It’ll mostly be the high-flying set that goes out of business unless the economy become a lot worse. The founders of these firms and those who managed them for decades knew that young lawyers had to build up their experience before they were worth high incomes.
But for the past couple decades, ‘name’ law firms would hire at big salaries recent law school grads who hadn’t even yet taken the bar. A competent legal secretary was actually worth more to the firm than an inexperienced law school grad.
Lots of hard lessons to be relearned in the coming years.
associates at big law firms existed for the most part to bill clients at very high rates for simple document review and memorandum drafting. An associate at a small firm would make barely more than a teacher but would have a great deal more experience.
Thank you....because just the other day I had to stop a first-year "I went to Stanford" idiot from calendaring an answer to a federal complaint as due in 30 days when it was in fact due in 20 (answers in Cali state court are due in 30). IWTS lawwyer insisted what the heck did I know, did I go to law school?? I loved opening up the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to Rule 12 and sticking it under his nose and saying "READ Sparky..."