My New Career Path

It was a crazy and chaotic weekend as I closed down my law firm and move furniture and computers to the new firm offices.  I am hopefully that once the chaos of the move and the attendant computer/IT issues are fully sorted out that things will fall into a calmer and more business focused atmosphere.  It was difficult to tell my subtenants that they will need to negotiate with the landlord - who hopefully will not be an ass - for there continued use of the space after June 30, 2014, the date through which my law firm will pay rent and utilities.

Going forward, I am excited about being able to work more closer to home and not have to run the gauntlet of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel daily.  For those looking for me, my new work contact information is as follows:

Dillon Law Group, PLC
2809 South Lynnhaven Road, Suite 160
Virginia Beach, VA 23452
(757) 962-4796
mhamar@dillonlawgrp.com
www.dillonlawgrp.com
*Licensed in VA, TX & AL

Offices:
2809 South Lynnhaven Road, Suite 160
Virginia Beach, VA 23452
(757) 962-4796

11815 Fountain Way, Suite 300
Newport News, Virginia 23606
(757) 926-5255

As noted before, it has been very nice to experience the manner in which Liberty Title & Escrow is fully LGBT accepting - something which is a far cry from the local law firm that forced me out a decade ago for being gay.

With operations in 31 states, Liberty Title greatly expands my ability to serve clients, both here in Virginia and elsewhere.  I hope readers will feel free to contact me for advice and/or services not that I am with a firm with an extensive national reach.

Career Change: Excitement and Anxiety

As long time readers know, I launched my own law firm after having been forced from a large local law firm which did not want an openly gay law partner who might "offend the sensibilities" of the firm's conservative clients.  The upside has been that I report to no one but myself and my husband and I can be activists in the community.  The downside is that I do not have the financial resources of a larger firm nor do I have backup staff when I am out of town - I typically end up working some everyday even when on vacation - or tied up on a big project.  

Remarkably, all of this is about to change.  Completely out of the blue I have been recruited by Liberty Title & Escrow, a Rhode Island based title insurance agency and its affiliated law firm that is expanding into Virginia.  When the transaction is done later in June, 2014, I will be part of a multiple office law firm (in Virginia, the law firm will trade as Dillon Law Group, PLC) with offices on the "Southside" of Hampton Roads and on the Virginia Peninsula and in Northern Virginia.  In addition, I will be affiliated with a title insurance agency licensed in 31 states - something that will allow me to better serve clients with out of state operations. 

Equally exciting is a regular salary and a benefits package that allows me to secure coverage for my husband now that we are legally married.  After the treatment I received from the local law firm, it is a stunning change to be affiliated with a firm that not only accepts LGBT employees but provides spousal benefits as well.  Adding to the positive "win - win" situation is the fact that my daughter who has been my office manager/paralegal was hired as well.

More details will follow as the transition comes to completion.  I look forward to the opportunity to provide improved services to clients, realtor with who I work and mortgage lender.  This move will also greatly expand the area in which I can provide real estate services to clients. Don't live in Virginia?  Liberty Title & Escrow can likely help you in your state of residence. For the time being, I can still be contacted via e-mail (mike@hamarlaw.com) or telephone (757-622-2008) at my existing firm.  Once the change over is complete, the e-mail address will forward to my new e-mail address and the telephone number is being transfer to the new firm name.

Law Schools’ Applications Fall, Tuition Costs Soar and Jobs Are Scarce

Having been trapped by circumstances in the legal profession for decades I welcome reports that law school applications are plummeting.  The truth is that there are too many lawyers and from my experience, many of the younger ones are only too ready to cut ethical corners in their quest to make a buck.  Such pressure, of course, often tracks back directly to the insanely high debts they incurred going to law school in the first place while career prospects have greatly soured over the last 5 to 8 years.   Many other attorneys like myself who have come to realize what a lousy profession they are in dream of somehow escaping the world of law.  It's not a coincidence that attorneys have among the highest suicide rates of any profession.  The hours are horrible, clients increasingly expect 24/7 service and the pay outside of the mega firms and ambulance chasing personal injury firms isn't what it used to be.  The New York Times has another article in its continuing expose of  the reality of the legal profession that ought to be read by every individual considering law school.  Here are highlights:

Law school applications are headed for a 30-year low, reflecting increased concern over soaring tuition, crushing student debt and diminishing prospects of lucrative employment upon graduation. 

As of this month, there were 30,000 applicants to law schools for the fall, a 20 percent decrease from the same time last year and a 38 percent decline from 2010, according to the Law School Admission Council. Of some 200 law schools nationwide, only 4 have seen increases in applications this year. In 2004 there were 100,000 applicants to law schools; this year there are likely to be 54,000. 

Such startling numbers have plunged law school administrations into soul-searching debate about the future of legal education and the profession over all.

“Thirty years ago if you were looking to get on the escalator to upward mobility, you went to business or law school. Today, the law school escalator is broken.”  

After the normal dropout of some applicants, the number of those matriculating in the fall will be about 38,000, the lowest since 1977, when there were two dozen fewer law schools, according to Brian Z. Tamanaha of Washington University Law School, the author of “Failing Law Schools.”

The drop in applications is widely viewed as directly linked to perceptions of the declining job market. Many of the reasons that law jobs are disappearing are similar to those for disruptions in other knowledge-based professions, namely the growth of the Internet. Research is faster and easier, requiring fewer lawyers, and is being outsourced to less expensive locales, including West Virginia and overseas. 

Last spring, the American Bar Association released a study showing that within nine months of graduation in 2011, only 55 percent of those who finished law school found full-time jobs that required passage of the bar exam. 

“Students are doing the math,” said Michelle J. Anderson, dean of the City University of New York School of Law. “Most law schools are too expensive, the debt coming out is too high and the prospect of attaining a six-figure-income job is limited.”

“In the ’80s and ’90s, a liberal arts graduate who didn’t know what to do went to law school,” Professor Henderson of Indiana said. “Now you get $120,000 in debt and a default plan of last resort whose value is just too speculative. Students are voting with their feet. There are going to be massive layoffs in law schools this fall. We won’t have the bodies we need to meet the payroll.” 

I feel some sorrow for the new attorneys who are finding themselves in a career nightmare.  If they are smart, they will find a way out of law early enough to find other careers.   For those of us older attorneys, we are sadly trapped unless we win the lottery.

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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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“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.”
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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.
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“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.
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“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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.

Attorney Job Dissatisfaction

I regularly get contacted by attorney "head hunter" organizations with promises of a new/better job if I would only use their services. Their promises, of course, generally only have a chance of working if you have been out of law school 3-5 maximum. After that point, unless you have loyal national clients who would follow you, you are basically trapped geographically and only have finding an in-house counsel position as a means of escape. With so many unhappy attorneys, needless to say, competition for such positions is intense.

One thing that these sales pitches do comment honestly about on occasion is the huge number of attorneys that HATE being attorneys (I know that I do). Hence, I thought I'd print this portion of a message I received today which is accurate based on articles I have read for the benefit of all those think about a career as an attorney:

As a former practicing attorney, I know that finding the perfect legal environment can be a challenge. In fact, some polls estimate that over 70% of all attorneys wish they had never went to law school.

For all of you out there, my advice is read and heed this truth.