Popular Legal Myths

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Remember how you felt when you discovered that something you really wanted to believe was just a myth? Well, it's that time again. Many popular perceptions about the law are nothing more than myths. They may have been true once upon a time - long ago, in simpler days. But now they are just a modern form of fairy tale.

Reality Bites

We're going to take a look at some of the most popular myths about life after law school. Add a couple of your own, and we'll have the top ten wrong reasons to go to law school.

Legal Myth No. 1: Law is safe.

We've all thought or heard this. The professions are safe. Become a doctor or a lawyer and you've got it made.

At first blush, it makes sense. People will always need lawyers. Every year, at every level of government, lawmakers are making laws. Someone has to help the public interpret them. Comply with them. Evade them. So every law increases the need for lawyers. And some laws really increase the need for lawyers. It seems that nearly every year some major piece of legislation is described (by lawyers themselves) as a full-employment-for-lawyers act. Until legislators stop judging their success by the number of acts enacted, there will be plenty of laws for lawyers to deal with.

What's more, we're the litigation society, right? Everybody is suing everybody else over everything. Remember the guy who used his lawn mower as a hedge clipper? When he got hurt lifting the mower (blade spinning) over the bushes to cut them, he sued the company that made the mower. Won a big jury verdict too. You don't think that just anybody could dream up a theory to justify paying that man money, do you? No. It took a lawyer to do that. And don't forget that it also took a lawyer to defend the company that lost the case because it failed to warn people not to use the lawn mower to cut bushes. As theories for emptying deep pockets have multiplied, so too has the need for lawyers to litigate both sides of an expanding number of controversies.

Why, then, is it a myth to say that law is safe? Simply because there are too many lawyers chasing too few jobs. Law schools try not to talk too much about it, but not all of their graduates can find jobs. Sure, if you can get into a top-ten law school, you're not likely to have a problem. But at other schools many students are struggling with a tight job market. One law school Dean of Admissions described the current situation as a "moral dilemma" for law schools. "To keep our numbers of applicants up, we paint a rosy picture of the advantages of coming to law school. What we're not telling those prospective students is that if you're not in the top thirty percent of the class, you're going to have a hard time finding a law-related job."

It's no fun to be a third-year law student or a recent law grad without a job offer in hand. One lawyer recalls how hard it was to break into the profession. "After law school, I had to work for a judge as a legal bailiff on the criminal calendar and part-time at a Mexican restaurant to pay the bills. Through the bailiff position, I got to know a lot of public defenders and prosecutors. After a couple months as a bailiff, I applied and got a job at the County Attorney's office making $21,000 a year."

Once you find a legal job, you are still not safe. The corporate management trend is employee layoffs. Don't think that corporate legal departments are immune. Law departments do not contribute directly to a corporation's bottom line, so it is easy to question their value when times are tough. A legal "product" is much harder to see and to value. So lawyers are among those joining the unemployment lines. One major accounting firm recently fired more than half the sixty-five attorneys in its corporate legal department along with two hundred support staff.

Law firms are not havens from these pressures. Legal magazines and newspapers routinely report on associate layoffs at large firms. Associates get fired at medium and small firms too; it just doesn't make the news. One lawyer at a twenty-lawyer firm told what happened to the entering class of three lawyers. "The firm hired the three of us in the fall and fired the other two lawyers by Christmas. They really only wanted one lawyer, but hired three and tried us out for three months. That way they could keep whoever was best." Most of the lawyers who join firms nationwide never become partners. This is especially true at large firms in big cities. Few private firms know what to do with lawyers who don't make partner. So it's up or out.

Even making partner is no longer a guarantee of lifetime tenure. More and more firms are "firing" partners who fail to maintain an active practice. Bring in the business or make room for someone who will.

Legal Myth No. 2: I'll get rich.

As one lawyer put it, "You have a greater chance of being an NFL football player than you do of being a wealthy law partner." You can definitely make a decent living as a lawyer, but you are very unlikely to amass a fortune.

There are good reasons why lawyers-especially newer lawyers-do less well than popularly thought. First, legal education is frightfully expensive. After three years of that kind of punishment, you could be starting out with a student loan balance in the high five figures. Those loans may require you to accept the "golden handcuffs" of a well-paying, but less than satisfying, position. But even if you land one of the better-paying jobs, you may not be able to get rid of the old Honda just yet.

Second, in your early years as a lawyer you are subsidizing those who graduated before you. Whether you end up in private practice, in a corporation, or as a GS 9 in the government, you'll be at the bottom of a pyramid. Some form of seniority system will restrain your upward mobility. You're likely to face years of lockstep salary adjustments before you break into partnership or become a vice president. And even then the money may be good but not great, unless you make it to the very top of a big corporation's legal department or become a partner at a big-city law firm.

Third, most lawyers do not reap the money of big-firm lawyers-or even the money of other jobs that don't have the same popular perception of being well-paying.

Today's very top lawyers are indeed paid quite well. But the very top lawyers have been out of law school for a long time-and they got out of law school when there were far fewer lawyers crowding the market. And the lawyers certainly don't get the summer off.

Legal Myth No. 3: I'll be my own boss.

One aspect of the American Dream is to control your own destiny. Law may seem like one of the last ways for those not independently wealthy to capture that dream. But as a lawyer, you are very unlikely to find the freedom to be your own boss. You won't control your own destiny if you join the legal department of a corporation. Or if you join a big law firm-at least not until you become top dog there. Or if you become a government lawyer. There are constant constraints in the form of cost-conscious clients, billable-hours targets, difficult partners, internal and external politics, and the simple press of time. These constraints restrict the freedom you will have to do the kind of work you want, when you want, and with whom you want.

You may find independence at work through handling "your own" matters. But by definition, each of your clients is your boss even if no one you work with is. Like it or not, law is a service business. You have to provide service to your client when your client wants it, not when you want to provide it.

Legal Myth No. 4: I'll try cases.

The popular perception of lawyers is the bright, tireless, always successful trial lawyer. Exposing lies on cross-examination. Righting wrongs. Living in the courtroom. Not surprisingly, many students thinking about becoming lawyers picture themselves trying case after case. Becoming the heroes they read about in books or watched on TV. Winning millions for grieving widows or convicting vicious criminals.

You might, you just might, get to live out this dream. But the odds are against it. Let's assume that you were hired by someone or you started your own practice with the idea that you would handle litigation. You cleared the first major hurdle.

"So, when do I get to try my first case?"

"Slow down. You're just out of law school. You need training. Depositions. Arguments to the court about motions. Besides, Tom over there has been waiting three years for his first trial, so he's in line ahead of you. And all the cases you're working on right now will probably settle before trial."

The realities of trial practice will likely keep you from trying many cases, especially early in your career. Many clients cannot tolerate the expense and risk of taking a case all the way to trial. Why would a rational client pay the high costs of preparing a case for trial if there was any significant risk of losing? It usually makes good sense to compromise. Settle for an amount of money that is not ideal, but that is risk-free.

Settlements also avoid the wait for a day in court. American courts are so backlogged that it is simply impossible for them to try even 10 percent of the cases now pending. Even if you prepare a case that's among the 5 percent of civil cases that will make it to trial, there's probably a more senior lawyer still waiting for the chance to get some trial experience who will grab it. Or, having spent all that money to prepare for trial, the client may demand that a seasoned trial lawyer present the case.

Some plaintiff's lawyers, insurance defense lawyers, and prosecutors still try a lot of cases. You can increase your chances of fulfilling a dream of trying cases by working in one of these positions. Otherwise, like most "trial lawyers,' you may end up as a "litigator," handling the paperwork and preparations for trial but rarely examining witnesses in open court.

Legal Myth No. 5: Law is glamorous.

Well, describing law as glamorous sounds downright silly to most lawyers, slogging away in the legal trenches. Sorry to burst your bubble, but answering interrogatories and reading documents by the truckload is not glamorous. Preparing public utility rate increase requests is not glamorous. Plea bargaining a drunken driving charge is not glamorous. Searching land records is not glamorous.

Lawyers work hard. Very hard. Often their work is tedious. Even when something that lawyers work on makes news-a huge corporate merger, a front-page lawsuit - it is usually the clients, not the lawyers, who are the focus of attention. Most lawyers working on those big deals or big lawsuits labor anonymously behind the scenes.

What's more, the stresses that practicing law puts on many lawyers have far from glamorous results. "Law has a tremendous impact on the balance in your life. I have real reservations whether a person can have a high-powered career in law and a happy marriage and happy kids- especially if his or her spouse also has a high-powered career. It can be done, but it's almost impossible to have a fulfilling family life with two high-powered careers," says Becky Henderson, a lawyer who has tried full-time and part-time practice in small and medium-size law firms in two states. "I don't think it's possible to be a good lawyer and leave work at five every day, to be a good lawyer and not work weekends, to be a good lawyer and not walk around with a high stress level about all the things you ought to be doing."

The competing demands of professional and family life eventually caused Becky to stop practicing. "There may be room somewhere in the profession for the outstanding woman lawyer with an outstanding family life, but I haven't found it. I do know many highly successful women lawyers who have no children or are not married-or are not happily married. Some women practice full-time and delegate all their child care, but that's not what I wanted to do," she continued. "Many women who have been outstanding lawyers and do a solid job at home get out of the practice by retiring altogether or by becoming magistrates or going into the government.

"The awful thing about this observation is that you can't explain it to someone else until they've done it themselves. I tried to explain my feelings to a woman on law review, who was filled with ambition. I could tell she thought that I simply wasn't as high-powered as she was, that she could make it work even though I hadn't. But sometime later I got a letter from her in which she said that everything I told her had been true."

The pressures that Becky describes for women lawyers are also felt by many men-as I can personally attest. In a profession where your productivity is measured by hours billed, the more productive you are at the office, the less time you can devote to being a good husband or father. The compromises that result from this kind of pressure can leave lawyers-men and women alike-feeling as if they are not successful in any aspect of their lives. Not a very glamorous feeling.

Legal Myth No. 6: Law is a profession, not a business.

Law has historically attracted people who wanted a more genteel, less cutthroat career. The idea that lawyers treated each other courteously and presumed each other to be honorable was once deeply ingrained. When our parents were deciding on their careers, law really was a profession rather than a business. Lawyers were content merely with earning a comfortable living, clients forged long-term relationships with law firms, and partners in law firms had tenure for life.

Times have changed. Some lawyers over fifty still cringe when they hear law described as a business, but that's the reality. Today there are legal PR firms, marketing consultants, advertising firms, business planners, and others out selling advice to law firms desperate to survive in a competitive marketplace. Law and business now share the same emphasis on the bottom line. Today, when the profitability of their organization falls, lawyers in both corporations and law firms are downsized, right-sized, and simply laid off.

Hiring a lawyer or a law firm has become an economic decision. Private law firms no longer simply dictate the hourly rates that they will charge their clients. Instead, corporations are demanding that law firms share the risk of poor results through alternative billing arrangements. Clients perform audits of law firm activities and billings. Payment of legal bills is delayed, or compromised. Lawyers are being sued for malpractice in record numbers. And many more lawyers are being disbarred, suspended, or reprimanded by grievance committees each year than was the case only a few years ago.

Legal Myth No. 7: I'll save the world.

One of the noblest reasons to go to law school is to gain a license to do good for others. Lawyers do have great opportunity to help others and to perform good works. The environmental movement has depended heavily on lawyers. Advocates for the homeless, the handicapped, and those with AIDS are often lawyers. Desegregation of the public schools was brought about almost entirely by a small group of lawyers. Less well known is the fact that thousands of lawyers in corporations and law firms volunteer their time to assist the needy with their legal problems, such as landlord-tenant disputes, divorce and child custody issues, and employment matters.

The difficulty, once again, is a matter of numbers. Those saving the world, or a little piece of it, usually do so through nonprofit organizations. There are more lawyers interested in working for them than there are positions to fill. So the competition for those few positions is intense.

Sure, you can join a private law firm and still volunteer your time to help out a deserving organization, but the pressure on lawyers who spend too much time on pro bono work can be intense. Remember, law is a business. Few firms will permit you to sacrifice very many billable hours for non-billable pursuits. The American Bar Association urges law firms to pledge that their lawyers will spend at least fifty hours a year on pro bono work. That number often becomes a ceiling rather than a floor. You will be able to save only a very small piece of the world in fifty or a hundred hours a year of volunteer time.