Reply to Lawyers...what do you think of the Weil Gotshal cuts?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The entire business model on which BigLaw is operating and is premised now is flawed, outmoded, and is in the process of collapsing IMO.

In fact a press release on the Weil Gotshal firings referred to "industry" practice and conditions.  Very telling that it did not refer to practices and conditions in the "profession", which is what law was when I began my career in 1980.

It's barely/ not really a profession anymore, and the standards of civility and professionalism have taken a dump as the ironclad focus on the bottom line has taken over.

Not a pretty sight.  Not something to be proud of.  A lot more of this to come IMO.[/quote]

DH, a mid-'80s law school grad, left a BigLaw partnership to go to a smaller firm with lower billing rates.  He is so much happier and his practice is booming.  We had banked a lot of money over the years he was in BigLaw (house paid for, kids' college and grad school saving done, a sizeable retirement fund); as a result, the paycut been surprisingly easy.

We are both grads of a top 3 law school, and I find it remarkable how many of our friends from law school are discouraging their children from becoming lawyers.  I'm talking about people who have had amazing careers in the law -- Supreme Court clerkships, DOJ honors, BigLaw p-ships, GCs at prominent NGOs, high-level political appointments, etc.  -- all are saying to their kids, "don't go to law school."

Our younger son, a college student, would be a terrific lawyer and would love the work, but DH is advising him to pursue other options.  He's a STEM major and his friends at school say, "Man, you would be a fool not to make bank in Big Data, i-banking or consulting."   Yes, in the past 30 years too many people have gone to law school, but the prospective loss of talented young people who would contribute much to our society as lawyers worries me.              [/quote]

PP here who you quoted.

This makes good sense to me.

I just had lunch last week with a friend I've known for 40 yrs.  He is a name DC lawyer you might recognize (from clients he's represented, media quotes & appearances, etc.), though from a small firm that he's deliberately kept small over the years.

We talked about the Weil Gotshal move in the context of his own restructuring in which he realigned his associates (4-6?) as independent contractors because his fixed costs (their salaries) were eating up all the profits on the fees he brought in (they brought in little or no business).  All were invited & welcome to stay on paid only for work done rather than a decent salary (20% higher than my top level GS-15 salary when I retired this yr.) even though they were not busy 100% of the time.

IOW ... I'd also advise my kids to look elsewhere unless they had a specific niche they were looking at and it was underserved.  The BigLaw model is a complete mess now and will be for some time, even getting worse IMO (and my friend's).

The future of lawyering is bleak, IMO.  So much (too much) of the professionalism under which I was raised/trained, and practiced for years, is gone, and I fear it's not coming back.

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