| | |
|
SoWhatShouldWeDo 9 - 08 Jul 2009 - Main.JasonLissy
|
| | I was intimidated by the percentage of laid-off CLS biglaw lawyers Eben wrote on the board today. Still, just because a person loses her job doesn’t necessarily mean she made a wrong choice. Within the current economy, even public interest organizations have laid off lawyers. So, what should we do?
Eben’s In-Class Answer: | | | The problem is that we don’t know what we want changed. There are two fundamental questions that we have to address: | |
<
< | 1. What do we want to do? | >
> | 1. What do we want to do? | | | | |
<
< | 2. What do we need to know to be able to do it? | >
> | 2. What do we need to know to be able to do it? | | | Question 1 can be answered relatively early in our law school careers. Some come to CLS with a plan but are derailed by the “cannery” system that is in place. Others enter without a clear objective and end up similarly molded. | | | For law school to shift its paradigm seems counterintuitive b/c it suggests that the institution for learning about the very foundation of society is fluid and that the law is not the firm grounding that greater society embraces but something very dynamic. | |
<
< | To Jonathan: Your post suggests that because the delivery of legal services and education of lawyers is dynamic, the foundations of law must be dynamic: a proposition that need not be true. Reflecting on our semester, it seems our collective goal, from the study of realism/formalism and then of firm paradigms, is to make the institutions of lawyering (from education to the actual delivery of services) more responsive to ideals that haven’t changed: procedural due process for all citizens and the achievement of just results. | >
> | To Jonathan: Your post suggests that because the delivery of legal services and education of lawyers is dynamic, the foundations of law must be dynamic: a proposition that need not be true.
Reflecting on our semester, it seems our collective goal, from the study of realism/formalism and then of firm paradigms, is to make the institutions of lawyering (from education to the actual delivery of services) more responsive to ideals that haven’t changed: procedural due process for all citizens and the achievement of just results. | | | Secondly, it is possible that the law is the firm grounding that greater society embraces, in part, because it is at times dynamic. Citizens put their faith in the machinery of our justice system in the hope that it will furnish fairness. The recognition of human rights, shift to notice pleading, and emergence of class-actions for mass-torts all reflect dynamic shifts in the law which stand as efforts to realize the principles our legal system is grounded in. These shifts are consistent with liberal-progressive belief that human nature can be improved through advances in the law. | | | To Soe Jung: A theme running throughout Molissa, Jonathan, and Eben’s commentaries is that as students we have bargaining-power that can be maximized through collective action. As law students, we are consumers of our education. As young lawyers we are indispensable components of the biglaw firm. As elite law students we are a limited resource. Together we have power to refuse to be commoditized and to reshape markets.
-Jason | |
>
> | LOGISTICS
During the semester a number of us, myself included, seemed to believe the costs of running a solo practice would be prohibitive.
I know Eben emphasizes focusing initially on “strategic” concerns (e.g. finding an area of expertise and type of service to deliver) rather than on “tactical” concerns (e.g. the nuts and bolts of running a law office), but AboveTheLaw? recently ran some pieces detailing economical options for those considering eventually opening up a solo practice. http://abovethelaw.com/solo_practitioners/
Here are some of the most interesting ideas:
1. A Virtual Office: for $100-300/month you can obtain a Manhattan mailing address, receptionist, voicemail service, and conference room time depending on the package.
http://www.nycvirtualoffice.com
http://www.nycofficesuites.com/virtualoffice.htm
2. Perks of Bar Association Membership: membership, at least in NYC, apparently provides free, book-able conference rooms and basic legal research services. http://www.nycbar.org/SmallFirmCenter/MemberBenefits.htm
3. Ideas for Generating Business
Web-Presence: Craigslist, LinkedIn? , Facebook, Blogging
Aiding the Media: may generate media appearances or quotations in local papers
CardScan Software: allows you to scan business cards into digital format. http://www.cardscan.com |
|
|
|
|
This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform.
All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
|
|
| | |