Quitting In Droves LawCrossing

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Quitting In Droves LawCrossingSummary Many
associates quit soon after they get their first
law firm job.
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• Is BigLaw getting you down?
• Are you working your tail off only to get more
  work piled on top of what you already have?
• Do you feel disrespected, taken advantage of, or
  simply mistreated?
• If you are experiencing the same duress as many
  other young legal associate, it is no wonder
  there is such a high turnover rate among todays
  legal associates, even as law firms
  enjoy increased profitswithin the last year.
• But more than that, as a lawyer, youre needed
  and that is whats truly important.
• 80-hour workweeks, a seemingly insurmountable
  workload, and to make things acutely agitating,
  the long hours can invariably damage a lawyers
  relationships away from work.This is a common
  practice within the legal profession that is
  rarely discussed outside of law firms or
  courtrooms, as well as something rarely if at
  all taught in law school.In fact, it is as if
  attorneys are required to grit and bear the
  consequences of their job without showing any
  outward pain or struggle, much like an injured
  pro athlete, or a soldier who experiences PTSD.

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• Simply put, many associates suffer this fate when
  they first begin their legal career, which causes
  them to quickly dispense with
• Their feeling of triumph due to completing law
  school, and embarking on a strong legal career.
• Their feeling that their position as a lawyer has
  come to fruition for the better good.
• Their feeling that the population at large has a
  new advocate with fresh outlooks on law.
• All that quickly dissipates once a lawyer gets a
  taste of the inner workings of the sausage
  factories that represent todays BigLaw firms.
  And while the before mentioned abuses are said
  to weave a common thread through many so-called
  prestigious legal establishments, an increasing
  number of lawyers have found that the only way to
  have a respite from the slave-like labor
  associated with a law firm is to quit the law
  practice entirely.
• Quitting law, however, is not (and should not be)
  an easy decision.
• It is a wryly funny that law firms like to call
  themselves businesses, yet at the same time,
  behave nothing like a traditional money-for-goods
  entity that cares for its employees simply
  because that entity understands the value of its
  employees.

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On the opposite end of the spectrum, according
to Rhonda Muir, Esq., attrition is back in the
spotlight of the legal world with an ongoing 20
attrition rate among lawyers who should feel
lucky to have a job. As the article explains,
what is interesting about the 20 annual rate is
that it remains the same as prior to the 2008
recession. Needless to say, this has caused panic
within the legal world to the point legal
professionals and consultants claim that with the
alarming rate of departure, law firms will no
longer be able to sustain their so-called
pyramid business model, and work their drone
attorneys until they drop.With that bleak
outlook, the query was put forth as to why there
is such a high rate of legal career migration to
other interests when legal jobs remain scarce,
salaries and prestige are high, and even big
bonuses are coming back?While law firm turnover
rate remains almost 10 times the 2-3 turnover
rate at Fortunes 100 Best Companies, legal
insiders maintain that associates leave for many
reasons, not the least of which is their own poor
performance, as well as an evolving disinterest
in the profession, its approachable amount of
work, as well as other personal issues.Many
associates who have summarily left the legal
profession subscribe their reasoning to poor
management, which, when youre told (not asked)
to work 60 to 80 hours a week, poor management to
overworked legal associates is more or less the
same as the reverend preaching to the
choir.This article first appeared "Quitting In
Droves" on LawCrossing, also on
Authorstream.LawCrossing is the world leader in
"pure" monitoring and reporting of legal jobs,
through its active and growing research into all
legal employers throughout the world.