Making Lawyer Careers Alluring Again
Published for Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute on June 23, 2015
When I was a boy, I dreamed of being a lawyer. I wanted to be Perry Mason—cross examining witnesses until they admitted they were guilty and my innocent clients were exonerated. My dream came true; I might not have been Perry Mason, but I had a long and rewarding career as a lawyer advising and defending clients.
Not many young people dream of being a lawyer today. Law school applications have plummeted. At a time when we need lawyers more than ever, fewer and fewer people want to be one. The consequences for society are quite serious if we don’t turn this around.
We all need to take this issue seriously.
Why Don’t People Aspire to Be Lawyers?
So, why aren’t young people drawn to law as much as they once were? This is a big question, implicating issues ranging from changes in the career outlook of the millennial generation, to the proliferation of career alternatives for those who once would have considered law, to the changed realities of 21st century lawyer careers. We in law only can manage the last of these issues.
What is it about today’s lawyer careers that is no longer appealing? Another big question. The answer is different in each context in which one might consider being a lawyer. But there are some overarching themes.
First, the economics of law practice represent the most significant factor. For good reason, people worry that they will not be able to make enough money as a lawyer to cover both their costs of living and their accrued law school debt, let alone saving for their futures. The cost of law school has become enormous. The income of lawyers in most settings is modest, at best. The math simply doesn’t work.
Second, the careers in large law firms that once attracted students to law school have lost much of their allure. While they still offer very high salaries, there are fewer of them and they are perceived as less attractive. Associate jobs are broadly regarded as involving excessive hours, working on tedious assignments, with little real involvement in actual client objectives. And the promise of a secure and lucrative partnership at the end of the associate years now seems illusory; making partner looks unlikely and, if one does make partner, the position is not secure and the compensation looks like it will become less lucrative.
Third, the growth areas for lawyer careers are not apparent yet. We are in a transitional time in the way legal service is delivered. New firms and companies are being formed which offer different and interesting career opportunities, many with entrepreneurial characteristics that would appeal to millennials; but they are not yet part of the known landscape. Even the burgeoning corporate law departments, which also offer appealing careers, are inadequately visible to potential law students.
Restoring the Allure of Being a Lawyer
We need, collectively, to address this challenge. There will be no silver bullet. Nor will we solve it with minor adjustments around the edges. Making lawyer careers appealing ultimately is part of a thorough re-examination of the model of how we deliver legal service. It will require the attention of every segment of the legal ecosystem.
Here are some areas on which we should focus:
Regulatory Reform
Our current regulatory scheme is a big part of what makes legal education and law practice so expensive. There are three sets of issues that warrant examination:
Law School Accreditation—The system contributes to the very high cost of legal education and includes requirements and standards that are neither necessary, nor well-suited to preparing lawyers for 21stcentury law practice.
The “Practice of Law”—The regulators should re-examine what constitutes the “practice of law” and liberalize who can participate in legal service. Expanding the scope of authorized legal professionals will drive costs down.
Outside Investment—The regulators should permit outside investment in law firms, following the lead of the Legal Service Act in the UK. That model recognizes that outside investment enables law firms serving small clients to be economically viable.
Legal Education Reform
Beyond accreditation standards, law schools can reduce the cost and improve the effectiveness of legal education. This no longer is a controversial proposition. The challenge is getting our academic institutions to overcome their cultural and governance impediments and take action. Leading candidates for change include:
incorporating more law practice skills into the curriculum;
increasing the role of practicing lawyers in the faculty;
creating different curricula and degree programs for different careers; and
making law a two-year program.
Increasing Public Funding
Among the settings in which it is most challenging to make an adequate living as a lawyer today are two that have particular social importance: government service and law practice serving moderate- and low-income citizens. If we want more lawyers to choose careers in these areas, we should provide more public funding to make it feasible for them to do so.
Large Law Firm Associate Model Reform
Large law firms need to rethink their career paths for associates. This is important not only for their own welfare, but because they set the standard for law practice more broadly and impact the perception of lawyer careers.
There are three areas that warrant examination:
Making the Role More Meaningful—Firms should aggressively re-engineer the role of the partnership track associate to focus entirely on the elements of law practice that require the education and intellect they bring to the firm, and re-assign all other tasks to other legal professionals, technology-based solutions, and third parties.
Evaluating on Value Delivered—Firms should evaluate associates solely on the quality and quantity of their professional service, and not on their billable hours.
Enabling and Expecting Professionalism—Firms should see to it that all associates are permitted and expected to devote material time to the internal and external activities that make the law a profession.
Law remains a vital and noble career. We need to face up to these and other questions to attract the new lawyers our profession needs.
When I was a boy, I dreamed of being a lawyer. I wanted to be Perry Mason—cross examining witnesses until they admitted they were guilty and my innocent clients were exonerated. My dream came true; I might not have been Perry Mason, but I had a long and rewarding career as a lawyer advising and defending clients.
Not many young people dream of being a lawyer today. Law school applications have plummeted. At a time when we need lawyers more than ever, fewer and fewer people want to be one. The consequences for society are quite serious if we don’t turn this around.
We all need to take this issue seriously.
Why Don’t People Aspire to Be Lawyers?
So, why aren’t young people drawn to law as much as they once were? This is a big question, implicating issues ranging from changes in the career outlook of the millennial generation, to the proliferation of career alternatives for those who once would have considered law, to the changed realities of 21st century lawyer careers. We in law only can manage the last of these issues.
What is it about today’s lawyer careers that is no longer appealing? Another big question. The answer is different in each context in which one might consider being a lawyer. But there are some overarching themes.
First, the economics of law practice represent the most significant factor. For good reason, people worry that they will not be able to make enough money as a lawyer to cover both their costs of living and their accrued law school debt, let alone saving for their futures. The cost of law school has become enormous. The income of lawyers in most settings is modest, at best. The math simply doesn’t work.
Second, the careers in large law firms that once attracted students to law school have lost much of their allure. While they still offer very high salaries, there are fewer of them and they are perceived as less attractive. Associate jobs are broadly regarded as involving excessive hours, working on tedious assignments, with little real involvement in actual client objectives. And the promise of a secure and lucrative partnership at the end of the associate years now seems illusory; making partner looks unlikely and, if one does make partner, the position is not secure and the compensation looks like it will become less lucrative.
Third, the growth areas for lawyer careers are not apparent yet. We are in a transitional time in the way legal service is delivered. New firms and companies are being formed which offer different and interesting career opportunities, many with entrepreneurial characteristics that would appeal to millennials; but they are not yet part of the known landscape. Even the burgeoning corporate law departments, which also offer appealing careers, are inadequately visible to potential law students.
Restoring the Allure of Being a Lawyer
We need, collectively, to address this challenge. There will be no silver bullet. Nor will we solve it with minor adjustments around the edges. Making lawyer careers appealing ultimately is part of a thorough re-examination of the model of how we deliver legal service. It will require the attention of every segment of the legal ecosystem.
Here are some areas on which we should focus:
Regulatory Reform
Our current regulatory scheme is a big part of what makes legal education and law practice so expensive. There are three sets of issues that warrant examination:
Law School Accreditation—The system contributes to the very high cost of legal education and includes requirements and standards that are neither necessary, nor well-suited to preparing lawyers for 21stcentury law practice.
The “Practice of Law”—The regulators should re-examine what constitutes the “practice of law” and liberalize who can participate in legal service. Expanding the scope of authorized legal professionals will drive costs down.
Outside Investment—The regulators should permit outside investment in law firms, following the lead of the Legal Service Act in the UK. That model recognizes that outside investment enables law firms serving small clients to be economically viable.
Legal Education Reform
Beyond accreditation standards, law schools can reduce the cost and improve the effectiveness of legal education. This no longer is a controversial proposition. The challenge is getting our academic institutions to overcome their cultural and governance impediments and take action. Leading candidates for change include:
incorporating more law practice skills into the curriculum;
increasing the role of practicing lawyers in the faculty;
creating different curricula and degree programs for different careers; and
making law a two-year program.
Increasing Public Funding
Among the settings in which it is most challenging to make an adequate living as a lawyer today are two that have particular social importance: government service and law practice serving moderate- and low-income citizens. If we want more lawyers to choose careers in these areas, we should provide more public funding to make it feasible for them to do so.
Large Law Firm Associate Model Reform
Large law firms need to rethink their career paths for associates. This is important not only for their own welfare, but because they set the standard for law practice more broadly and impact the perception of lawyer careers.
There are three areas that warrant examination:
Making the Role More Meaningful—Firms should aggressively re-engineer the role of the partnership track associate to focus entirely on the elements of law practice that require the education and intellect they bring to the firm, and re-assign all other tasks to other legal professionals, technology-based solutions, and third parties.
Evaluating on Value Delivered—Firms should evaluate associates solely on the quality and quantity of their professional service, and not on their billable hours.
Enabling and Expecting Professionalism—Firms should see to it that all associates are permitted and expected to devote material time to the internal and external activities that make the law a profession.
Law remains a vital and noble career. We need to face up to these and other questions to attract the new lawyers our profession needs.