Big law as big score

David Lat of Above the Law has a scare piece on New York Biglaw that makes big claims ("Are the country’s top law firms going the way of the dinosaur?") but ends up with a whole lot of thin gruel. Despite record profits, salary increases for associates and Cristal for all, Lat sees clouds on the horizon. Mayer, Brown and Jenner & Block are de-equitizing partners. Clients are considering farming out more routine matters to cheaper firms. Millionaires are jealous of billionaires.

But what of the associates who actually read his site?

This is the important stuff (to me, at least):

But aside from paying off their student loans, what do young lawyers aspire to? Nobody seems to know anymore. “The Gen Y people don’t really have the same desires and goals as previous generations,” said a managing partner at one prominent firm. “I think they don’t get the same fulfillment out of this.”

[...]

A partner at a rival firm is more sanguine: “What firms can and should offer people is the ability to take part in the craft, teach them how to be great lawyers, make them understand that life is about much more than money. You can contribute to society as a lawyer in ways that other people aren’t trained or licensed to do.”

“Law is an attractive, challenging profession,” said Mr. Zeughauser. “Some people enjoy the challenge, and there’s also a service aspect that some people enjoy. There are people who like being in the service profession, and the law is probably the highest-earning service profession.” (It sure beats the green aprons off Starbucks.)

Working in a "service profession" is the big attraction to the law? It's not as if it's either this or a job on a GM assembly line - it's all service or nothing for most people who are considering a career in the law. The real question faced by the "young lawyers" and law students Lat envisions is whether to work for a big firm, a small firm, a nonprofit or to hang one's own shingle. Despite his worries, firms will not have any problem getting fresh blood any time soon.

Many schools offer loan forgiveness for graduates who do public interest, but law school loans aren't the half of it. Undergrad loans, sky-high rent in many major cities hit grads as soon as they graduate. Starting a family comes with a whole other set of very large costs. Rent control, the home interest mortgage deduction, NIMBYism and underinvestment in urban infrastructure created a situation in which it would have been more or less impossible for me to take an entry-level journalism job in New York City after graduation. In D.C., I was able to rent a small apartment in a nice building in a good neighborhood, but I did it working a second job (SAT tutoring in the suburbs after work two or three times a week and at least one weekend day) and running up a bit of a credit card bill. Any additional expense, such as losing employer-provided health care coverage or getting in a car accident, would have thrown my financial situation into total chaos. Of course, I could just ask my parents for help if things got really dire, but not everyone else can. It's no mystery why biglaw isn't just "attractive," it's a necessity for anyone who isn't fortunate enough to get significant parental help.

Daniel Brook makes this argument in The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America. He says that activism and creative jobs are no longer options for many recent college grads, who instead have to take soul-crushing corporate jobs just to pay the bills. It may be too much to ask for community organizers to have enough money to down $15 martinis alongside Cravath associates, but you don't have to be a pinko to believe that if someone with a college education is willing to work and someone else is willing to hire them, that they should have enough money to live without roomates five years after graduation, should they so choose.

That's why biglaw has so much appeal. A law school graduate could make contributions to the fields of journalism or government, but can't take the financial hit. They could even start a small business (law-related or otherwise), but the debt load is too much. Work for five years, put down some debt, scrap together a down payment, then do what you want. I can't tell you how many law students I know are working for large firms until some financial goal is met, after which they can (happily) kiss it goodbye.

It's like the archtypal movie career criminal who just needs "one big score" before going straight and moving down to a quiet beach town in Baja.