The Red Velvet Lawyer

Yesterday, I posted about the supply and demand for legal services some time in the future as more Baby Boomers retire.  Today, I want to explore the supply-demand gap existing today. Just recently, the ABA released data on employment rates for law school grads nine months after graduation for all ABA-approved law schools.  On average, for 2012 grads, 56.2 percent of grads found long-term, full-time positions that required bar passage.  These jobs include solo practitioners, law firm positions, business and industry positions, government jobs, public interest jobs, clerkships, and jobs in legal education. In 2011, fewer grads found that type of employment -- just 54.9 percent.  Grads who reported they still sought employment increased a bit from 9.2 percent in 2011 to 10.6 percent in 2012.  ABA 2012 Law Graduate Employment Data -- All Schools This measure of employment success is narrow, but admittedly reflects the aspirations of most students seeking a ...

Most of the news these days focuses on the alleged over-supply of lawyers.  I say "alleged" because the market considered by these journalists does not cover the needs of our rural populations or anyone who can not afford legal services at current prices. But, I'll leave that topic for another post. Today, I want to focus on the potentially odd likelihood that we will have a lawyer shortage in another five to ten years.  Here's why. The Washington state bar surveyed its lawyers asking about retirement plans.  The survey found that nearly one-quarter of the state's lawyers planned to retire in the next five years or about 1,440 per year.  Another 32 percent of its surveyed lawyers planned to leave the profession or cut back their practices.   See story here. The Washington bar report noted that a whopping 71 percent of the state's lawyers were aged 50 or older, with 21 percent being 61 or older. On the other hand, admission...

This summer, I will serve as the Faculty Supervisor for our students working as externs in Kentucky.  I have played this role for our Kentucky students three summers in a row.  One year, I also covered southwest Virginia nearly to the Cumberland Gap. I love exploring the towns and cities in the area we serve as a law school.  I love meeting the prosecutors, attorneys general, public defenders, judges, Legal Service, and other pubic service attorneys that host our students and serve as their site supervisors.  I love talking with these folks about our well-trained rising 2L students who must complete the externship as part of our educational program.  I also love interacting in my Dispute Resolution course with these more savvy, world-tested lawyers-in-training.  I know they bring a level of confidence and experience to the course that elevates our conversations. The Appalachian School of Law recently completed a couple of videos describing the externs...

You'll have to read Richard Susskind's Tomorrow's Lawyers (2013) or his more in-depth book, The End of Lawyers (2008).  Both books are very good and essential reading.   He argues that the shifts in the legal market are permanent, accelerated by the 2008 market collapse, and reflect several things.  First, corporations and in-house lawyers are demanding more-for-less from outside law firms.  This demand undercuts the ability of traditional law firms  to use new lawyers to do document review and due diligence reviews.  My earlier posting in this series talks about my experience as a young lawyer doing exactly these tasks.  In addition, law firms will no longer be able to expect clients to pay for a new lawyer's on-the-job training.  Hence, law firms are hiring associates with some practice experience, de-leveraging the number of associates per partner, and farming out the document review to tech based reviewers.  They are also f...

As a professional writer -- albeit of long-winded law review articles, exams, trade magazine articles, newsletters, FB updates, and now blog posts -- I pay attention when someone recommends a writing tool.  Today, while reading an article published in The New York Times , I learned about a software program called Scrivener . I want all lawyers, law review editors, and law students to know about this program.  Our profession tends to adopt new technology tools slowly, but we should run towards this one.  To order a copy, view tutorials, or try a free version for 30-days, see  http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php . The designer offers a 2.0 version for Macs and a 1.0 version for Windows. P.S.  I was not paid for this advertisement. ;-)

Richard Susskind, in his new book, Tomorrow's Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future (2013), describes the fundamental shift occurring in the legal field.  The 2008 economic downturn accelerated that shift. His theme is simple: To respond to client needs when they seek more value for the money; when technology can perform routine tasks more cheaply, quickly, and accurately than attorneys; when well-trained lawyers live in Asia and can work globally; when most people still have no access to affordable legal services, the legal profession will "dispense with much of our current cottage industry and re-invent the way legal services are delivered."  He calls the situation a "perfect storm" for reform.   He begins by discussing the business model based on hourly billing.  Typically, a firm uses a large number of associates per partner on an assigned project.  Those associates, in earlier times, worked months on document reviews ...

This week, ASL hosted a Solo Practice workshop for its students.  I spoke on marketing a law practice.  For a very long time, I have enjoyed marketing in the law or mediation context.  It gives me an opportunity to describe the joy I feel when I can serve a client competently, efficiently, and at an affordable cost.  It gives me the opportunity to describe the skills, training, experience, and values I can offer potential clients.  It gives me the chance to talk with the folks I'd like to help. It also gives me a platform for writing about substantive topics that interest me, while -- I hope -- showing I am thoughtful, ethical, and competent.  It also allows me to learn more about people, their concerns, their stressors, and their businesses.   Recently, I started an online business coaching program called, UpLevel Your Business , offered by Christine Kane.  Last summer, I took her personal coaching program and found it very helpful. ...