Will Part of Professional Class Be Wiped Out by the Downturn?

ABA Journal ^

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

“writers and editors who “can’t build roads,”

They don't do well with newspapers and magazines either!

[Claud]

But there are no jobs for the professionals such as writers and editors

Okay well I'm screwed LOL

(Although unlike some of my fellows in this biz, I've actually worked in a machine shop and ain't afraid to use my hands.)

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

"And as professionals, they have perfected how to do their narrow job well. But many have little direct business sense or experience.”

I suppose lawyers could go back to religion where they can live off the work of others by 'reading the sacred babble' to us unwashed in local, state, and federal codes.( why do you think they call'm 'codes'?)

They have plenty of experience in carpetbagging, grave robbing, extortion, bribery and blackmail... The mob is always hiring...

[stayathomemom]

My husband and I are assuming he is safe for the same reason. Up until the election he was really considering going 80% time. Now he’s talking about trying to do extra work instead.

[Leisler]

I don’t know if the Mafia would lower themselves to take lawyers.

Maybe crack whores could have someone feed their kid pop-tarts or something.

Boilsucking isn’t used in medicine anymore, so that’s out.

I think like the elderly eskimos, the best thing would be to build thousands of large rafts and push them out into the Gulf Stream.

[Loyal Buckeye]

99% of lawyers give the other 1% a bad name.

On the positive side, the white collar professionals who will find themselves out of work will represent a pool of talented people who have the ability to use their creativity to help themselves and the economy.

[PGR88]

“...No offense to any legal Freepers, but I hate lawyers as a general rule. The bar associations have hijacked our court system... good riddance...”

I can’t say if so many lawyers of all kinds are the cause, or effect — but the Law (and Government) itself has become so complicated, expensive and byzantine the average man needs this special class of “priests” to help negotiate it - which has turned the Law into a kind of dictatorship

[Kozak]

The column notes job losses at top law firms and says lawyers are hit hard.

Every cloud DOES have a silver lining.

[Kozak]

After you die at your local hospital, you might go to Heaven or you might go to Hell but, before you die, you will go through the Radiology Department first. .... And your estate will get a bill.

But the radiologist reading the studies may be in Australia or Bombay. Radiology is the first medical specialty to be outsourced. As an ER doc, tougher to do, although the 13th Amendment doesn't seem to apply to us so the "bill" part is tricky...

[Jmouse007]

Isn’t it great; 92% of these guys voted for Obamessiah and he is destroying them along with the rest of America. Liberals foolishly believe it will happen to every one else but them. Reality is setting in; unless you are a FOO (friend of Obama) your head is on the chopping block.

[Reeses]

Americans need to make stuff, dig stuff out of the ground, and grow stuff.

Robots are taking over those fields, and soon others, including many female jobs. We are at the same early stage in robotics that existed when Bill Gates started Microsoft. All the base technologies exist but it may take a major war against Asia to bring it all together. There will be money to be made in manufacturing robots but the big profits will be in robot software development. Anything related to robotics is an excellent direction to go in right now.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I have also been told by a lawyer who has been practicing for 35 years that practicing law has changed dramatically in the past 35 years and he would not recommend it as a career choice.

[ottbmare]

It might be as well to recall that some people who went to law school because they wanted to be good lawyers, honest, hardworking advocates instead of the LA Law sort or bloodsucking connivers. Class envy aside, there's nothing wrong with wanting to work in one of the professions and have a clean shirt at the end of the day. Bear in mind that if someone is graduating from law school this spring, he or she started three years ago, back when life was normal and it was reasonable to expect that hard work, high intelligence, and talent would earn appropriate rewards. Now things are different. Would you blame someone because economic conditions have changed?

[Unlikely Hero]

Only about the top 10% of the class gets hired by the big firms, which pay the big bucks (and also require ridiculous hours). Most freshly graduated lawyers don’t make even close to that.

I went to UH Law and know how hard it is to get a job, even one that doesn’t pay well at all. Many lawyers are making less than teachers. It took me a year after passing the bar to get a real job (where I wasn’t working as a clerk or as a sole practitioner during cases no one else wanted),and that wasn’t exactly a job to write home about.

Plus many of the bigger firms are laying off. Or at least freezing hiring.

Additionally, the salary isn’t as impressive once you consider the $120,000 in student loans that need to be paid back.

[Polybius]

But the radiologist reading the studies may be in Australia or Bombay. Radiology is the first medical specialty to be outsourced. As an ER doc, tougher to do, ...

That depends on the professional relationships you have established. In my smaller hospital, my docs trust my readings and get nervous even when American trained locums show up.

In any case, I have far more work than I need or want ..... especially from the ER that, as one of our surgeons once griped, too often "get a CT in lieu of doing an H & P."

[freedumb2003]

You’ll be fine

[freedumb2003]

The last fella I knew with that background got replaced by cheap folks from India. Before that he was a technology directory for one of the largest law firms in the nation.

You can't outsource the ability to manage cheap folks in India (and China). I have done both. "Seamlessly" taking functional requirements and translating them into both tech specs and project plans is very much in demand.

But continuing to code means I have unique insights into problems (and approaches) that general Management don't. In my firm I am very much in demand and I have a client list out the wazoo that would very much want me -- now more than even because I can fill multiple positions.

Like I said -- keep your tools sharp and be both deep and wide. That is how you survive. Be a value proposition and get and keep a good reputation (as a Miracle Worker if you can).

[freedumb2003]

“There is an entire generation of college graduates, heavily female and heavily urban, who have been making six-figure incomes and consuming useless crap while doing nothing of value.

I expect what is about to happen will affect them to a significant degree.”

They will scream “SEXISM” and make sure much more qualified White Straight Christian/Jewish Males are fired first.

[TexasRepublic]

“Writers” and “Artists” and “Journalists”... what, exactly, of value, in terms of wealth creation, do they provide ?

Compost

[Kozak]

..... especially from the ER that, as one of our surgeons once griped, too often "get a CT in lieu of doing an H & P."

Thats a hoot. 9 times out of 10 it will the surgeon who demands a CT rather then get his ass out of bed and actually lay hands on a patient. As to the other part, I do wish you well. We had a "special relationship" with our small 2 Hospital organization for 20 years when they bid out our contract to a large ER group to shave a few dollars off.