Most new law grads and most practicioners dont make a lot of money. This date is for the large law firms.
Its fun hating lawyers, but guess what happens when you need one/
Just turn over the closest rock.
I’ve been an attorney for over 25 years and can speak of what I’ve seen in the legal profession.
First, years ago the law schools and the big firms who run the legal system in the various states decided to “pyramid” the profession. The partners at the big firms realized that they could make a lot more money by having more lawyers in the firms. They would bill at a high hourly rate, and pay only a fraction to the attorney doing the work. The young associate, just out of law school, would have a high salary number dangled before them. But that number was typically a number that reflected an “employment package” and not necessarily take home pay. In addition, the young associate was essentially put into a sweat shop, where he or she was expected to bill a substantial number of hours, and was expected to work late into the night, as well as Saturdays and Sundays. And was it the exciting work you see on TV? Oh hell no. The associate was never allowed to go to Court or actually meet the client, they were confined to the cubicle to sift through piles of paperwork and write memos. The pay didn’t increase much, and after five years if there was no “partnership” to buy into, the now burned out associate was shown the door and replaced with new cannon fodder produced by the law schools.
Of course, this works as long as the law schools crank out a never ending supply of new lawyers. The law schools were perfectly willing to go along; they massively increased admissions, which increased the size and budgets of the schools.
The law boards, which are run by the big firms, were all to happy to confer licenses on the fresh young cannon fodder.
The result was that the top of the pyramid, those senior partners at big firms, became very wealthy. And so did the senior partners at medium firms that became large. I don’t know what the burned out lawyers did; some of them went to smaller firms where they could find success, some chased ambulances, some just went off to do something else.
Having graduated somewhat in the middle of my class, I didn’t fall into the big firm trap. They weren’t interested in me, and looking back now I thank God that he didn’t “bless” me with too much brains. Instead, I found work at a small county prosecutor’s office, didn’t make much money and had to work pretty long hours but found a career I loved by being in the Courtroom constantly and dealing with people, not with piles of paper in a little cubicle. Plus, I had a boss who didn’t care when we worked, just so long as we got the work done. I established a name and reputation, and now have a good private practice.
It’s been an OK career. And who says crime doesn’t pay? It’s putting my boys through college.
You hire one but you still despise them because the majority are money grubbing thieves that’s what.
When I was a kid in a very barely middle class neighborhood, lawyers lived all around us. Then they started moving out into bigger houses.
If you knew the amount of complete bull lawyers talk on the phone and charge the idiot corporations for, it would blow your minds. “Well, David said la de dah and then Bill says hoo ha.” I said to my H people pay you for these dumb conversations? Just repeating comments about a “deal”? It’s a sham a ridiculous sham and then, word processors have made lengthy documents out of everything and lawyers have to spend hours trying to figure out what that string of words means.
People hole lawyers in way too much awe. I have had people come in and want me to spin some kind of web for them and I tell them “no, I deal in the flat truth.” But I am a rarity. I also still charge way less than most and accomplish more than most.
People have gotten used to paying fat fees and believe me, it is not warranted.
The main reason you need a lawyer is - - - - -
Prosecutors frequently over-charge to the point of persecution to elicit a plea-bargain that counts as a "Win" in their statistics.
Too many firms/lawyers are out drumming up cases for specious claims that the corporations and their insurance brokers settle before any trial to save costs.
Too many have bought into the idea that suing the "deep pocket" defendant costs us nothing.
We might 'need' one - but we don't have to like it!
I had paid an out-of-state lawyer to go to bat for me on behalf of my grandchildren, 5k. 1500 miles from where we live.
He took his fixed fee and kissed up to the judge. My mistake was to hire an attorney who regularly practiced in that county. The judge gave credibility to an granduncle of the children and we had a recording where that uncle had said on a phone call that he didn’t give a damn about court procedure and our attorney wouldn’t use that. We lost. The grandkids had to endure two more years of hell in that state until a miracle came along that closed the case.
The lawyer was a thief. In the end his actions did nothing to get my son his custody back.
Yeah, except that the need for one is usually due to some PC bull**** in the first place.