Lawyering Up
Everywhere I turn there are lawyers. The American Bar Association says that there are over 1.3 million lawyers in the United States. That’s only 0.73% of the working population of the country (I define that as those over 25 but under 75 since that seems like the working age), but it still sounds like a lot. That compares to 2 million engineers, 1.1 million doctors and only 141,000 bankers (I find that number suspiciously low). All throughout my career in banking, I worked hand-in-hand with lawyers. There is very little that happens in banking that does not involve lawyers. In addition to the contractual matters that need to be established, negotiated and adjudicated every day, there is the extreme regulatory environment which requires a regulatory attorney to insure that lines do not get crossed. There are corporate lawyers, securities lawyers, regulatory lawyers, litigators and every imaginable subset of those broader categories.
In my current role as an expert witness, the tables have turned somewhat. I used to hire lawyers and direct their efforts and listen to their advice and now I get hired by lawyers and am asked to give them advice. In the old days if I was involved in a trial I was either the principle or a fact witness, but now I am an expert witness and am supposed to opine dispassionately about the fact of the case based on my experience in the realm and market evidence that I can cite to support my opinions. At this very moment I am working with lawyers from a dozen different law firms, big and small. Some are representing plaintiffs and some are representing defendants. Three quarters of my cases are currently for plaintiffs with the other quarter being for defendants, though it is worth noting that most case involve counterclaims and therefore most cases have me representing both plaintiffs and defendant in one fell swoop.
Watching the Donald Trump trials proceed, I’m amazed how many different prosecutors and defense lawyers get hired and/or interviewed by the cable news channels to bring color commentating to the event the way ex-athlete’s commentate on ball games. One thing I have never seen in sports broadcasting (not to say that it has never happened) is to see referees or umpires in the commentator booths. This barrier is being breached every day on cable news with regard to these trials. I have seen a half dozen active or recent judges interviewed for their views and comments about the proceedings. I would have thought that professional barriers and norms would advise against that sort of commentary, but it appears not to be the case. It is not surprising that most of the lawyers on screen are either actively practicing defense attorneys or professors of the practice, but I must admit that when I see an active prosecutor commenting I always wonder what his or her boss or constituency thinks of that. Is he taking time off or is this considered part of his professional development? I’m especially surprised to see the DA for Palm Beach County, Donald Trump’s county of residence, on MSNBC on an almost daily basis.
It is also interesting how many of the lawyers who represent or used to represent Donald Trump have been indicted, convicted and are serving time behind bars. They are under criminal as well as civilian litigation peril. Between that and Trump’s history of non-payment of anyone who serves him, everyone notes that its amazing he can get people to represent him. Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Christina Bobb, Jeffrey Clark, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, Stefanie Lambert, Lawrence Joseph, Julia Haller, Brandon Johnson, Evan Corcoran (technically not indicted, but certainly subpoenaed), and more. In one of the cases in which I have recently been retained as an expert, I will be coming up against one of Trump’s high-profile ex-lawyers. Not surprisingly, I see the case as an outright frivolous carpet-bombing litigation which is not the proudest moment of the American jurisprudence system. I guess that is my way of saying that I do not understand why any lawyer would want to represent him. I know that it is said that any publicity is good publicity, but that cannot be true in situations where reputation matters, like it does in legal circles.
I never really gave more than brief thought about going to law school. I think the truth is that I found it too rigorous for my taste, but I could also say that there are too any attorneys in the world and that the drudgery of long associate hours going blind reading reams of papers and opinions. I remember an early deal where I saw a senior law partner staying late to clean up paperwork after the bankers and principles went on their merry way. That showed me that the hard work of lawyering perhaps didn’t end with a vaunted partnership elevation. It was reinforcement for my decision to use the law, but not try to practice it. Let’s face it, lawyers are not high on the spectrum of professional respect. I know the old joke can be applied to any profession, but what do you call 1.3 million lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? A good start.
Law schools just keep pumping out more lawyers. That seemed to peak about a decade ago at 50,000 per year, but is now down to 35,000. That’s a 30% reduction that probably represents a combination of the cost of attending law school, which runs at about $150,000 for three years, and the reduction in the number of jobs for lawyers. There are more than 20% of all graduating law students who do not immediately get full-time employment. Many of those may not want to practice law per se, but rather prefer to use their law degrees as a foundation to pursue other careers in business. I should also note that the percentage of law students who are women has even steadily rising and now represents 56% of the student body. I’m not sure what that implies other than that women are more willing to put in the hard work and pursue a path that is increasingly difficult. It is said that American is the most litigious society on earth. I do not know why that is the case (no pun intended), but I would like to think that it comes hand-in-hand with the democratic process which is constantly in search of truth through adjudication. Whatever the reason, I see nothing on the horizon, including tort reform, that will lessen the reality that lawyering up is a good old American tradition.