schools -- based on reported data , have an average starting salary for graduates above $100,000. Not a shock here: almost all are all so-called first tier schools. Three Illinois schools -- Chicago, NU and Kent -- were in the top-25. I have not looked personally into Kent's high placement, but people I know and trust think it is a very underrated school. Three Illinois law schools (NIU and DePaul, the last of which as a reputation for placing many grads in government work leading to judgeships) are in the bottom 25. Even though I went to one the first-tier schools, I'm not saying you will necessarily get the best education there. But if money or getting a job is on the line or of prime importance, then factor this in. And don't whine if your first year pay is less than a BigLaw secretary.

I received an email this weekend from a 1L asking for advice about law and real estate. I hope that person does not mind my sharing excerpts from that message with you. The work of the real estate lawyer can sometimes be tedious, but so is any area of law. This is not necessarily a glamorous business, and to the extent there is it belongs rightfully to the clients. Learning the legal side is good, but doing your own deals is paramount. You can always hire people to do the work. Remember, two of the top real estate moguls in Chicago are both trained lawyers who quickly got out of the business. They know the legal basics but have teams of lawyers to work out the details. You will not learn the business side of real estate in law school or necessarily in practicing law either. No matter how much education you have, the hardest thing to do is get out there and take a risk and do the deal. I know this from experience. Start young. Be it good or bad, one thing law does is teach you ...

I was listening to Hugh Hewitt's great radio show on my way home last night and had the opportunity to hear him comment on the recent goings-on at the University of California-Irvine. Apparently UCI received permission to open a law school. Hewitt's blog has all the details. I care for two reasons. (1) I used to live in Irvine; and (2) UCI hired my Con Law I professor, Erwin Chemerinsky, to be the dean. (For the record, Kathleen Sullivan, former dean of Stanford Law School, was my Con Law II prof.) But somehow politics apparently got in the way, and Erwin was sacked before even getting far off the ground. All in all, I probably agree more with Mr. Hewitt on politics and legal issues than I do Erwin. And I agree with him here: this is a travesty. Put politics and world views aside. Dean Erwin Chemerinsky would have given immediate credit to UCI's law school, making it easy to attract first-rate legal scholars and attain prompt ABA accreditation. He is an excellent s...

Here's an absolutely amazing post from Empirical Legal Studies regarding new graduate salaries. In terms of salary you basically have two modes of law schools grad: the haves and the have-nots. The haves keep moving father away from the have-nots, whose salaries are remaining somewhat static. And I'll bet a nickel that the low end of the scale is probably underreported. The only comfort I see in the survey is that almost 10% of respondents are judicial clerks who will almost certainly end up on the right side of the chart. In short, getting a law degree can be very risky financially, which is why I always recommend that prospective lawyers wanting the big bucks go to the most prestigious school possible. And while the thought of some big firm basically opting out of the wars and bottom-feeding for people at a slightly above average salary (>$62k....wow) while doing commodity work and promising humane hours is anathema to the big boys, but that model does seem to make sense ...

There. I said it again. People read about the $160,000 salaries that entry-level attorneys at the largest firms in the largest cities are earning and think, "This is the job for me!" Please, please, please don't go to law school if money is your only goal. There are better ways to make a lot of money. You should either have a passion for law or for something related to law or because you want to be in business or some field where you think a law background might help. And read this story first if you don't believe me . Remember, the coin you read about is only available to the top grads of the top law schools at the top firms in the top cities. There are probably more entry-level lawyers making $30,000-$50,000 than $160,000, and they are saddled with debt up to their ears. Disclosure: I've been on all sides of this argument, so I know about what I speak. I've been a small firm associate making close to market pay, a small firm associate making next to no...

Applications are dropping again , or so says the National Law Journal . This is three years in a row. The only bright news is that the falloff is only 4.6% instead of 7.4%. Now we need to see enrollments drop. The first-tier schools will always have enough good bodies to fill classes, but the lower-tier schools? Let me tell you that some of the best lawyers I have met went to so-called lower-tier schools, but these schools need to set realistic expectations for their students. They need to say, even though it hurts, that if they dream of working at Cravath, it is almost certainly not going to happen. They'll have big debt and a job paying as much as they might have with a BA (and sometimes even less). There's nothing wrong with that, but students at all levels should go to law school becauzse either (a) they want to parlay that experience (and the accompanying cost) into something meaningful or (b) they love the law. Stop thinking about the money, except to the extent that you ...