Michael Trotter tells NYT that the law profession is getting worse
2:31 pm, April 26th, 2012
Atlanta lawyer Michael H. Trotter gave a sobering view of the legal profession today in an interview with the New York Times. He told the Times that the future offers less work for more lawyers, lower compensation and longer hours.
Not surprisingly, Trotter’s new book is called “Declining Prospects.” The self-published book, available on Amazon, makes the case that the legal profession is reeling from a painful reshaping brought about by changing market forces. Trotter, a corporate lawyer at Taylor English Duma who has had a front-row seat on the Atlanta legal scene since graduating from Harvard Law in 1962, has long been a student of law firm economics. An earlier book, “Profit and the Practice of Law,” chronicled the rise of Big Law and its transformation from a profession to a business.
Asked about Dewy & LeBoeuf’s demise, Trotter sees “quite a few more” big firms going under in the next few years. The problem, he tells the Times, is that “there are now far more capable lawyers and law firms than there is work for them to do.” This trend is exacerbated, he says, by corporations’ realization that they can bring a considerable amount of work in house at a 35 to 50 percent savings.
The bottom line: Would you encourage your children to go to law school, the Times asks Trotter.
“I would not,” he offers.
See the full story here.
Contributor: Ed Bean in In House Law, Law Firms, Law schools, Legal Community | subscribe to rss | 
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April 30th, 2012 at 4:17 pm
The pressure on lawyers and law firms is not just on the top tier firms. Small law firms with meat and potato practices and solo practitioners working in less glamorous areas such as DUI Defense and Workers Compensation are finding that being a good lawyer is not enough.
To stay competitive today, you have to be a master of or at least fluent in search engine marketing for websites like Google, Bing and Yahoo and related sites. Even then it is more hours at work for less pay.
The problem is exacerbated by unethical Lawyers using runners; running misleadingly deceptive T.V. advertisements; paying bonding companies and tow truck companies for referrals seemingly with impunity. These tactics poison jury pools, drive ethical lawyers out of business or into other fields, give the profession a bad name and drive down the quality of representation for all. Insurance companies because cases settle for pennies on the dollar. Prosecutors love it because more cases plead out and less cases go to trial.
The final problem is court appointed attorney’s being appointed to criminal defendants without any real investigation of financial ability. They simply swear out a financial affidavit with no review of tax returns, pay stubs or w-2 forms. I have heard of Delta pilots being appointed criminal defense attorneys and clients of court appointed lawyers that were stuck in Paris after a volcanic eruption grounded air traffic.
How a young lawyer hangs a single these days is beyond me? It seems that all that will be left in a few years at this rate are Wal-mart sized super firms, public legal jobs, pre-paid legal style law firms and in house counsel. The bell seems to be tolling for the lawyer entrepreneur.