A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Symposium: In a Down Legal Market, Law Schools Must Change Too

On Thursday September 17th, the University of San Francisco School of Law held a timely and informative symposium focused on navigating the changing legal employment landscape in the wake of the economy's collapse last September. Law students, lawyers, headhunters and media assembled, some seeking jobs, some looking to hire and all curious about what the new landscape means for the practice of law.

The symposium's timeliness and importance was evidenced by a packed house and riveting panels focused on the big firm environment, solo and small firm practice, alternative legal careers and future models for legal careers. The San Francisco Business Journal captured its flavor. http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2009/09/debating_the_future_of_young_legal_eagles.html

But a funny thing happened on the way to the symposium: if the focus was legal employment post-graduation, which it surely was, another question kept presenting itself. What does all of this mean for legal education and for students before they graduate? And the answer is apparent: plenty!

Panelist after panelist raised questions and described emerging practices that must impact the way we legal educators conceive our work. For me, the 'aha!' moment came during a panel on future careers that touched on new law firm models emerging from the ashes of Lehman Brothers and the collapse of venerable and respected law firms such as San Francisco's Heller Ehrman. Panelists made it clear that the focus is shifting to hiring senior, experienced attorneys and that the traditional training grounds for lawyers -- the firm environment -- were fast disappearing.

The reason for this trend pierces the heart of the crisis, exposing the unsustainable way legal employment is currently structured: a partner/associate structure that depends on long hours for associates billed at very high (astronomical?) rates and a distancing of the partner from doing much of the actual work that the client expected the partner to perform. Associates were leaving firms in large numbers, unhappy with the environment, and clients, particularly in these economic times, have revolted. The upshot: emerging new models in which experienced lawyers are being hired at much reduced rates, often on a project-basis, to perform work directly for the client. Participants at the symposium, such as Paragon Legal and Virtual Law Partners (VLP), using such models reported big successes and booming business.

In the wake of this, the young lawyer and the new graduate will find a job market with more limited options along with training opportunities that may be hard to come by, reported many on the panels. It was time, Andrea Chavez, founder of VLP, for young lawyers to "adjust their expectations".

But it's not just the young lawyers that have to adjust. Law schools must too. Where will training be provided? Where will the basic skills be learned? Law schools must step up and enhance even more the skills training that we know must be a part of modern legal education, including the ability ferret out unethical conduct and to act professionally.

It is not enough for law schools to claim that "we do this already". Indeed, we do it now, but not enough. Just ask the Carnegie Foundation whose latest report on legal education recommends more skills and professionalism training. Just ask the AALS whose recent report on best practices in legal education paralleled much of the Carnegie recommendations. Both reports were published well before the crash, but the crash emphasizes the critical need to follow through on curricular reforms that will make skills and ethical training more front and center than ever.

The crash also highlights the need for law schools to do something that may be even more difficult -- maintain the spirit and passions of our students as they face the bleakest job market in decades. Our students are bright and motivated. They want to do the right thing. How else would one explain USF Law students engaging the community by the hundreds, serving meals and working with children and prison inmates? How else would one explain USF law students going around the world, around the nation and all over California this summer working in nine developing countries, in five southern states and here in San Francisco on projects ranging from war crimes to law reform to the fight against the death penalty to issues affecting migrant workers. These spirited students demand our commitment to create opportunities to feed their insatiable appetite to do good.

So as we look at the financial crisis, legal educators must not only focus on what is happening in the legal job market, we must also focus on what we're doing right at home in our law schools. We owe it to our students and to the profession. Indeed, a funny thing happened on the way to the symposium!

USF LAW SYMPOSIUM -- HOW TO NAVIGATE THE CHANGING LEGAL LANDSCAPE -- KICKS OFF

The symposium on changes in the law post- economic collapse has kicked off. I offered introductory remarks that explain our hopes for the gathering. We're also on Twitter detailing some of what is going at this tremendously useful colloquium. The place is packed which is gratifying and also a statement about how complicated the times.

Introductory Remarks

MY NAME IS JEFFREY BRAND AND I AM THE DEAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOL OF LAW. WE ARE HONORED TO PRESENT TODAY’S SEMINAR: “HOW TO NAVIGATE THE CHANGING LEGAL LANDSCAPE FROM THE GROUND”.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS GATHERING CANNOT BE OVERSTATED: A YEAR AGO ALMOST TO THE DAY, THE COUNTRY SUFFERED ITS BIGGEST ECONOMIC COLLAPSE SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION – A COLLAPSE THAT AFFECTED THE ENTIRE COUNTRY AND DRAMATICALLY CHANGED THE LANDSCAPE OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION AS WE KNOW IT. VENERABLE, RESPECTED FIRMS DISAPPEARED IN DAYS. OFFERS OF EMPLOYMENT WERE DEFERRED OR SIMPLY WITHDRAWN. THE PUBLIC SECTOR (WHAT WAS LEFT OF IT AT THE TIME THE CRISIS) FROZE JOBS AND ENGAGED IN LAYOFFS. LAW STUDENT CHATTER FOCUSED ON OPPORTUNITIES LOST AND DEBT INCURRED. LAW SCHOOLS REVISED BUDGETS AND CONSIDERED THE IMPACT OF THE CRISIS.

NO INSTITUTION, AND NONE OF US HERE, CAN CLAIM IMMUNITY FROM THE DRAMATIC TURN OF EVENTS. EVEN TODAY, AS THE MARKET REBOUNDS, THE CRISIS REMAINS, AND THE ULTIMATE IMPACT ON THE PRACTICE OF LAW REMAINS UNCERTAIN.

TODAY’S SYMPOSIUM IS AN EFFORT TO SURVEY THE LEGAL LANDSCAPE POST-LEHMAN BROTHERS. WE ENGAGE TODAY NOT SOLELY OUT OF HISTORICAL INTEREST – ALTHOUGH CERTAINLY IT IS OF INTEREST. THIS SYMPOSIUM IS ABOUT PRACTICAL WAYS TO NAVIGATE THESE UNCHARTED WATERS WHETHER IN BUSINESS LAW PRACTICE, SOLO PRACTICE, SMALL FIRMS, ALTERNATIVE CAREER PATHS OR IMAGING LEGAL CAREERS OF THE FUTURE. TODAY 15 OF THE TOP LEGAL PROFESSIONALS IN CALIFORNIA GATHER TO DISCUSS THESE TOPICS IN THE CONTEXT OF THESE MOMENTOUS EVENTS. TIME IS SHORT SO MY REMARKS WILL BE TOO.

FIRST HEARTFELT THANK YOUS:

· TO OUR USF COMMUNITY:

o THE OFFICES OF DEVELOPMENT AND CAREER PLANNING AND A SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO GO-TO, DO-IT-ALL ANITA AYERS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OFFICE.

o OUR BOARD OF GOVERNORS, ONE OF THE LAW SCHOOL’S GREATEST ASSETS THAT CREATES AN ALUMNI SUPPORT NETWORK WITHOUT EQUAL. THEY “GOT IT” AND DID EXTRAORDINARY WORK AND EXHIBITED GREAT SPIRIT CONCEIVING THIS DAY AND UNDERSTANDING ITS IMPORTANCE FOR THE LEGAL COMMUNITY AND OUR STUDENTS. I WOULD BE REMISS TO NOT SINGLE OUT ALUMS AND BOARD MEMBERS STACEY MILLER, TOM TROMBADORE AND OUR PROFESSOR HENRY BROWN WHO TOOK THE LABORING OARS.

· THANK YOU TO OUR LEAD SPONSOR WHOSE SUPPORT MAKES THIS DAY POSSIBLE. FOR THOSE OF US AT USF IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT IT IS STACEY MILLER WHO FOUNDED MILLER, SABINO AND LEE INC. LEGAL PLACEMENT SERVICES WHO DEAL DAILY WITH THE FALLOUT FROM THE CRISIS.

· THANK YOU OF COURSE TO OUR PANELISTS.

· AND THANK YOU TO THE MEDIA WHO ARE HERE TODAY. THE MESSAGE MUST BE SENT THAT LAWYERS AND LEGAL EDUCATORS RECOGNIZE THAT BUSINESS AS USUAL IS NO LONGER POSSIBLE; THAT THE CRISIS, AS PAINFUL AS IT IS, HAS US THINKING AMBOUT MORE THAN MAINTAINING – WE KNOW WE MUST LEARN FROM IT AND SEEK TO RETILL THE LEGAL LANDSCAPE IN WAYS THAT BETTER SERVE THE LEGAL COMMUNITY AND THOSE WE ARE SWORN TO SERVE.

AND, PERHAPS, IT IS THIS LAST POINT THAT BEARS THE MOST EMPHASIS. SURELY ECONOMIC POLICIES OF THE PAST ADMINISTRATION AND GREED ON WALL STREET CONTRIBUTED MIGHTILY TO THE NIGHTMARISH MOMENTS OF THIS PAST YEAR AND THE SUFFERING OF THE NEARLY 13% UNEMPUNEMPLOYED IN THIS STATE. BUT WITHIN OUR OWN PROFESSION, WE ALSO BEAR RESPONSIBILITY AS FIRMS OVER EXPANDED AND CREATED ECONOMIC STRUCTURES THAT ULTIMATELY WERE UNSUSTAINABLE -- WHILE, AT THE SAME TIME, THE PUBLIC SECTOR WAS DECIMATED, DENYING LEGAL SERVICES TO THOSE WHO DESPERATELY NEED ACCESS TO JUSTICE.

SO MY HOPE IS THAT AS THE DAY PROGRESSES, WE WILL THINK NOT ONLY ABOUT THE BEST PATHS FOR OURSELVES AND OUR LOVED ONES – A PURSUIT OF THE HIGHEST ORDER – BUT THAT WE WILL ALSO CONSIDER OUR PROFESSION AND THE LESSONS WE HAVE LEARNED.

YOUR PRESENCE AND PARTICIPATION IN THIS SYMPOSIUM, AND THE INCREDIBLE SUPPORT OF OUR STUDENTS BY OUR BOARD OF GOVERNORS IN PRESENTING THIS SEMINAR TODAY, GIVES ME HOPE THAT THE LEGAL PROFESSION, THOUGH BUFFETED BY THE CROSSWINDS OF A STRUGGLING ECONOMY AND FACING AN UNKNOWABLE FUTURE, WILL EMERGE MORE EXCITING, DIVERSE AND IN TUNE WITH THE LIVES OF THOSE OF US WHO CHOOSE TO PRACTICE AND TO PURSUE JUSTICE INTO THE FUTURE.

WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO. IN THE SPIRIT OF OUR MISSION OF EDUCATING MINDS AND HEARTS TO CHANGE THE WORLD, I WISH US WELL ON OUR VOYAGE TODAY. WE ALL HAVE A LOT RIDING ON ITS SUCCESS.