Work fewer hours and move to Cleveland. That’s not advice that most young lawyers hear from their elders, but it’s exactly (and laughably) what Justice Scalia said during a talk at the University of Chicago Law School.
He’s being mocked by those lawyerly types who admit that while it’s nice to have a balance of life, that kind of advice really doesn’t fly for folks wet behind the ears trying to make a place for themselves in the profession.
Here’s exactly what Scalia said:
“Try to find a practice that enables you to maintain a human existence … time for your family, your church or synagogue, community … boy scouts, little league,” Scalia said, noting he started with Jones Day in Cleveland. “You should look for a place like that. I’m sure they’re still out there. Maybe you have to go to Cleveland.”
Above the Law’s rejoinder (which, like others, called Scalia “out of touch.”):
Mother of pearl. While I do appreciate the nod to the West Coast’s stoner mellow culture (especially from Justice Scalia, of all people), this advice comes across as more than a little insensitive to young lawyers. Let’s set aside the fact that not “work[ing] too many hours” at a Biglaw firm is basically an oxymoron (or as Quinn wrote, “I don’t think it’s too out of school to note that Jones Day, like its peers, probably has a billing requirement for associates near 1,950 hours — even in Cleveland.”)
But a lot of recent law school graduates can’t work less, because they’re not working at all. Anyone who has spent time with unemployed people (I am on my third unemployed roommate. Don’t ask.), or has been an unemployed person, knows one of the worst things you can say is: “Chill out, bro. Everything will be fine. Just spend more time with your family, your church, and your local Little League team.”
This article appears in Feb 15-21, 2012.
One of the biggest problems in the USA is our constant litigation and stalling good things in courts of law. Lawyers need to change from seeking out firms who want to perpetuate this problem. The goal is to bill hours which requires constant litigation and dispute. Often these disputes are manufactured within the system. Good lawyers of today will sek out positive jobs where positive actions are not measured in billing hours and law suits created and milked to the maximum. Again..we have educated too many lawyers and not enough thinkers and doers. We have also educated to many fake business people with being more concerned with profit and liability than positive products sold with a hand shake and honor. Our degrees today can do nothing without a contract and it is this which has held us back a great deal.