Prospective law students cite many reasons for wanting to be lawyers: to bring about social change, to assist others in need, for intellectual stimulation, for financial rewards, and for professional prestige. Can practicing law satisfy those desires? And at what price?
Law school provides three years of intellectual stimulation, of analyzing legal doctrines and learning to think critically. The adage goes, "If you like law school, you'll hate practice."
Practice certainly does not have to be devoid of intellectual pursuit. Some practices exist to solve the tough problems. Even the most routine practices include an occasional novel question that requires some extra research and thought to resolve.
Every practice, however, no matter how stimulating, has its fair share of repetitious, unexciting "scud" work. Reviewing tens of thousands of pages of corporate documents in cramped quarters in a city that's not in any travel agent's brochures is enough to dampen any young attorney's enthusiasm. After you've written a few discovery motions or completed some commercial transaction forms, you can do either when you're practically asleep.
Sleep is a commodity you may find in short supply as a practicing attorney. No matter what practice opportunity you choose, the hours are likely to be long and unpredictable. In almost any position, you can expect to work some nights and weekends. In some practices you can expect to work many of them. You may find yourself out of town for weeks on end reviewing documents, taking depositions, trying a case, or working on a corporate acquisition. Canceled dates, unused tickets, and rescheduled vacations are a way of life.
Attorneys not in private practice obviously do not have to bill clients for their time. Many groups, however, still require a similar record keeping system to monitor the amount of time each project receives.
Billable hours form the basis for the financial rewards that lure some students to the law. For the most talented and hardworking in America's major metropolitan areas, those rewards can be enormous.
Salaries among practice opportunities vary widely. Corporations and trade associations come closest to the salaries paid by large firms, but the gap is still large. Government salaries are next, with the federal government generally paying more than state or local governments. Salaries paid by public interest and legal services groups are usually lower than those paid to attorneys working in other organizations.
Legal positions outside private practice offer lower salaries but advertise other advantages-more responsibility earlier in your career, an opportunity to advocate socially useful actions or "do the right thing," and sometimes regular, reasonable hours. Associates practicing in a law firm for three years may be drafting motions and documents and may even argue motions in small state court cases or negotiate small deals. Their counterparts in government or public interest are likely to have primary responsibility for twenty or more cases. Briefs may be reviewed by two or three attorneys before they are filed, and supervising attorneys remain available for strategy discussions and questions.
"Doing the right thing" to effect social change is like a journey of a thousand miles-it's accomplished one step at a time! Your "steps" as a young attorney will probably be individual cases in which you prosecute one criminal or fight one landlord. Sometimes you'll nail an entire drug ring or a major source of pollution or the owner of a large low-rent apartment building. You may even be the head of an agency, an attorney general, or a Supreme Court justice one day. At any level, you still have the satisfaction of working for your own political or social ideals.
You will probably find, however, that you accomplish any social change despite all odds. Your corporate opponents represented by large firms will generally have a myriad of resources unavailable to you, including more attorneys, paralegals, sophisticated computer equipment, and more able secretarial and support staff. You'll find yourself typing some of your own letters and memos and sometimes even your own briefs.
Every practice opportunity offers some kind of psychic satisfaction whether or not it effects social change. Large corporations have some unique problems that receive national attention, and they are willing to spend much money to have the problems solved. If you work in a large law firm, you enjoy the ability (and sometimes suffer the mandate!) to thoroughly explore every aspect of the company's legal woes and read about it in the morning paper. Corporations are also made of "human stuff," and some of those managers from the conglomerates that large law firms represent will become friends. That human element is even more apparent in practices that represent individuals and small businesses.
You may also enjoy developing your own clients and winning their trust and loyalty. Many of them will seek your advice on a myriad of legal issues and sometimes on business decisions. You may have the opportunity to assist a fledgling new business as it grows, help reinstate an employee, or save a corporate officer from facing criminal charges. A client's warm thanks for a job well done can sustain you through some of the tedium.
For those of you who are attracted to the profession's prestige, there is good news and bad news. Everyone will tell you that your studying law is an ambitious, laudable undertaking. That scandal and the profession's transition to a business have contributed to lawyers ranking among groups Americans most distrust. Lawyers' legal (and sometimes illicit) antics make national headlines and the evening news.
Practicing lawyers, especially litigators, need not rely on the media; however, to experience the profession's less-than-sterling element. Within the first five practice years, most lawyers will encounter an ally or an opponent whose work is shoddy or whose conduct is unethical. Such behavior is not limited to any particular firm size or substantive practice area.
And now, the good news. Only a few bad apples spoil the barrel of the profession. As one meets and works with other young lawyers nationwide, we are constantly amazed by their competence, enthusiasm, and dedication. They frequently volunteer much time and energy to public service activities after having already committed many hours to client matters.
Clients are the mainstay of the legal business; they are your customers and more. They come in many different forms-from federal and state agencies to the public at large, from multinational corporations to the corner store, from well-established families to resident aliens. They provide some of the most rewarding and the most frustrating moments the profession offers. They mirror the general population. Some of them will be the most charming, reasonable folks you could ever hope to meet; others will be so distasteful that you and your colleagues will draw straws to determine who has to return their calls. Some of them will follow your advice; some of them will refuse it and blame you for the resulting problems. Some of them will ask you to make judgments based on factors only they can adequately weigh. When a case result is unfair, you will find yourself trying to explain and defend the entire legal system.
Clients are also the source of one of the profession's most often heard criticisms-that lawyers are just "hired guns." We advocate any position, within certain ethical bounds, that a client requests as long as we are paid. We represent the innocent and the guilty, the virtuous and the vile, without a thought for doing justice. The response to that criticism is simple-justice is best served when all views are clearly and intelligently articulated-but you will have to use that response often.
Underlying the profession's hired gun aspect is another factor to consider before entering the profession: its reactive nature. With few exceptions, lawyers react and respond; they do not seek and create. They react to clients' requests to execute a building's purchase, to be compensated for injuries, to keep them out of jail, to defend them against another's erroneous actions. Lawyers do not choose what wrongs to right; they just represent individual clients' interests.
This can be a deeply rewarding profession that can assist you in fulfilling some of your goals. Just remember-the law is a jealous mistress. Do not underestimate what price the profession will demand.
