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Legal Blogger David Lat Sees Reason for Panic

Posted Apr 8, 2009 7:39 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Legal blogger David Lat, founding editor of Above the Law, says there may be good reason for lawyers to panic, but they will ultimately survive.

Speaking to law students at the University of California at Berkeley, Lat admitted news of layoffs and other job woes at Above the Law can be anxiety-inducing, according to the Legal Pad blog. But there’s a good reason, he said. “If people are panicked, it’s because there are reasons to panic.”

Lat managed to be “both depressing and extremely jovial at the same time,” according to Legal Pad’s account of his talk. Lat said BigLaw salaries will be decreasing, lockstep promotions are on the way out, and the golden age of the legal profession is likely ending.

Yet the legal profession and lawyers will survive, at least in some form, Lat said. “At the end of the day, lawyers, we are like cockroaches. You can’t kill us.”

Comments

1.

B. McLeod
Apr 8, 2009 9:15 AM CST

Indeed, plenty of cause to be concerned, but panic in and of itself is useless.  Besides (and especially if you are getting on in years), it is undignified.  It is better to focus on a plan, cover some contingencies, and, for those already jobless, work out a way to retrench to an economic situation you can support.  Do this, and you may be able to stay in law practice through the recession.  Do it not, and you may not survive the recession at all.

I think Lat is correct in saying that the legal profession and lawyers will still exist when the recession is over, but not every current lawyer will still be included.  (Much the same as the stock markets, which will recover as institutions, but without many of their current investors).

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2.

Charles W. Skinner
Apr 10, 2009 6:36 AM CST

Everybody is panicking right now, but very few people are looking at the long term trends.  In Michigan (where I am now) not enough attorneys are remaining in the state to even maintain our current population of lawyers. 

The bigger issue is that there has been a demographic shift in the age of attorneys in MI, so that as of summer 2008, half of the 37000 practicing attorneys were over age 50, and 15% were over age of 60.  In other words, in the next 10 years if the trend continues, MI will see its number of lawyers decrease by roughly 25% or more just by demographics.  Lawyers will suddenly become MUCH harder to get as our ratio drops from roughly 4 lawyers per 1000 people to roughly 3.4 lawyers per 1000 people.

Stay focused, learn your profession, serve your clients and build relationships, and you will do well, while everybody else is flopping around like a fish out of water.

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3.

Joshua Jones
Apr 10, 2009 6:55 AM CST

There was a “golden age” for lawyers?  What’s next, our Gilded Age?

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4.

Anonymous
Apr 10, 2009 7:01 AM CST

I think attorneys should panic at the very idea that they’re comparable to cockroaches.

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5.

Nicole
Apr 10, 2009 7:54 AM CST

Anonymous 4 - that was what stood out for me.  “I am not a cockroach!”

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6.

Tom
Apr 10, 2009 8:21 AM CST

Recommended reading - Susskind’s “The End of Lawyers”.  Author gave excellent keynote talk at ABA Techshow.  Highly recommended listening to it if you are interested in future of law and lawyers.

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7.

Norm Pressman
Apr 10, 2009 8:24 AM CST

Iif I am a cochroach I am a pretty good one because I’ve survived for 34 eyars and “Raid” has gotten me yet.

I love it when people make generic statements about lawyers-we all suck and are cockroaches until they need a cochroach then we are their buddies and we should work for free for them because its a ‘matter of (their) principle.”

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8.

Norm
Apr 10, 2009 8:25 AM CST

Raid has NOT gotten me yet!

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9.

Old Texas Lawyer
Apr 10, 2009 10:04 AM CST

And, the news value of this story is what?

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10.

bac59447
Apr 10, 2009 10:25 AM CST

Great.  Look for that line about cockroaches to be quoted on every anti-lawyer website, late night television show and “news of the weird” feature on cable television.

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11.

john
Apr 10, 2009 11:02 AM CST

...and we should listen to him why???

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12.

bubbachops
Apr 10, 2009 11:56 AM CST

This isn’t a news article.  It’s a sketchy gossip piece.  I’ve seen vandalism in bathroom stalls with more details.

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13.

Bill
Apr 10, 2009 12:32 PM CST

I think some people are getting a bit carried away with the cockroach comment. His point was that lawyers can’t be killed, not that they’re monstrous vermin.

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14.

YeeeeeeehAW!
Apr 10, 2009 12:55 PM CST

I just keep imagining this guy saying “cockroach” in a Tony Montana voice from Scarface.

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15.

YeeeeeeeeehAW!
Apr 10, 2009 12:57 PM CST

“I bury those cock-a-roaches”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szGbSNf-Nfc

Al Pacino is the man.

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16.

aka Gregor Samsa
Apr 10, 2009 1:31 PM CST

One morning, when I woke from my troubled dreams, I found myself transformed into an attorney.

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17.

B. McLeod
Apr 10, 2009 5:12 PM CST

Once, I drank too much (imagine) and woke the next day with a bad Kafka.

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18.

Billy Mays
Apr 11, 2009 12:20 PM CST

The problem is that attorneys are a dime a dozen, and pay will increasingly reflect that reality.

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19.

John Ferguson
Apr 11, 2009 7:47 PM CST

David Lat is a very crude commentator on the law and the legal profession.  He has no sense of what he is pretending to understand much less what he claims to illuminate.  David Lat should find another way to express his foolish views.

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20.

tom frisby
Apr 12, 2009 7:23 AM CST

The legal profession, like the automotive industry, needs to reinvent itself.  It has slowly slipped away from being a highly distinguished community of professionals truly committed to societal needs to be a giant billing machine.  It serves or can serve a wonderful purpose.

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21.

Anon
Apr 12, 2009 10:30 AM CST

These comments are hilarious, especially the Kafka one.

It is always best to have a back-up plan of your prior back-up plan.

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22.

Metamorph
Apr 12, 2009 12:07 PM CST

If I recall, Kafka was also an attorney…

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23.

Jennifer
Apr 13, 2009 9:47 AM CST

Reinvention is called for.  If the legal profession structured itself a little more like medicine, currently idle attorneys could be filling in societal service gaps. 
Panic?  Not necessarily.  More like frustration.

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24.

mike mcleary
Apr 13, 2009 5:24 PM CST

and the cockroach fell on its back its many legs waggling in the air fruitlessly as it could not get back on its feet and righten itself—and from outside the cockroach’s room his momma cried “are you alright in there?”

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25.

Dana Craig
Apr 13, 2009 8:56 PM CST

Just curious - why is it that some people can’t type or put a single, intellegible sentence together?

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