Monthly Archives: September 2013

ARE LAWYERS BECOMING HAPPIER?

Posted on by
2

A recent scholarly study and the 2013 Am Law Midlevel Associates Survey together pose an intriguing question: Is the legal profession becoming happier? If so, that would be a welcome development.

Perhaps the answer is yes and I should take partial credit, at least for improved associate morale in some big firms. After all, for years I’ve been writing and speaking about the extent to which the profession has evolved in ways that undermine attorney well being, especially in large firms. Since the publication of my book, The Lawyer Bubble, many managing partners have invited me to address their partnership meetings on that subject. But before getting too carried away, let’s take a closer look.

No Buyer’s Remorse!

In “Buyers’ Remorse? An Empirical Assessment of the Desirability of a Lawyer Career,” Professors Ronit Dinovitzer (University of Toronto), Bryant Garth (University of California, Irvine – School of Law), and Joyce S. Sterling (University of Denver Strum College of Law) analyzed data from the After the JD project. It tracks about 4,500 lawyers from the class of 2000 who responded to questions in 2003, 2007, and 2012.

Among other things, the authors conclude that “the evidence of mass buyer’s remorse [over getting a legal degree] is thin at best.” (p. 3) I’m not convinced.

First, a new lawyer entering the market in 2000 has enjoyed better times for the profession than graduates of the last several years. That doesn’t render data from the class of 2000 meaningless, but a study based on the experience of those attorneys shouldn’t become a headline-grabber that unduly influences anyone considering a legal career today.

Second, the authors rely only on responses that attorneys provided in 2007. The answers they gave in 2012 are “currently being cleaned and readied for analysis” (p. 5), so the authors didn’t use them. What was the rush to get to print with 2007 data? Why not wait and use the 2012 results to see whether accelerating law firm trends since 2007 affected responses from even the comparatively lucky class of 2000.

(For more on those trends, including partner de-equitizations, salary reductions for non-equity partners, and the environment that has accompanied the accelerating drive to increase short-term profits, read Edwin Reeser’s excellent two-part article in the ABA Journal.)

More on the Data

In the end, After the JD is a useful source of information. But it’s an overstatement to argue, as Dinovitzer et al. assert, “the data from the AJD project are the best (and almost only) data available on the issues currently being debated.” (p. 5)

In fact, there have been dozens of studies on attorney satisfaction, including an October 2007 ABA survey in which six out of ten attorneys who have been practicing 10 years or more said they would not recommend a legal career to a young person. And that was prior to the Great Recession.

Now before defensive academics pull out their knives, let me state clearly that I’m not suggesting that the ABA’s online survey of 800 lawyers is somehow superior to the obviously more comprehensive After the JD project. It’s not. But contrary to the authors’ assertion, AJD is far from “the only data available on the issues currently being debated.”

For example, Professor Jerome A. Organ (University of St Thomas School of Law) recently published a compilation of 28 attorney surveys taken between 1984 and 2007. Rates of satisfied attorneys ranged from a low of 59 percent (South Carolina – 2008) to a high of 93 percent (Minnesota – 1987). The latest national study on Organ’s list (ABA/NALP – 2007) reported a satisfaction rate of 76 percent. (He excluded the ABA’s reported 55 percent satisfaction rate in 2007 because it “was not a random sample of attorneys.” n. 144.)

The Am Law Survey

Meanwhile, Am Law’s annual Midlevel Associates Survey of third-, fourth-, and fifth-year associates reported record high levels of associate satisfaction. Are their lives improving?

Anecdotal evidence of another possibility comes from an observed shift in attitudes among students in my undergraduate and law classes over the past several years. Many members of the youngest generation of lawyers (and would-be lawyers) are so concerned about finding jobs that they are now equating satisfaction with getting and keeping one long enough to repay their staggering student loans. That might explain why the same Am Law survey found that only 10 percent of men and 6.5 percent of women saw themselves as equity partners at their current firms in five years.

Now What?

Even so, inquiries that I receive from law firm managing partners provide more anecdotal proof that some firms have decided to value associate morale. The question is whether firm leaders will have the courage to push positive change into the very heart of the prevailing big law firm business model.

On that front, the news is less encouraging. In March 2013, Forbes reported on a “Career Bliss” survey of 65,000 employees that ranked “law firm associate” first on the list of “Unhappiest Jobs in America.” Likewise, in a recent Altman Weil Flash Survey, 40 percent of managing partners reported that partner morale at their firms in 2013 was lower than at the beginning of 2008 (pre-recession).

The Bottom Line

In the end, Dinovitzer et al. seem encouraged that “the overall trend is that more than three-quarters of respondents, irrespective of debt, express extreme or moderate satisfaction with the decision to become a lawyer.”

That’s supposed to be good news. But there are more than 1.2 million attorneys in the U.S.. Even a 75 to 80 percent satisfaction rate leaves more than 200,000 lawyers with what sure looks like buyer’s remorse.

The profession can do better than a “C.”

LATEST SYMPTOMS OF AN AILING PROFESSION

Posted on by
Reply

Together, three recent stories capture much of what ails the legal profession: 1) law schools continue to produce way too many lawyers for the number of anticipated jobs requiring a JD degree; 2) future attorneys incur staggering debt for a three-year degree that can and should be obtainable in two; and 3) many senior partners in big law firms at the pinnacle of the profession have lost an appreciation for their good fortune and a sense of perspective that comes with it.

The End of Lawyers?

The first story reports a continuing drop in the number of law school applicants — more than 30 percent since 2010! Could this be the beginning of what one law professor has predicted will be an actual shortage of lawyers by 2016?

No.

Using 2010 as a baseline against which to measure the comparative decline in applications is misleading. The Great Recession produced a surge of 2009-2010 applicants seeking a three-year reprieve from an impossible job market. At that time, law school still looked like a safe bet, largely because deans could tout 93 percent employment rates without disclosing which of their graduates held jobs that were short-term, part-time, school-funded, or didn’t require a legal degree.

Another fact is more salient: Overall acceptance rates have increased dramatically. In 2003, about half of the 98,000 applicants were admitted. In 2012, law schools took 75 percent of the 68,000 applicants. Bottom line: prior to the Great Recession, first-year enrollment totaled about 49,000; in 2012, it was 44,500. That drop is certainly affecting some law schools. But the overall decline is not as dramatic as the hyperbolic headlines. If first-year enrollment ever falls below 30,000 and stays there for a few years, that will be newsworthy.

What Are Students Getting For Their Money?

Meanwhile, President Obama weighed in on the subject of eliminating the third year of law school. It’s been a great idea for a long time. Of course, the third year will survive the President’s criticism because it accounts for one-third of law school tuition revenues. Such a central component of the law school business model won’t die easily.

Some members of the legal academy defend the third year of formal legal education as necessary for increasingly complex times. That argument may prove too much. After the first year teaches prospective attorneys to think like lawyers and the second year covers basic substantive legal areas, the most relevant legal training occurs outside the classroom under the tutelage of practicing lawyers. Many attorneys develop specialties, but that doesn’t result from taking one or two advanced courses during the third year of law school.

Deans can pass blame for the enduring third year onto the ABA. It has long been a victim of regulatory capture by the institutions it’s supposed to be supervising for the well being of all attorneys and the profession. The vast majority of states require graduation from an ABA-accredited law school and the ABA’s rules insist on course work that requires three academic years to complete. That’s why the few schools that offer accelerated two-year JDs are simply cramming three years of credits into two calendar years.

Moreover, the accelerated programs rarely reduce the cost of law school. Most of the schools offering accelerated programs charge the same total tuition as their traditional three-year programs.

Meanwhile, At Big Firms…

A final story is developing over financial reports concerning the overall performance of big law firms in 2013: Revenues are flat; demand is down. Partner profits might not rise this year!

Where you stand depends on where you sit, I suppose. But what does it say about the most lucrative segment of the profession when law firm management consultants can induce panic at the prospect that average equity partner profits might remain steady or — perish the thought — drop to still-astounding six- or seven-figure levels that seemed remarkably good less than a decade ago?

I think it suggests that too many partners have forgotten why they went to law school in the first place. Very few became attorneys because they thought it would make them rich. But they’ve grown accustomed to that pleasant surprise.

Maybe the next generation will do better.

ONCE MORE ON THE MILLION DOLLAR JD DEGREE

Posted on by
Reply

In late July, my article “The Dangerous, Million-Dollar Distraction” appeared here before its republication at Am Law Daily and Business Insider. In it, I discussed a study purporting to calculate the lifetime premium of a law degree compared to BA holders. The authors of the study, Professors Michael Simkovic and Frank McIntyre, weren’t pleased and Am Law Daily has now published their rejoinder. Were it not for their now pervasive claims relating to my alleged confusion, errors, and mistakes, I’d let it pass because the study has already received more attention than it deserves.

The real point

There were no errors in my analysis. My view – expressed in the article – is that the decision to attend law school should not turn on the hope of future financial rewards. In that respect, Simkovic and McIntyre take a strong position that looks like career advice based on predictions about the future: “[M]any college graduates who follow the critics’ advice and skip law school will forego a lucrative career and face higher long-term risks of financial hardship.” (p. 12)

The law is a great profession that I love, but it’s not for everyone. Through the years and for many undergraduates, law school has been a default position for liberal arts majors who can’t decide what to do next. For far too many, life after law school becomes a process whereby great expectations clash with harsh reality in a way that creates career dissatisfaction and worse.

As a consequence, for me, the most important problem with the Simkovic/McIntyre study is that it uses aggregate data in inviting students individually to choose a legal career in the pursuit of financial security or a safe return on their educational investment. That is the wrong reason for anyone to become a lawyer.

Multiple markets

No one talks much about the two markets for law schools. The Simkovic/McIntyre study ignores the differences among schools and, in a response to Professor Deborah Merritt’s critique, Simkovic asserted on Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports blog that he “doesn’t think the evidence for a bimodal distribution of lifetime earnings is very compelling.” One wonders what profession he’s looking at.

For some – especially but not exclusively graduates from top law schools who land (and keep) jobs in big firms – practicing law can be lucrative. But those outcomes are on the far end of a severely skewed distribution of attorney incomes. As NALP data confirm, that skewing begins from the moment of graduation. Big law firm first-year associates earn an average of more than $130,000 yearly and average partner profits for the Am Law 100 exceed $1 million.

But big law attorneys account for only about 10 percent of all practitioners. Far more people – mostly but not exclusively graduates from law schools outside the top group – wind up at the much lower end of the distribution. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median income for all lawyers in the United States in 2010 was $112,760.

Red herrings or real issues?

Professor Simkovic — initially via Professor Leiter’s blog — called my observations about income distribution a “red herring.” But the real red herring is using the average of a skewed distribution to tout a “Million Dollar Degree” – first in his study’s original title and then persisting in the final sentence of the article’s synopsis. Of course, it attracts more attention than even his dramatically lower median (midpoint) value. (In his Leiter blog post, Simkovic endorsed $330,000 as the lifetime (40-year career) net JD-degree premium for the median (midpoint) of his sample.)

At some point below the 25th percentile, even Simkovic’s study proves that the so-called JD-degree premium turns negative. That includes a lot of lawyers, although the study doesn’t disclose the number.

Contrived controversies

My other observations to which Simkovic took exception — initially in his Leiter blog post and now in his Am Law Daily response — relate to points that his own study acknowledges: the presence of a statistical correlation doesn’t prove causation (p. 25) or predict the future (p. 38); the conclusions of any regression analysis depend on its assumptions (pp. 39-41); none of the attorneys in his 1,382-person sample graduated after 2008 (p. 13 and n. 31; companion slide 13).

(One of the more perplexing criticisms in Simkovic’s Leiter blog post was that I was wrong about half of all JD-degree holders finding themselves below the median for all JD-degree holders. My statement simply embodied the definition of a median – half above and half below that midpoint. His related comment about median incomes relative to bachelor’s degree holders is irrelevant to anything I wrote.)

Others will decide the fate of the Simkovic/McIntyre study as an enduring scholarly work. My views will not move Professor Simkovic or anyone else to a different position on the underlying issue of whether law schools today should rethink their business models in light of the profession’s ongoing transformation.

Reality therapy

But the academic debate has little bearing on my mission. Rather, as I wrote, my concern is for young people who “rely on an incomplete understanding of the study’s limitations to reinforce their own confirmation bias in favor of pursuing a legal career primarily for financial reasons.”

Several years ago, I added an undergraduate course to my workload in the hope of providing students with information that might help them in deciding whether to pursue a legal career. The vast majority of those students go on to law school, but with an increased awareness of the road ahead. They understand that even in tough economic times, many JD-degree holders will do well, while others won’t.

The reality of those less fortunate creates challenges for the entire profession because: 1) most prelaw students have a difficult time imagining that they’ll ever find themselves in the lower 25th percentile of anything; and 2) even among the so-called “winners” who wind up a lot higher in the overall income distribution, attorney career dissatisfaction remains widespread.

In short, prelaw students should tread carefully along the path toward law school. The law can lead to a great career, but it’s not for everyone.

Even if the high-end market for new attorneys were booming – which it isn’t – pursuing a JD for financial reasons is a mistake. As a wise person said long ago, ”Not everything that can be counted counts; not everything that counts can be counted.”