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For future lawyers
Posted on 3/5/11 at 1:27 pm
Posted on 3/5/11 at 1:27 pm
something to think about:
LINK I hope some of you think it's interesting.
quote:
Quantifying the employment impact of these new technologies is difficult. Mike Lynch, the founder of Autonomy, is convinced that “legal is a sector that will likely employ fewer, not more, people in the U.S. in the future.” He estimated that the shift from manual document discovery to e-discovery would lead to a manpower reduction in which one lawyer would suffice for work that once required 500 and that the newest generation of software, which can detect duplicates and find clusters of important documents on a particular topic, could cut the head count by another 50 percent.
LINK I hope some of you think it's interesting.
4
Posted on 3/5/11 at 1:43 pm to superloser
Unfortunately, at least with respect to the current climate, the most intellectually stimulating and highest-paying jobs for lawyers are outside of the scope of traditional law practice. I am thrilled about this personally. I call this unfortunate, though, because the vast majority of law students are either oblivious to this fact, in denial, or have no other area of competency outside of law practice (however, even this is a stretch as law school hardly makes one "competent" enough to practice law).
I think legal academia is beginning to realize this, although it will be a very slow, very controversial process before anything meaningful is done about it. A legal education has many applications. The thought processes and analytical skills you learn in law school are second to none. However, with the huge glut of lawyers, simple supply and demand dictates the greatest opportunites will continue to be found elsewhere, outside of the scope of traditional practice.
I think legal academia is beginning to realize this, although it will be a very slow, very controversial process before anything meaningful is done about it. A legal education has many applications. The thought processes and analytical skills you learn in law school are second to none. However, with the huge glut of lawyers, simple supply and demand dictates the greatest opportunites will continue to be found elsewhere, outside of the scope of traditional practice.
This post was edited on 3/5/11 at 2:13 pm
Posted on 3/5/11 at 1:53 pm to RedStickBR
RSBR, I know you're wanting to deal with finance, what is your BS in? What field are you trying to break into? Think being a "lawyer" will help that, and no not the skills, but the title?
Posted on 3/5/11 at 2:05 pm to FunkyTiger
I was a Political Science Major. I received a minor in Business Administration. I'm lucky to attend a law school with a relatively broad corporate finance/securities concentration.
A law degree nowadays can be helpful in just about any occupation, depending on what you focus on. I would like to work in Equity Research or Banking. For every position I've interviewed for, my law degree has been valued.
No doubt a law degree can give you a boost. In many ways, it's like an advanced business degree, depending on your course concentration. If you want to do pure finance, you'll still use your legal education. Everything on this planet comes down to 2 things: (a) money, (b) law. So you'll use your law ed. on a daily basis. But even if you're not using it explicitly, you'll no doubt find use for the analytical skills you picked up in law school, as finance is a highly analytical field. I think going from law school to pure finance can also lead back to a nice compliance position down the road if you're into that sort of thing.
A law degree nowadays can be helpful in just about any occupation, depending on what you focus on. I would like to work in Equity Research or Banking. For every position I've interviewed for, my law degree has been valued.
No doubt a law degree can give you a boost. In many ways, it's like an advanced business degree, depending on your course concentration. If you want to do pure finance, you'll still use your legal education. Everything on this planet comes down to 2 things: (a) money, (b) law. So you'll use your law ed. on a daily basis. But even if you're not using it explicitly, you'll no doubt find use for the analytical skills you picked up in law school, as finance is a highly analytical field. I think going from law school to pure finance can also lead back to a nice compliance position down the road if you're into that sort of thing.
This post was edited on 3/5/11 at 2:07 pm
Posted on 3/5/11 at 3:20 pm to RedStickBR
I like your commentary on this.
Couple questions:
(1) where are you at in the becoming a lawyer process?
(2) career goals?
Couple questions:
(1) where are you at in the becoming a lawyer process?
(2) career goals?
Posted on 3/5/11 at 3:38 pm to Steiner
(1) If A-Z is our scale, I'm at about the letter Y.
(2) Want to work in a purely financial capacity starting out. May entertain compliance down the road. An attorney who's worked in a financial capacity at a financial services company, in my opinion, is more equipped than one who's only worked the legal side of things. I've got a few different gigs in the works. Just trying to decide where I want to live.
(3) If there was no such thing as student loan debt, I'd consider financial regulatory work in the event the finance gigs didn't work out. Working on the public side of things certainly provides one with a solid foundation, career wise. I don't see myself ever being attracted to the traditional practice of law in a big firm. If I had to do it, it would be either solo or with a small group, but I'd much prefer never having to do it.
(2) Want to work in a purely financial capacity starting out. May entertain compliance down the road. An attorney who's worked in a financial capacity at a financial services company, in my opinion, is more equipped than one who's only worked the legal side of things. I've got a few different gigs in the works. Just trying to decide where I want to live.
(3) If there was no such thing as student loan debt, I'd consider financial regulatory work in the event the finance gigs didn't work out. Working on the public side of things certainly provides one with a solid foundation, career wise. I don't see myself ever being attracted to the traditional practice of law in a big firm. If I had to do it, it would be either solo or with a small group, but I'd much prefer never having to do it.
Posted on 3/5/11 at 6:11 pm to rmc
No worries. I know you're busy.
Posted on 3/5/11 at 6:11 pm to superloser
About 12 years ago, there were 900 lawyers in Lafayette.... just sayin'.
Posted on 3/6/11 at 12:31 am to tigerpawl
you think the number of lawyers in lafayette has gone down?
Posted on 3/6/11 at 12:35 am to RedStickBR
quote:
Unfortunately, at least with respect to the current climate, the most intellectually stimulating and highest-paying jobs for lawyers are outside of the scope of traditional law practice. I am thrilled about this personally. I call this unfortunate, though, because the vast majority of law students are either oblivious to this fact, in denial, or have no other area of competency outside of law practice (however, even this is a stretch as law school hardly makes one "competent" enough to practice law).
i both agree and disagree. There are plenty of options a law degree gives you in different managerial capacities.
It also creates a lot of hurdles in breaking into such positions. I think in order to capitalize on such opportunities, most of the time you have to be considered X first, lawyer second.
That being said, tons of CEOs are lawyers. There was a story the ABA did not too long ago, CEO Esq. Interesting read.
This post was edited on 3/6/11 at 12:35 am
Posted on 3/6/11 at 12:37 am to superloser
quote:
the newest generation of software, which can detect duplicates and find clusters of important documents on a particular topic, could cut the head count by another 50 percent.
thats a pretty asinine estimate, but who do they think would be running this software?
older lawyers can barely use westlaw
Posted on 3/7/11 at 2:11 pm to rmc
quote:
The article itself makes it seem like lawyers are just drones who do discovery and discovery is the only thing that matters. My practice is probably not the norm in this respect, but less than 5% of my time is spent on outgoing/incoming discovery.
The article also doesn't really contemplate that this has no effect on the small/solo world where cases of the magnitude requiring review of discovery totalling '6 million documents' do not occur often, if at all. It just sounds lke BigLaw might have less use for incoming associates or contract discovery lawyers.
Absolutely. I'm in a small firm and discovery is only a small fraction of what I do on a daily basis. We aren't involved in mass litigation where you have doc review going on in three different states with millions of docs. This might affect Big Law and hired contract attorneys like you're saying, but it really won't impact our firm at all.
Managing partner doesn't use a computer, but for the rest of us I can get most of my work done with HotDocs and a little basic reasarch if needed. Technology has made my job easier, but it is not affecting my position in the legal community like it might some others.
Posted on 3/7/11 at 2:25 pm to superloser
Do we get to shoot the unneeded lawyers?
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