This article by Kirk Makin in the G & M on Wednesday suggests that there is a conflict between billing requirements for junior lawyers and a decline in ethics in the legal profession. While I have many critical things to say about the way the legal profession organizes itself and seems to encourage certain responses I have to say that I find it amusing when junior lawyers complain about how much pressure they are under to produce. Where else would a first year professional even contemplate a salary of $90,000 a year?
Yet this 2007 survey from Lawyers Weekly indicates that first year lawyers at mid-size to large law firms will receive salaries ranging from $65,000 to $90,000 and that the range for lawyers with 1 to 3 years experience is from $65,000 to $117,000. People who earn those types of wages are expected to produce. Firms that paid their associates less than market but offered a better professional development experience often find themselves passed over by the very same talented associates who claim to look for a lifestyle but in fact want the top dollar.
There is lots of information about firms out there and it is easy to find out which firms demand production and which will provide a good experience. It is incumbent upon these young lawyers, who are advising clients on very difficult matters, to make the personal choices that will allow them to become the lawyers they want to be and not rely upon others to make those choices for them.
The other interesting element of this article is its tendency to conflate the concepts of professional skill and competence with ethics. Professional skill may, and I emphasise may, be a subset of ethics but it is by no means all or even a majority of the elements of legal ethics.
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