legal sanity
optimizing the lawyer-law firm relationship: tuning into the conversation's next wave
I’ve previously written about lawyers weighing fit over prestige when deciding where to work. I’ve also noted how law firms are taking steps to screen out would-be associates who don’t mesh with their culture and business model. The launch of multiple initiatives evinces that law students are also focused on finding fitness, or mutuality, in the lawyer-law firm relationship.
A couple of months ago, I posted about Ms. JD, an online community “serving women in law school and the legal profession.” More recently, a dialog has generated around a group of students from top tier law schools who have banded together as Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession. The group states that it’s concerned about the legal profession’s future and recognizes “that law students have become part of the problem by focusing on paychecks and bonuses, while avoiding the tough questions about the conditions of working lives and associate satisfaction.” Willing to sacrifice higher pay for a better work life, the group’s members seek law firm reforms to ensure that “practicing law does not mean giving up a commitment to family, community, and dedicated service to clients.”
That group and its objectives have met with some scrutiny and criticism, as evidenced by the comments thread following this WSJ.com story titled You Say You Want a Big-Law Revolution. Calling the group Pontificating Outside Observers (or POOs), Blogger Stephanie West Allen questions whether its members have the right or reason to challenge the state of the legal profession when they have yet to experience it first hand.
But law students aren’t the only “outsiders” or eyewitnesses questioning the profession’s status quo. According to a recent post at the Legal Writing Prof Blog, the Association of American Law Schools has added a new section called Balance in Legal Education to its roster. Championed by Professor Larry Krieger of Florida State University School of Law, the group is dedicated to “advocating for a more balanced approach to both legal education and law practice."
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Just read your last two posts. In order for there to be real change, it is not only law firms that need to reform. Firms, lawyers (including new grads) and clients must all change. In order to create real work-life balance/synergy (or whatever) lawyers have to get more creative and produce work of real value to clients. They need to work efficiently, which means getting rid of the billable hour as a disincentive. At the end of the day, firms will deliver better services to their client and a lower cost to the client while being more profitable to the firms without overstressing their lawyers. The problem with students today is that they expect the firms to change the profession for them. New grads/young associates have a key role in delivering new creative solutions to clients. That's where they should be focusing their efforts.