A recent segment on NPR, All Things Considered, highlights some frank and forward-looking opinions about the future of the legal profession. The pundits were not market analysts, political leaders or managing partners of global law firms. They were all graduating students from Georgetown University Law Center.
A mentor once told me that adversity builds character. It also makes us wiser than our years. Listening to the piece about the five law students and their plans after graduation, you hear the optimism of youth tempered by the sobering realities of the recession. It has forever changed their futures. And these young lawyers – as they wisely observe themselves – are among the lucky ones.
When asked about their future in the profession, each of them openly accepted that, with the existing hiring practices in the legal job market, their ship has sailed. The opportunity for an offer from a law firm with a six-figure salary will be for another generation of law students. The resigned acceptance of this fact was haunting.
Strikingly, all agreed with the prediction that, in their opinion, the future can only be found through innovation, transformation and change of the profession itself. This has become a recurrent theme in many legal circles. The emergence of blogs and social media over the course of the past decade have afforded a platform to many experts and critics of the legal profession to opine about the demise of the practice of law as we know it. While some have an ax to grind with a former employer or a bad experience with legal representation, the (often irreverent) critiques of the profession strike close to the heart of what is wrong with the practice of law today.
While reasonable minds may disagree on the core causes creating the problems affecting the legal profession, there can be no doubt that this recession has cast light on how business decisions affect the quality of legal representation, the cost of services and the livelihood of lawyers. The legal press has reported about hiring practices, billing practices, multidisciplinary practice, offshore outsourcing, and most recently onshore outsourcing – just to name a few business decisions that are fundamentally changing the practice of law. These changes necessarily impact the opportunities for lawyers and their career satisfaction.
It is incumbent upon us to ensure that our legal house is in order. We must be forward-looking and engage in an honest 360 assessment of the current state of the practice of law and consider how our decisions will not only impact our clients, but the future of the profession. And in the end, we must be the change we want to see in the world (Ghandi).
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