It Shouldn’t Suck to be an Associate at a Law Firm, Part II

Posted on January 30, 2012 by kowalskiandassociates

It Shouldn’t Suck to be an Associate at a Law Firm, Part II.

Filed under: Global law firms, Hiring and training lawyers, Law firm associate efficiency, Law firm associates, Law firm management, Law firm management strategies, Law school recruiting, lawyer training, Navigating the Perfect Storm: Recruiting, Retaining and Training Lawyers in the Coming Decade, Strategic law firm planning, The Law Firm of the Twenty-first Century | Leave a Comment »

It Shouldn’t Suck to be an Associate at a Law Firm, Part II

Posted on January 30, 2012 by kowalskiandassociates

With law firm expenses rising at a rate three times higher than revenues, law firms have been working feverishly to cut the expense side and maximize revenues, to rather good effect, thus far. This has resulted in a perfect storm adversely affecting many law firm associates.

The Wall Street Journal reports that law firms have drastically cut their professional headcounts and have been squeezing an extra 50 hours a year out of those who still had seats when the music stopped playing. Fifty hours a week may not sound like much, but in an already crushing 60+ hour work week, these additional hours only serves to enhance partner profitability, while further squeezing the last drops of energy out of already overworked associates.

Saddled with huge student loans and impacted the dwindled job market, associates seem to have little alternative but to groan further under the weight of yet more work, even as their work days have become more complicated and difficult as support staff often no longer exist to assist associates with clerical and administrative duties. In the face of these factors, law firms have further put the squeeze on associates, as described in today’s Wall Street Journal.

The result has been a windfall for law firm partners. PPP has continued to rise, even in the face of The Great Recession. But, at what price? Perhaps it’s time to consider sharing some largesse with those who slave away in the ship’s galleons.

Filed under: Hiring and training lawyers, Law firm associate efficiency, Law firm associates, Law firm management, Law firm management strategies, Law school recruiting, lawyer training, Navigating the Perfect Storm: Recruiting, Retaining and Training Lawyers in the Coming Decade, Strategic law firm planning, The Law Firm of the Twenty-first Century | Tagged: , , , , | 29 Comments »

A Cost Way Too High to Pay: The New York Times on the Price of Law School Tuition

Posted on December 18, 2011 by kowalskiandassociates

A Cost Way Too High to Pay: The New York Times on the Price of Law School Tuition.

Filed under: Hiring and training lawyers, Internet based marketing, Law firm associate efficiency, Law firm associates, Law firm management, Law firm management strategies, Law school recruiting, lawyer training, Legal Education, Legal Project Outsourcing, Navigating the Perfect Storm: Recruiting, Outsourcing legal services, Retaining and Training Lawyers in the Coming Decade, Strategic law firm planning, The Law Firm of the Twenty-first Century | Leave a Comment »

A Cost Way Too High to Pay: The New York Times on the Price of Law School Tuition

Posted on December 18, 2011 by kowalskiandassociates

Is there any rational basis for the outrageous cost of law school tuition? Not by any measure.

There are currently billions of dollars in defaulted law school tuition loans, much of it guaranteed by the federal government. At the same time, the number of law school graduates obtaining meaningful employment continues to plummet, while law schools continue to raise tuition and increase the number of seats for law students. Even as the number of jobs for recent law school graduates continue to plummet, starting salaries for lawyers are also on the decline to the point that recent graduates cannot afford to amortize their student loans and provide themselves with food, clothes and shelter.

In a classic game of passing the buck, the law schools blame the ABA for imposing costly requirements, law school professors disclaim any responsibility, claiming that to attribute blame to them is akin to blaming the proliferation of roaches because of the ban on DDT is akin to blaming the roaches. They also claim that the high cost of legal education is due to outmoded guild rules and that law firms need to justify high hourly rates to pay for recent graduates. Law firms blame the schools because new associates need to earn enough to pay for their student loans. Law firm clients are saying “whoa, this is none of our business; we’re not paying for training first and second year associates.”

This whole Alphone and Gaston thing is slowly crumbling, while nobody seems to be paying attention, as unregulated providers of legal services, not having even attended law schools or having been admitted to any bar, are gaining significant market share.

The entire existing eco structure is simply crumbling before our very eyes.

Filed under: Law firm associate efficiency, Law firm associates, Law school recruiting, lawyer training, Legal Education, Navigating the Perfect Storm: Recruiting, Retaining and Training Lawyers in the Coming Decade, Strategic law firm planning, The Law Firm of the Twenty-first Century | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

What They Don’t Teach Law Students: Lawyering

Posted on November 20, 2011 by kowalskiandassociates

What They Don’t Teach Law Students: Lawyering.

Filed under: Hiring and training lawyers, Law firm associate efficiency, Law firm associates, Law school recruiting, lawyer training, Legal Education, Navigating the Perfect Storm: Recruiting, Retaining and Training Lawyers in the Coming Decade, Strategic law firm planning, The Law Firm of the Twenty-first Century | 1 Comment »

What They Don’t Teach Law Students: Lawyering

Posted on November 20, 2011 by kowalskiandassociates

Jerome Kowalski Kowalski & Associates November, 2011   David Segal, a venerable reporter for The New York Times continues his series of feature length exposes on the serious shortcomings and often blatant fraud in modern American legal education in his piece today entitled “What They Don’t Teach Law Students: Lawyering” . I previously addressed this critical [...]

Filed under: Hiring and training lawyers, Law firm associates, Law school recruiting, lawyer training, Legal Education, Navigating the Perfect Storm: Recruiting, Retaining and Training Lawyers in the Coming Decade, The Law Firm of the Twenty-first Century | 1 Comment »

Now that Clients Won’t Pay for Training Young Associates, How are We Going to Teach Young Lawyers the Skills of Lawyering?

Posted on October 27, 2011 by kowalskiandassociates

Now that Clients Won’t Pay for Training Young Associates, How are We Going to Teach Young Lawyers the Skills of Lawyering?.

Filed under: Hiring and training lawyers, Law firm associate efficiency, Law firm associates, Law school recruiting, lawyer training, Legal Education, Navigating the Perfect Storm: Recruiting, Retaining and Training Lawyers in the Coming Decade, Strategic law firm planning, The Law Firm of the Twenty-first Century | Leave a Comment »

Now that Clients Won’t Pay for Training Young Associates, How are We Going to Teach Young Lawyers the Skills of Lawyering?

Posted on October 27, 2011 by kowalskiandassociates

We still need to train our young lawyers the practical skills of day to day to day lawyering.

The cost of recruiting and then training young lawyers is enormous. If we add the hard costs of recruiting summer and first year associates, the soft costs of recruiting, the compensation paid to summer associates and first and second year associates with the expectation of producing a productive and profitable third year associate, the cost per lawyer may well approach a staggering $1,000,000 per lawyer at some law firms. This whopping expense was made less painful when we were able to charge clients an hourly fee for teaching our own lawyers basic skills. But, those days are gone. Clients are not willing to pay for first and second year associates.

Well then, how are we going to train new lawyers? How about if we followed the rest of the world and imposed some form of clerkships?

But, let’s be clever and call them fellowships.

Filed under: Hiring and training lawyers, Law firm associate efficiency, Law firm associates, Law firm management, Law firm management strategies, Law school recruiting, lawyer training, Legal Education, Navigating the Perfect Storm: Recruiting, Retaining and Training Lawyers in the Coming Decade, Strategic law firm planning, The Law Firm of the Twenty-first Century | 18 Comments »

LAW SCHOOL DECEPTION — PART III (via The Belly of the Beast)

Posted on May 19, 2011 by kowalskiandassociates

Does Law School Deception Give Rise to a Legal Remedy? Is There a Class Action Out There Ready to Pounce? Jerome Kowalski Kowalski & Associates May, 2011 Professor Steve Harper concludes his three part series on deception by law schools with the speculatively inquiring as to whether there is a class action lawsuit out there [...]

Filed under: Hiring and training lawyers, Law firm associates, Law school recruiting, lawyer training, Navigating the Perfect Storm: Recruiting, Retaining and Training Lawyers in the Coming Decade, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

A NEW LAW SCHOOL MISSION (via The Belly of the Beast)

Posted on May 16, 2011 by kowalskiandassociates

What is the Mission of Law Schools? Jerome Kowalski Kowalski & Associates May, 2011 Is the mission of a law school to create a turnkey associate for BigLaw firms? On the occasion of the retirement of Dean David E. Van Zandt from a distinguished 30 year tenure as dean of Northwestern University of Law, noted [...]

Filed under: Hiring and training lawyers, Law firm associates, Law school recruiting, lawyer training, Legal Education, Navigating the Perfect Storm: Recruiting, Retaining and Training Lawyers in the Coming Decade, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

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