(July/August — 2011)
As we publish our annual career issue, the authors and ACC Docket staff offer a variety of excellent articles for you. But I often wonder about the next generation of in-house counsel. How will they get here and will they be prepared?
The career path of a lawyer is not the easiest of starts. First, there’s college, LSATs, law school, stressful bar exam prep and finally, the exam. Once law students are finished with everything, they can be $150,000 or more in debt with limited marketable skills. This leads to an inability to deliver value. The price of admission to the legal industry is more expensive than the first condo that my husband and I owned.
Law firms justify paying unproven junior associates starting salaries of $150,000 plus by pointing out that they have huge student loans to pay back. Corporate counsel then ask law firms to rethink their value proposition in terms of pricing because they want the firms, rightly so, to provide value. To top it off, complaints run rampant in the profession that law school students are not prepared for the business of being a lawyer, especially once they move in-house.
With all the smart people in the legal industry, why hasn’t this ugly cycle changed?
What I find appalling is that there does not seem to be much revolt going on in the legal industry. I had a brief Twitter exchange with a lawyer when I posted that I saw an iPad app for $999 to study for the bar exam. I said that after all the money spent to attend law school, students were still gouged even before they could practice law. His response: “Heck no. It’s part of getting into the club.” What?
Similar to medical residents who must work ridiculous, extremely long shifts, this hazing mentality is really not going to change the profession. Just because you had to do it to get your law license does not mean that those who follow in your footsteps should do the same. Yes, they should be held to the same rigorous bar exam and ethical code of conduct. But that doesn’t mean they should have to spend the first 10 years of their career paying for the privilege of being a lawyer. There is a huge difference between paying your professional dues and paying for your career choice for years.
Who do you think will replace you? What if your child wants to become a lawyer? What are you doing to help change your profession?
You are a driving force. You are all law school alumni. You are all members of ACC, the world’s largest community of in-house counsel with more than 28,000 members. Many of you are members of the ABA with nearly 400,000 members. You represent small and large, national and international, public and private companies. Where future in-house counsel come from and how well they are prepared impacts you and your business.
I often tell my next-in-line: If I leave this job tomorrow and you can’t do my job, then I have failed as a boss. Why aren’t legal professionals making sure that the next generation of lawyers is truly prepared for the real world of work? How can you change this cycle?