Quote:
Originally Posted by deepimpact2
At what point does it sink in that lawyers (and a lawyer spouse) have essentially said:
1. that BigLaw should not be considered the only way and certainly isn't the best way
2. That you can attend a school in a lower tier and still do well
But two law students are refuting that at every turn. Heaven wood and Getmeoutofhere, I suspect the two of you feel threatened at the thought that people incurring lower expenses at schools in lower tiers will be equal competitors for the jobs you feel entitled to after law school. This isn't an attack, but the two of you should really reflect on your motives in this thread. People aren't promoting unicorn theories. This is the reality.
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It is difficult for people to obtain employment right now in all fields. Law schools did not make the employment situation. There probably are a handful of firms where you cannot get hired without a top tier law degree. But many of the other firms in the country will hire you with a good academic record from a variety of law schools.
The thing that disturbs me about this thread is the focus on one particular sort of employment as the "gold standard" of employment. There are many paths to success. Small firm jobs are not necessarily low end jobs. In fact, if you ask people who work at small firms many of them will say that they get better quality work sooner than they would at a large firm. They also get more respect from other attorneys and more opportunities to to develop their own practice.
As others have stated, if you can develop your own practice there is no need for you to work for someone else unless you want to do that. The financial model of law firms provides that associates keep 1/3 of their billings, 1/3 goes to run the firm and 1/3 to the partners. If you want to work somewhere where you give the partners money to run the firm AND you want to put money in their pockets then working for someone else is the thing to do.
Young attorneys should work for someone else for a while. Whether you work for a large firm or small firm depends on your aspirations. If you aspire to put that last 1/3 in YOUR POCKET instead of the partners then you should go into your own practice, possibly with a partner.
If your aspiration is to be on your own then you are better off starting your career at a smaller firm because you will have more of an idea of what it takes to run a law firm. You will have no exposure to that if you work for a larger firm. If you start up a small firm you will be putting that last 1/3 into your pocket, while collecting 1/3 of your associates billings. Now-you don't make much money off of the young associates because they are not that efficient when they are first starting out, but once you get a bunch of them in there the leverage starts to work for YOU instead of for the partners.
I have been the subject of ridicule in PM from some participants in this thread who think that there is no way that small firm partners could possibly be successful. However, I assure you that life as the wife of a small firm partner is pretty cushy. My husband started out with a large firm in NYC and wound up a partner in his own firm in Fort Lauderdale. He much prefers the small firm life. There is plenty of money to be made (yes really) if you can develop your own practice. And if you can develop your own practice you should put the bulk of the money into your own pocket, not the partners.
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