The Legal Industry's Growing Two Caste System

I have often told my children that I'd never pay even a penny towards their education costs if they were to go to law school. Why? Because in general law sucks as a career. To do well in larger firms one needs to sacrifice family and much of a private life because of the grueling hours. And then there's the constant back stabbing and fighting over how the firm pie is divided up. And on top of that, at least in many parts of the USA, being openly gay is a sure ticket to being shown the door - something I found out personally seven years ago. Now, the law firm plantation system is taking on a new modification. In addition to associates who will work like dogs to enrich the partners big firms are adding a "non-partner" track for attorneys. These lawyers will do largely the same work - and no doubt be billed out to clients at much the same rate as partner track associates - and add to the profits of the partners. The only positive (which will need to be borne out over time and proven to not just be a case of less pay for the same work) is that for less pay, these folks may actually be able to have a life and put in fewer hours. The New York Times looks at this growing form of legal serfdom. Here are highlights:
*
The nation’s biggest law firms are creating a second tier of workers, stripping pay and prestige from one of the most coveted jobs in the business world. Make no mistake: These are full-fledged lawyers, not paralegals, and they do the same work traditional legal associates do. But they earn less than half the pay of their counterparts — usually around $60,000 — and they know from the outset they will never make partner.
*
Besides making less, these associates work fewer hours and travel less than those on the grueling partner track, making these jobs more family-friendly. And this new system probably prevents jobs from going offshore.
*
But as has been the case in other industries, a two-tier system threatens to breed resentments among workers in both tiers, given disparities in pay and workload expectations. And as these programs expand to more and more firms, they will eliminate many of the lucrative partner-track positions for which law students suffer so much debt.
*
“For a long time the wind was at the back of these big law firms,” said William D. Henderson, a historian at Indiana University-Bloomington. “They could grow, expand and raise rates, and clients just went along with absorbing the high overhead and lack of innovation. But eventually clients started to resist, especially when the economy soured.”
*
So now firms are copying some manufacturers — which have similarly inflexible pay because of union contracts — by creating a separate class of lower-paid workers. At law firms, these positions are generally called “career associates” or “permanent associates.” They pay about $50,000 to $65,000, according to Michael D. Bell, a managing principal at Fronterion, which advises law firms on outsourcing. These nonglamorous jobs are going to nonglamorous cities.
*
“It’s our version of outsourcing,” said Ralph Baxter, Orrick’s chief executive. “Except we’re staying within the United States.” Similar centers have cropped up in other economically depressed locations. WilmerHale, a 12-office international firm, has “in-sourced” work to Dayton, Ohio.
*
“There’s a big, low-cost attorney market there,” said Scott Green, WilmerHale’s executive director. “That means we can offer our services more efficiently, at lower prices.” What’s good for clients, of course, isn’t quite as good for those low-cost lawyers.
*
Lower salaries make it even more difficult for newly minted lawyers to pay off their law school debt — like the $150,000 in loans that David Perry accumulated upon graduation from Northwestern University School of Law in 2009.
*
Heather Boylan Clark, 34, was a seventh-year associate at Jones Day before applying for a career associate position after the birth of her second child. She makes 40 percent less than before, but says she still does “challenging work,” and, more important, has greater control of her schedule. “I’m not killing myself to be hitting specific numbers of billable hours in any given year,” said Ms. Boylan Clark, a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. “Now I’m always home for bedtime.”
*
My advice? Avoid law as a career. There are many other options where one can be happier and have more of a life than in big firm sweatshops.