No work for lawyers

Saw this today on HONY

There's been a glut of lawyers in the US
for over a decade. Law students are suing
their law schools for promising them non
existent jobs. Even if you do get a practice
going, it's a feast or famine way of life. My
former lawyer just did 2 years in the slammer for
tax evasion during a famine period. He got
disbarred and is now screwed for life.

People enter law school thinking that life is what they see on "L.A. Law." Reality is they will likely not see a trial unless they get a DUI themselves. So much of being a lawyer is just writing or reviewing legal docs. I have worked near lawyers doing almost the same job as I was. They might be one step above, but glamorous it is not.

Or you can try criminal law, thinking you will be F. Lee Bailey. Reality is you will be doing very low-level work, defending people on the edge of life. DUIs that show up to court loaded. Missing their court date and getting a bench warrant. Oh, and these winners will often call you at all hours of the day and night.

You can try corporate law and get handed a huge box of paper that you have to read and find any error or problem. Dry reading about day to day things. You could try real estate law and spend your day hanging out with courthouse rats like myself.

If they told people this as an undergrad half the law schools in the USA would close.

I have a nephew who graduated from law
school last year. I warned him 3 years ago
that it was a waste of time, he won't find
a job and when he does it won't pay enough.

Well, he flunked the bar on his first try and
isn't going to take it again. Not a single one
of the friends he graduated with that passed the
bar has a law related job. So he's saying
screw it and is going after an engineering
degree at 26. His wife has one and has a good
job so they live off her income. He was going
to be Perry Mason and be the big bread winner.
Fantasies die hard.

Quote: Evenbob

I have a nephew who graduated from law
school last year. I warned him 3 years ago
that it was a waste of time, he won't find
a job and when he does it won't pay enough.

I think I head it on a podcast about how the practice of law really works. It is all sales and lead driven, little different than when I was in pest control. We had ads on TV to get people to the Yellow Pages (yeah, showing my age!) and call us. We then had a sales force to convert those leads to sales. Only one thing counted, getting them to sign on the line that was dotted.

Well, law is the same way. Unless your initials are T.H., you will not have a great deal of repeat business. Huge firms get the repeat business that generates big billings. Small shops need a constant supply of work. Oh, and if you are a contingency shop, you do not get paid if and until the client does.

So those ads with "The Hammer" promising to get you cash? All that is really is a call center who sells the leads to local attorneys. Just like mortgage refis.

One of the most stable practices is suing the feds for disability. The attorney can get $6,000 for getting someone on SSI. Any wonder there are record numbers?

Quote: Evenbob

I have a nephew who graduated from law
school last year. I warned him 3 years ago
that it was a waste of time, he won't find
a job and when he does it won't pay enough.

Well, he flunked the bar on his first try and
isn't going to take it again. Not a single one
of the friends he graduated with that passed the
bar has a law related job. So he's saying
screw it and is going after an engineering
degree at 26. His wife has one and has a good
job so they live off her income. He was going
to be Perry Mason and be the big bread winner.
Fantasies die hard.

Well with the engineering degree, patent law firms will be interested

Quote: Evenbob

My
former lawyer just did 2 years in the slammer for
tax evasion during a famine period. He got
disbarred and is now screwed for life.

It wasn't so much for the tax evasion,
it was for creating non profit corps to
cover the evasion. Charity corps that
he gave money to and took out on the
other end. It's called money laundering.
He's a crook, in other words. So many
lawyers think they can get away with
anything. If they nabbed him on all the
things he pulled in 30 years, he'd be in
jail for 15 years. His fave was Ponzi
schemes. He'd get in on the bottom and
pull out in the middle with a huge profit.
But like Capone, they nabbed him on taxes.

He was a good guy to have as a lawyer,
though. He was ruthless and would always
get it done for you.