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No Longer Their Golden Ticket (law school)
New York Times ^ | January 15, 2010 | Alex Williams

Posted on 01/19/2010 5:25:52 AM PST by reaganaut1

...

“The Deep End” was conceived in 2007, that halcyon era of $160,000 starting salaries and full employment even for law grads who had scored in the 150s on their LSAT’s.

Those days are over. As the profession lurches through its worst slump in decades, with jobs and bonuses cut and internal pressures to perform rising, associates do not just feel as if they are diving into the deep end, but rather, drowning.

Lawyers who entered the field as recently as a few years ago could reasonably expect a life of comfort, security and social esteem. Many are now faced with a different landscape. Firms shed more than 4,600 lawyers last year, according to a blog that tracks the legal industry, Law Shucks. Bonuses for those who survive are shriveling, and an increasing number of firms now compensate associates based on grades for performance — shades of law school — rather than automatically advancing them on the salary scale.

For those just starting out, it’s easy to think that the rules have changed six minutes into the first period.

“I thought, ‘Great, I can afford to buy a house at 23,’ ” said Jacqueline Muna Musiitwa, recalling her first year as an associate in 2006 at Pillsbury in San Francisco. “If I start this way at 23, goodness knows what it will be like when I’m 40.”

She accepted the notoriously grueling workload for the prospect of Caribbean vacations, a convertible and a big loft apartment. But young lawyers now entering the field can feel no such assurance, said Ms. Musiitwa, 27, who left Pillsbury after a year to start a boutique firm.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: lawschool; lawyers
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To: 1010RD

The problem that I have is that lawyers (particularly the elite Ivy grads) have way too much power. I have nothing against the very nice, professional gentleman who handled my mortgage refi. To the contrary, he was professional and I am quite convinced he was neither corrupt nor rich.

What also offends me is that they think I need them to “interpret” the Constitution. It ain’t long and it ain’t hard.

I am not an inferior citizen because I don’t have a law degree. Believe me, I could have gotten one, and if we do need philosopher-kings to rule over us, I think mathematics produces a better sieve.


41 posted on 01/23/2010 5:40:32 PM PST by AmishDude
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To: BluH2o

My mistake...he sure doesn’t come off like a lawyer. He omits their BS words and line of argumentation. The way 0bama speaks you can tell he’s a lawyer. Always using the word “clearly”

..... Talk about a tell and a give away on that fraud


42 posted on 01/23/2010 10:25:52 PM PST by dennisw (It all comes 'round again --Fairport)
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To: AmishDude

Since they themselves (in Miranda) declared their salaries a constitutional right
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What do you mean by this? Lawyers are good on the verbal side of the SAT. Accountants, physicists, mathematicians excel on the math side of the SAT

I would love to see this country run by the mathematically adept. Get rid of every lawyer in Congress as an experiment and replace with bean counters and engineers etc. I think we would have better government and is it too much to expect a balanced budget?

When I think of a politician who is a lawyer I think of a verbally adept conman. Words are his currency. His stock in trade. He’s an actor who didn’t make it to Hollywood
0bama talks so much because he believes in the power of his words to overwhelm and persuade. Why not do your talking via what you do? Your actions? That’s not 0bama’s style, it’s just endless speechifying mostly via his teleprompter. Speaking the words that head speechwriter Jon Favreau has prepared


43 posted on 01/23/2010 11:40:33 PM PST by dennisw (It all comes 'round again --Fairport)
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To: AmishDude

I don’t know your trade, but the problem is that lawyers look at the law like a butcher looks at a cow - just so much product. That’s true across industries/trades.

Doctor’s struggle to keep a human face attached to their product as well.


44 posted on 01/26/2010 3:12:51 PM PST by 1010RD (First Do No Harm)
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