Law Firm Layoffs "the best thing to happen to the legal industry in years"
You might not feel that way if you have just been laid off from your firm but when a publication with the credentials of the Wall Street Journal makes the point, it’s worth at least having a look. The issues facing law firms and their response to them in this economic crisis have been similar in the US and the UK, and the junior end of the profession has taken the brunt of the beating in both jurisdictions. In …
You might not feel that way if you have just been laid off from your firm but when a publication with the credentials of the Wall Street Journal makes the point, it’s worth at least having a look. The issues facing law firms and their response to them in this economic crisis have been similar in the US and the UK, and the junior end of the profession has taken the brunt of the beating in both jurisdictions. In an article entitled "Another View: In Praise of Law Firm Layoffs " Dan Slater, a former litigator, argues that this might not be such a bad thing…
As of June 14, nearly 5,000 lawyers had been cut by major law firms since January 2008, or about 300 a month, the approximate size of many law school graduating classes. The legal media, in its rush to side with the fallen, has often cast the layoff wave as the result of endemic firm mismanagement finally coming home to roost. Perhaps. But make no mistake: These layoffs, which in many cases have been paired with salary freezes or cuts and significant reductions in law school recruiting, are the best thing to happen to the legal industry in years. Call it a blessing amid recession.
A strange blessing for those who have dreamt of a legal career since seeing Tom Cruise in the Firm and have racked up large debts in the process. So what’s his justification for this seemingly rather callous claim? Well there’s a fleeting criticism of the billable hour but here’e the crux:
And what about all those 20- and 30-something associates who can no longer formulate excuses — But I’m paying off my law school debt while I figure out what I want to do! — to remain in the kinds of jobs that so many of my law firm friends describe as “soul-crushing”? For many lawyers at law firms, particularly those who spent the early part of their careers toiling in structured finance departments and contributing, in the end, nothing to nothing, this recession may be the thing that delivers them from more 3,000-hour years of such drudgery as changing the dates on securitization documents and shuffling them from one side of the desk to the other.
Like a relationship gone bad, clearly hopeless to everyone but the imprisoned, it often takes a forced exit to break the leash of inertia that collars so many smart law graduates to mind-numbing work. So don’t pity these people. What they needed all along was liberation. Now they have it.
I think it was Soren Kierkegaard that suggested freedom causes anxiety; being liberated into a rapidly contracting job market whilst saddled with debt might cause more than anxiety right now. So is it what they really needed?
July 3, 2009
Easy for him to say as he obviously still has a job.
July 3, 2009
former litigator, no wonder he thinks being fired is liberating
July 3, 2009
The tone does seem a bit callous but I know a number of ex-colleagues who do feel liberated after going on to pastures new after losing their law jobs
July 3, 2009
A number of my friends have lost their jobs and have found the experience quite exhilarating. That sudden freedom of having no home, no money, no food, no clothes and huge debts. One of my friends, well he lives on a park bench now, and frankly, he tells me, he’s never had it so good. Being able to open that first can of special brew at 9.00am is something pretty special I understand. Apparently there are quite a number of soup kitchens where the food available is really not as bad as you would expect and it is amazing the clothes you can pick up from other peoples rubbish bins.
Yes life under the open sky, away from the tedium and stress of a job in the law and the restraints of all the creature comforts we have come to rely upon is truly a release. I wholeheartedly agree with this well thought out and well reasoned article.
All the best.
July 3, 2009
lol 4. I agree, it might be liberating if you have no debts, no responsibilities, nothing to tie you down and you hated every minute being a lawyer but for most that’s probably not the case. going in to a tedious job (most are tedious at some point I imagine) is better than the tedium of no job/no prospect of a job and no income – especially if you are in debt!
July 3, 2009
Point taken but there are a lot of dissatisfied lawyers around who don’t have the balls to jump ship and do something else. I would be happy if the parole board set me free with a juicy payout, only problem being I don’t yet have any idea what to do instead.
July 3, 2009
I actually agree that having the profession filled with people who manifestly aren’t terribly interested in anything but the money and relative security it affords is a very bad thing. Hopefully the present situation will show future generations that law isn’t something to go into because you want to earn lots of money without too much risk.
If firms were purging themselves of this driftwood, it would be a good thing for the profession and, for some at least, the individuals concerned. The trouble is that the people losing their jobs aren’t necessarily the people who shouldn’t have had them in the first place.
I don’t understand why people are surprised about the job cuts. The same thing happens in every financial downturn. Anyone who thought that it was reasonable to get into lots of debt on the basis that they’dl never lose their job must have a total disregard for recent history.
July 3, 2009
7 – well put, nuff said
July 3, 2009
But are the firms getting rid of the driftwood? I can think of more than a handful of truly useless partners at one of the global firms in the corporate department who have not been shown the door (despite the saving their cut/salary would have brought) and instead very obvious pools for redundancy being created where the associate who was shown the door was female in late 20s/early 30s suspiciously without children yet…all very able and often more capable than at least one or two of the men in their pool.
July 3, 2009
I am glad someone found my speacial brew story amusing. But it has a serious point.
Interesting comments. I for one am in the legal profession almost exclusively for the money, there are occasional moments, let us say flashes, of job satisfaction but these are few and far between. But what other reason exactly is there to work No.7? To work with children and animals? Do something worthwhile? No thanks, not if you quite reasonably expect a certain quality of life for yourself and your family. To expect everyone to do a job they love is utter nonsense. Money talks. Dirty cash I want you. Dirty cash I need you oh-oh.
And because you are in something solely for the money, does not mean you are bad at your job. That is an over simplification. One point I do agree entirely with no.7 is that why are people surprised? We work in a cut throat profession where inevitably partners protect their own profit margins. of course they do. I would. You would as well, and if you say otherwise you area liar. It doesn’t make it any less sickening to see your best friends losing their jobs, or make you fear for your own job any less. But it is hardl suprising.
If anyone fancies a couple of special brews down at the park, let me know.
All the best.
July 3, 2009
Interesting point but the legal profession is probably absorbing more than its fair share of bright young things. I am a lawyer myself so do not wish to beat up on the profession too much but there is definitely talent that is wasted on law firms that could be better utilised within society in more imaginitive ways. The best lawyers are passionate about it in some way; many of the lawyers I have come across are decent because they are smart enough to be but not brilliant because they have no real passion for it.
Some of those people would undoubtably make very decent entrepreneurs (that’s not the only option I would advocate but since making money is something of a focus) if only they had not been so channelled into believing that the professions were the only way to make a coin. Yes there is risk and you have to be able to take that step but much of the the fear preventing them from doing so is prescribed by external influences rather than being inherent in those individuals.
So these restructuring processes may be blunt tools (and may be used cynically) but there will also be people who are set free who and will come to the relisation that they can seize the opportunity play to their strengths whatever they may be.
July 10, 2009
Total number of practising Solicitors in England and Wales in 1945 : approx. 16,000. Population 45 million.
Total number of same in 2009 : approx. 80,000. Population 58 million. Disproportionate increase ?
Number offering legal aid services to the poor and vulnerable in a time of recession ? No exact figures but small and undoubtedly decreasing due to legal aid cuts. A source of shame and storing up social disintegration for the future (if you have kids, ergo care about that sort of thing).