How To Make Money As A Lawyer - Forget Law School

A couple years ago my electrician showed up to my house in a BMW. A few days later he showed up in a Porsche. I asked who's Porsche it was, and he said "mine, the BMW is in the shop."

Recently, there's been some discussion about this country developing an economy of lawyers, doctors, and accountants. No one wants to be a plumber, electrician, or other trades person. It's demeaning. Mom and Dad won't be proud, and all the money to be made is in lawyering.

Yeah, right.

I will tell you this: If I graduated plumbing school 17 years ago, I'd be making as much or more than I am now. I'd have 10 trucks, ads running around the clock, and my name plastered everywhere around town - from bus benches, billboards, airplanes over stadiums, and charity events. No fancy office, no Bar regulations, no judges wanting me in court NOW, no sleepless nights wondering if Mr. Jones hot water is working.

With all the discussion about "the future of lawyers," I haven't seen one post about "the future of plumbers."

Will there be a time where people no longer stop up a toilet? Will sinks no longer need to be installed? Will giant condominiums be built in 2023 without bathrooms and kitchens?

Will we be taking a shit on our iPads?

From the ABA Journal:

Hedge fund manager Daniel Ades of Kawa Capital Management tells the Wall Street Journal that students should seek an education that pays the highest salaries relative to the cost of education. According to that analysis, technical colleges are the best. "We're in a skills based economy and what we need is more computer programmers, more [nurses]," he tells the newspaper. "It's less glamorous but it's what we need."

The article is geared towards the discussion of loans, and why it's more cost effective to pay for a trade school education in terms of making money in a career than it is to pay for law school.

So there's the answer, forget law school. If money is the goal, go to trade school. it costs less, you don't need to wear a suit, you can use all your shiny toys for business, and you don't have to worry about social media for lawyers.

Let me know if you do it. I'll hire you to fix my toilet, and bitch about how much it costs as you drive away in your Porsche.

Anonymous comments are welcome as long as they say something relevant and half-way intelligent and aren't a vehicle for a coward to attack someone. I trust you understand.

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

Bad News: To Remain In The Profession, You Have To Love The Law

It shouldn't shock me that the headline of Brad Kane's piece in the Hartford Business Journal read "Profession In Turmoil"

Why is the profession in turmoil?

The price of admission is up and interest in being a lawyer is down. The passion that once marked the profession is fading in the face of business pressures as law firms race to be the biggest and most comprehensive, judging lawyers’ value on the revenue they generate.

That's a long answer for: people are getting in to the profession to make money, not to be advocates.

I say that all the time. Some tell me I'm wrong. Others tell me I'm right, and insist that this is the reason everyone becomes lawyers and they don't know anyone who became a lawyer because they wanted to be a lawyer - because the only reason to become a lawyer is to make money.

Something like that.

But I love to see that it's not just me, as others would make be believe, that thinks a slew of law students in the 90's and through present time went to law school for one reason:

Lawyering used to be a profession. Now, over the course of time, it has become just a business,” said Bill Crowe, partner at Hartford law firm Mayo Crowe. “A lot of people are disillusioned because they go to law school thinking they are getting into this dynamic, lucrative career; and they’ve come to realize that often they are just pushing papers around.

The large role money plays in today’s legal market undermines the profession’s higher goals, said Lee Hoffman, a member of Hartford law firm Pullman & Comley LLC. The first job of a lawyer is to make someone’s legal problem their own. The second job is to be an adviser. Once the profession becomes about the paycheck, those tasks are hard to fulfill.

And here's the knife in the heart:

Although the pay is high compared to other professions — the median starting salary for a 2010 University of Connecticut School of Law graduate was $75,000 — a law degree does not lead to a cushy lifestyle. Other professions such as entrepreneur or investment banker are more lucrative with a lower demand on time.

"More lucrative." "Lower demand on time." Now I have the attention of the slacksoisie. See, you don't have to become a lawyer to make money - go, do something else. Get out of the profession. Leave us advocates to try and bring it back up to par - go start a business or become a stockbroker. Just go.

It's already happening, your friends are going elsewhere:

After a significant jump in law school applications in 2009 and 2010, law school applications dropped 11.1 percent nationwide this year. Connecticut’s three law schools — at Yale University, University of Connecticut and Quinnipiac University — saw a 17 percent drop in applications in 2011.

Yippee!

Those people who thought earning a law degree would lead to riches are taking a much broader scope and thinking about if it is going to pay off,” said Karen Lynn DeMeola, UConn School of Law assistant dean for admissions and student finance.

So take that "much broader scope," think about the long hard days of working in a profession that you never wanted to enter but for the cash.

Passion is what keeps lawyers in the profession, said Jeff White, associate at Robinson & Cole and chairman of the Connecticut Bar Association Young Lawyers Section.

Passion.

Look it up.

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

Law School Merit Scholarships vs. Millennial Work Ethic. TKO

The Sunday New York Times exposed the deep dark secret of law school merit scholarships - you have to work hard to keep them. Above The Law, the most read legal blog and home of hundreds of unemployed pajama wearing lawyers spending their days commenting anonymously, (example: The issue would be: WHY FUCK ARE WE GIVING ANY OF THESE ASSHOLES MONEY IN THE FIRST PLACE?) picked up the story.

Yes folks, the same generation that has told BigLaw and other legal employers the conditions under which they will grace the legal profession with their wonderous knowledge (free pajamas, 3 days a week at Starbucks - one including a full 4 hour day - vacations "when needed to create a better work/life balance," immediate delivery of the latest Apple product upon release, and a sufficient amount of hugs) is very, very upset that law schools appear to be giving out a lot of free money and requiring a certain grade point average to maintain the scholarship. Shouldn't they get the money because they need it and they're cute?

How can the law schools do this? First they force you to attend at gunpoint by telling you that their graduates get jobs, and now they give you scholarships, require a 3.0, causing those like Alexandra Leumer, 2009 Golden Gate graduate, to "feel snookered."

Sounds like a snookered lawsuit industry may be on the horizon.

Leumer elaborates: By the middle of second semester of that first year, everyone saw the system for what it was,” she said. “We were furious. We realized that statistically, because of the curve, there was no way for many of us to keep our scholarships. But at that point, you’re a year in. They’ve got you. You feel stuck.

Candidly, this is something I never had a problem with, as I was always so far below the curve academicly, I never knew what it was like to be on the other side, and work to stay there.

When will the law schools get it? When will they realize that free money is free money. It's like a salary - requiring work to keep it is just, well, wrong. Those days are over. Money should be handed out to interested law students because they want to go to law school, period. If we begin teaching them that they have to work for the money they are being given, the only result will be a bunch of hard working lawyers, and that is so 2000.

The Times understands today's law student: In referring to the students' lack of knowledge that the scholarships are kept through competition for the required GPA based on the curve, it nails it: Students who don’t seek out this data tend to regard merit scholarship offers as a school saying “We love you.” It’s more like an invitation to a foot race, and before you get to the starting line you’d better know how fast to run and how many others are running.

Now who wants to run fast when the alternative is to have people tell you they love you?

There is a solution to the problem. The Times reports that Chicago-Kent offers students less scholarship money ($9,000) if they want it guaranteed, and more ($15,000) if they can clear the 3.25 G.P.A. hurdle.

Guess what?

Ninety percent opt for the larger and riskier sum, according to school officials.

Snookered. Yeah.

When we look back at this time, we will remember this as the generation of poor, stupid, impressionable college graduates who were "snookered" into entering the legal profession.

Jeff Lipshaw over at Legal Profession Blog, has some thoughts on the snookering:

"I have this image of one's acceptance letter carrying warning decals that make it look like my lawn mower or, at the very least, like my Starbucks cup. "CAUTION: THE BEVERAGE YOU ARE ABOUT TO DRINK IS HOT, THE SCHOOL YOU ARE ABOUT TO ATTEND HAS COMPETITIVE STUDENTS, THE LIFE YOU ARE ABOUT TO LEAD IS UNCERTAIN, AND THERE'S NO WAY OUT."

Just like a Starbucks cup.

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

For Law School Graduates, Debts, If Not Oh My God I Can't Take It Anymore Just Shut The $&*% Up Already

I sat back last week, ignoring the emails, ignoring the messages. There was a new article in the New York Times about whether law school was a "losing game?." You would have thought they discovered the real way to get on the first page of Google.

The argument against law school today goes something like this:

[1] I heard you can make a lot of money as a lawyer.
[2] I heard you can get a job out of school paying $160,000 a year.
[3] This law school says of all their graduates are employed after law school.
[4] If I take out $150,000 in loans and to go to this law school where they say I will have a job making much money, I can pay off my loans and get my Porsche quick.

The trending argument is that law schools are to blame. They are taking advantage of potential law students by trying to convince them that it's all butterflies and rainbows, with a pot of gold at the end. These meek, impressionable potential law students are following the pied piper in to law school and shocked, shocked to hear that there are no jobs at the end of the road.

There are too many people in law school, too many lawyers, blah blah blah. My God I'm tired of talking about this.

So few are actually entering law school today for the purpose of being a lawyer that I could give a crap whether you get a job. If you went because you were convinced that it was like buying a guaranteed lottery ticket, you shouldn't blame the law school for roping you in, you should accept the fact that you are so incredibly stupid that maybe becoming a ticket taker at a movie theater is even beyond your intelligence.

Seriously, you really went to law school because the school convinced you that a job was there at the end? Can I have your name, because I would never hire you as a lawyer. I'm just stunned at your stupidity.

I wonder no more how social media snake oil salesmen thrive in this world of "how to make money as a lawyer." The same people that went to law school because you were "guaranteed" a job, are the ones who think someone can teach you the secrets to twitter.

I don't even know why I'm wasting my time writing about this. The profession needs a cleanse - it needs to rid itself of the morons entering our profession because "the law school made me do it." Seriously people, you don't belong in a "get it in writing" profession.

I'm done with this topic. It just annoys the shit out of me

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

A Sense Of Violated Entitlement

My last post got some play on Above the Law and the ABA Journal. I didn't write anything ingenious, I just said the 1L doing the math should drop out.

The title of this post came directly from an article on cheating in college. It's long, but worth a read. It talks about "this" generation of students. The same generation that I talk about and am told that I'm full of shit.

Back to the entitled law students. Whenever the discussion about the new age of law school not being a ticket to a six-figure salary starts, the debate flames. On one side is those that feel cheated, pushed, forced in to law school by the promise of leaving and opening the door to the same vision Dorothy had upon arrival in Munchkin Land. On the other, the "butch up and shut up" crowd who feel many of these whiners should of never entered law school.

The comments on the ABA site were interesting. I read about 90, and got a good sense of the crowd.

Most importantly, I realized I am considered very old. I am part of that generation that "doesn't get it."

I do, get "it," but I won't try to defend myself on that issue. When infants don't get their way, there's no way to stop them from crying except to feed them and cuddle them until they go to sleep.

The overwhelming theme of the comments was that the notion of going to law school for any other reason but to make money, is total bullshit. So it's worthless for me to say that when I went to law school I had no idea what lawyers made. As I got closer to graduation I knew that government lawyers made about $25-$30 grand, and BigLaw associates made about $50,000. I went to law school to be a criminal defense lawyer. What I read from the comments is that a great deal of law students today have no concern about what they do, they just want the cash. No wonder so many lawyers are unhappy. As the 1L said in the article - he spent more time researching law schools than he did the practice of law.

I wanted to practice criminal law, either at the prosecutor's or public defender's office, and BigLaw wasn't an option for two reasons - one, I clerked for a big firm and hated it, and two, my grades wouldn't even get me an interview. If I had no idea what I wanted to do, I'd be in a very different position. I would have "taken" any job I could get and either found my way to criminal law, or be doing something else today.

I realize after reading all the comments that graduating law school 16 years ago is a lifetime. I've said for years that even in my class, so many went to law school because of L.A. Law - yes, the show. Many thought a law degree meant nice suits, nice offices, and days of fun fun fun in the office.

What people don't understand is that I speak from personal knowledge. It's no secret I represent law students as part of my practice. I talk to them. I ask them why they went to law school. I ask them what they want to do. Many of the answers are "I don't know, and "get a job."

I think that many law students did go to law school due to the perception it was a ticket to a six-figure salary - and for some years it was just that. It's sad to hear people comment that they see no other reason why anyone would go to law school.

I think that many grads don't care if they practice commercial litigation, associate research in the library all day law, or please God don't make the partner angry law, and I think if the goal is to pay off loans, this is not the profession to enter. If you're smart enough to get into law school, you should be smart enough to be able to learn how to do other things. You can make money doing anything - selling appliances, selling insurance, running a franchise, or hundreds of other things. There's too many damn lawyers, and not enough people entering needed professions and careers. Where will all the foreclosure defense lawyers (an area I hear lawyers entering out of law school) go in 5 years?

So I'm sorry it's come to this - law students and lawyers telling me that law school is nothing more than a high level trade school (not having any historical knowledge that many years ago most law school graduates did not go in to private practice or even the practice of law). If you went to law school because you were lied to about a guaranteed check, drop out. If you don't believe you will ever get a job in law, consider finishing and doing something else that may make you (more) money. Most of us lawyers wind up at some point representing clients who make 10 times what we make, and never finished college, or even high school. They also do things that we look at and say "you make money that way?"

I want you to make money, I don't want you to be jobless after graduation. But if you solely went to law school for the salary that would (apparently) make you happy,
you will never be happy as a lawyer.

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

Advice To A 1L On Dropping Out: Don't Forget Your iPhone Charger

Above the Law continues to take on the heady topic of whether someone who went to law school expecting a big fat check upon graduation should consider the economics of it all and drop out.

Thus far we know that 66% of ATL's readers thought a 2L should stay in school, while 34% are just happy to be able to use profanity anonymously in the comment section while eating many Doritos on mom's couch.

Now ATL has switched it up - thrown in a curve - "changed the game" as game changers and asked: what if the student is a 1L?

The question is not based on the student reconsidering whether to become a trial lawyer, or whether to seek a career representing the poor, or setting up a nice general practice - the question is about money.

What if the student is just in his first semester of 1L year and can get out before incurring even another semester’s worth of debt?

The post's author goes further into framing this choice as one where money is the sole consideration, referring to the decision as a challenging value proposition.

So the 1L is thinking about dropping out.

Here's the summary of his thought process:

$150k of Debt + Fewer Jobs + More Attorneys = Law school is probably going to end up being a bad investment.

He says he's willing to put myself through it if there’s a good chance it will pay off in the end, but that there's been a dramatic change on the return on investment calculation.

He's willing to stay if he's only going to be in debt $50k, but now that he's invested $21k, he can't see investing another $21k for a second semester.

He's rightly concerned about getting a job, noting the truth that all law students angrily deny - that more students than ever have been applying to law school over the last few years to avoid the bad economy.

He's also not that interested in the life of a lawyer, as he sees that life: from what I understand, private practice is an exercise in the permanent sacrifice of work-life balance. Late nights at the office every week or two is very different from working 12 hours every day. It’s very unlikely I’ll be able to make good money in private practice and have a healthy work-life balance. I don’t want to work 60-70 hours a week until I’m 40.

I love the last sentence of that paragraph. Somehow flip-flops and a backpack come to mind.

In one of the most prolific quotes I've seen from a person who should have never applied to law school, he says: I researched law school a lot more than I researched being an attorney.

When I write over and over again that part of the problem in law school today, and with lawyers, is that many of those who entered this profession, did so for the wrong reasons - they did it for the cash, I hear the screams of law students and young lawyers yelling "that's not true!". When it got too expensive, and the payback was not guaranteed, it became less attractive. There are dozens of law students in every law school who see the education as a ticket to a six figure salary. These students couldn't care less if they were selling toilet paper or driving taxi cabs - whatever makes money, that's where they want to be.

But that's not what the law profession is about. It's about clients (sorry Dan). It's about ethics. It's about being an officer of the court, and it's about advocating. It's not about paying off debt. It's not about a return on an investment.

I read this post and all I could think was that this law student sounds much more like a stockbroker. His entire analysis is whether it's worth it to spend the money for an education that may not find him the darling of the Bar in terms of high fees and a life of luxury. There's nothing about the profession, except a bunch of whining about working hard.

So pack it up, make sure you have that favorite Starbucks travel mug, and don't forget your iPhone charger - it's probably the best investment you've made.

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

But Wait, There's More - The Millennial Law Student's Hook

My last post touched a nerve or two - writing about entitled law students who blame their law school for their woes. It's tough for a law student to admit that attending law school was solely for the cash at the end of the tunnel, and it's harder to admit that attendance was based on a sales pitch.

Hence, this comment:

What the scamblogs criticize the law schools for is falsifying employment data to fraudulently show that if you graduate from law school you are more likely than not to get a secure job for reasonable pay. If the Career Services Office publishes figures showing that 95% of their graduates were employed after graduation in order to convince people to pay tuition to go to their school, when they know that number is false, that is fraud. Why are you defending fraud?

If the Career Services Office publishes figures showing that 95% of their graduates were employed after graduation in order to convince people to pay tuition to go to their school, when they know that number is false, that is fraud.

Quite possibly, yes. It is fraud. But you, the law school applicant, are a fraud as well. You, the future lawyer that considers this statistic in determining whether to attend not only a certain law school, but law school at all.

The comment here, answers the question in the affirmative - that yes, there is a line of law school applicants that are hooked by the notion of almost guaranteed job offers upon displaying your degree. Today's law student (no, not all of them) wants to blame the law school for "roping" them in to 3 years of busting their ass. Three years of hard work with a false guarantee of a job.

What should really occur is a question on the law school application that says:

"Are you stupid enough to invest 3 years of your life in this school based on our sales pitch that you'll get a job? If 'yes,' please stop filling out this application and discard."

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

The Oprah Effect: It's Not Your Fault, It's The Law School

The Connecticut Law Tribune reports on one of my favorite topics - the entitled law student. (cue the angry commenters).

The article grabs me at hello: There's nothing like a scorned law school graduate with mounting debt and a niche in cyberspace to stir up a great debate about the merits of a legal education.

Like I said - "entitled."

Instead of law school grads looking at themselves and admitting that the only reason they went to law school was for the cash rainbow at the end, and not to actually be lawyers, they have decided that, surprise surprise, the law schools are to blame.

BAD Law schools - BAD.

My goal is to inform potential law school students and applicants of the ugly realities of attending law school," the author of the blog Third Tier Reality states. That includes few promising job prospects upon graduation unless a student attends one of the top eight law schools in the country, the author says.

Another blogger, The Jobless Juris Doctor, is more specific about his gamble and loss on attending law school for the guaranteed prize at the end:

Graduated from law school in 2009. Keep my diploma in the bathroom in case I run out of toilet paper.

The Tribune article analyzes this collection of blogs as a forum to send a message that law school is a "scam," and that law schools manipulate job placement and starting-salary figures to entice students to campus.

Apparently, the message is being heard:

Reading these blogs has made all of our expectations a little more realistic, said Danny O'Day, a second-year University of Connecticut law student from Westport.

And I've found the one law student who isn't entitled, although I know, I know, there's a ton out there.

O'Day said he and his classmates have no expectation of graduating into a legal industry job that pays six figures and allows for quick repayment of students loans.

Although the article says there are "dozens" of these blogs, written by whiners who wont admit that they only sought to be Members of the Bar and Officers of the Court, was because they heard 6-figures were as guaranteed as a cap and gown at graduation:

...they clearly aren't having much impact on law school enrollment. The number of law school applicants for the incoming 2010 class increased 3 percent nationally over last year, according to the Law School Admissions Council.

And the conspiracy theory gets more focused:

There are legions of underemployed document reviewers slaving away in unventilated basements so that morally bankrupt individuals [at law schools] can continue pulling down half a mil a year by scamming unsuspecting college graduates," the blogger states.

Yeah, now it all makes sense....

And here's my favorite part of the article:

Thirty people [working as legal temps] are absolutely miserable, but nobody has the courage to stand up and say anything," one blogger stated, noting that the air conditioner in the room was set uncomfortably low. "The market is so rotten, so-called professional attorneys are afraid of rocking the boat and being frozen out of low-rate $20 an hour temp gigs.

....nobody has the courage to stand up and say anything.

You should have stood up at the beginning of the law school process, when you held that application in your hand, and said something - like "why am I doing this?"

This guy has the right attitude:

I don't think in this economy that there's a reasonable expectation of anything," said Bryce Petruccelli, a 27-year-old first-year student at UConn. The world doesn't owe me a living, and I realize that," Petruccelli said. "You've got to do what you have to to get by, and I'm not afraid of doing that.

For a long time here I've been talking about this growing group of law school students and grads that have no concept of being a lawyer. They are there for the job at the end. They are there because they heard they could "make money as a lawyer." Lawyering is secondary. Representing clients, going to court, drafting pleadings is not in the mindset - it's all about the cash - and the entitlement.

So blame who you want. If you were stupid enough to go to law school because of the "lure," you're too stupid to be in this profession.

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.



Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

Law School: Worthless

The Legal Satyricon has this (quite long) great post: The Worthlessness of American Legal Education.

Yes, he quotes some previous comments I made here, but he adds a great deal to the discussion about the gap between legal education and the practice of law.

Read it.

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. Read his free ebook The Truth About Hiring A Criminal Defense Lawyer. Please visit www.tannebaumweiss.com

Marquette LAW (Not Lawyer) School

Recently, a member of The Florida Bar Board of Governors was telling me he wants to begin a conversation about what our law schools are doing to prepare graduates for the "real world" of lawyering.

You know, mundane things like getting and dealing with clients, running a small practice, handling judges who could give a crap about all the law you learned, and communicating with dip shit lawyers.

We discussed that the biggest objection would come from law professors who believe that law schools should not participate in this "clinical" type education. Why teach a law student how to use their degree to represent people when you can educate them on the history of the Rule Against Perpetuities, and encourage them to participate in the wholly irrelevant law review?

Actually, I take that back. Law Review is relevant in that BigLaw loves it and law schools love when their graduates go work for BigLaw.

So I was fascinated today when two of the wisest bloggers in the criminal defense blawgosphere, Mark Bennett and Scott Greenfield picked up on a comment posted at the Marquette Law School Faculty Blog by Marquette (we teach law, not lawyers) Law School Professor David Papke in reference to a post on Gideon's blog

"We don’t want law school to be lawyer-training school. When we cave in to demands of that sort from the ABA and assorted study commissions, we actually invite alienation among law students and lawyers. Legal education should appreciate the depth of the legal discourse and explore its rich complexities. It should operate on a graduate-school level and graduate people truly learned in the law."

When I went to law school, my school had the highest Bar passage rate in Florida. Professors lamented that Stetson was a "3 year Bar Examination review course." I thought "that's OK with me, I need all the review I can get." I also participated in trial team, which was poo-pooed by the law review and moot court (read: appellate argument) group.

This argument has been around forever, and will continue.

Teaching law is important, so are lawyers.

In medical school we teach students about the body, its organs, how it works, how it reacts to certain factors, and what causes disease and sickness. Then the "doctors" do a "residency" where they focus on the practicalities of "doctoring."

In law, we give "lawyers" a degree, that they can immediately frame, hang up in an office and greet unknowing clients. The law school having "done their job." Some law schools embrace clinical programs and practical education, others, believe that a practicing lawyer is evidence of the failure of the law school's education.

Apparently the people trying cases and arguing motions are not well versed in the law.

They're just lawyers.

Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. Read his free ebook The Truth About Hiring A Criminal Defense Lawyer. Please visit www.tannebaumweiss.com