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Are Today's Lawyers Stretched Too Far?
Recent suicides carry a message for all lawyers -- especially those in big firms -- about pressures, priorities and values
The American Lawyer
June 01, 2009
These are hard times for most people who work at big law firms. For some, they are unbearable. The suicide in late April of Mark Levy, a 59-year-old lawyer at Kilpatrick Stockton who reportedly had just been laid off, was a horrible reminder of the toll that the stresses of this profession can take, especially in the ailing economy. A week after Levy died, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett acknowledged that an associate who had been let go had also taken her life.
A suicide is a deeply individual tragedy. Still, in the wake of these deaths, and other jarring events in the profession, it's time for lawyers at big firms to reassess their priorities and values. You just can't keep going like this.
Take a look around. The world is increasingly focused on sustainability, the notion that we need to be vigilant of the consequences of our actions, and attempt to live lives that do less harm to the world and to ourselves. It's the creed of the environmental movement, and to some extent, the business world, where people are trying to repair the ravages caused by out-of-control spending and lending.
The Am Law 200 has its own sustainability problem. Paying first-year associates $160,000 a year is not sustainable. Inflating profits through high associate-partner ratios is not sustainable. Double-digit growth in profits per partner is not sustainable. Relying on bank borrowings that force firms to walk a tightrope of punitive covenants is not sustainable. Expecting lawyers to devote every ounce of their energy to their firm and its clients is not sustainable.
The cracks in the foundation expand by the day. Every week brings news of fresh layoffs, delayed start dates and salary cuts. More than 2,800 lawyers from at least 62 Am Law 200 firms have been laid off, and the numbers for staff are even higher. It's not clear how this will end.
It is clear, however, that these cutbacks are inflicting a lot of pain, as the suicides of Levy and the Simpson associate attest. If you can stomach it, take a look at the comments that regularly appear on legal blogs, and you'll see that there's a sinkhole of troubled souls out there overcome with anger, pessimism and self-loathing. The profession's emotional wound, however, didn't appear with this recession. Lots of lawyers have been unhappy for a long time.
As someone who has worked as an associate at a law firm and covered firms for more than 20 years, I've seen many sides of the profession. It's filled with bright, likable people, but too many seem unhappy, or unfulfilled or so stressed that they're miserable. I've noticed that successful lawyers often seem overwhelmed and anxious. I've noticed how big-firm lawyers, partners and associates alike, seem scared to death to talk honestly about their work and their firms. I've noticed how lawyers come alive when they discuss their pro bono cases. I've noticed that having more money doesn't make people happier, and a blinkered pursuit of money will turn into a sad journey. In years past, I've been part of the team that picked our Litigation Department of the Year, and met with some of the most talented lawyers in the country. Their stories invariably involve cases where they worked "around the clock" for months, trial schedules that took them away from home for weeks, and all-out pretrial warfare. I've wondered about the toll all this took on them and their families.
At the same time, some of the most interesting, engaging, fulfilled lawyers I've encountered have come from smaller firms that aren't in the limelight. Among my friends who are lawyers, the one who enjoys her work the most runs a solo practice. Of the law firms I've covered, the one that has struck me as having the happiest, most well-rounded lawyers and has been consistently delightful to deal with, is Holland & Hart. They're a blip on The Am Law 200 - a 385-lawyer firm with revenue of $180 million that operates in flyover territory: Denver, Aspen, Jackson Hole, Boise, Salt Lake City and the like. A New York partner might mistake their profits per partner, $385,000, for the cost of redecorating her East Hampton summer cottage. Holland & Hart lawyers put in an honest day's work, but leave time to ski, and hike, and fish, and enjoy life outside their offices. And they genuinely seem to like each other. They've never demoted a partner to nonequity status, never merged with a big firm to improve their "platform," never boosted their partner-associate ratio beyond 1:1 and never laid off associates for economic reasons.
I often hear lawyers blame The American Lawyer for driving this law firm obsession with profits. I'll agree that we do cheer for the economic winners, but in the end we do not set the priorities for lawyers or their firms.
Moving away from the billable hour might solve a lot of problems, but I've been hearing that prescription for so long without seeing any meaningful change that, quite frankly, I'm sick of the subject. Let me know when it happens. Changing a big institution is terribly hard. So it's up to each lawyer out there to decide how to live his or her life.
Will more partners follow the path of Holland & Hart, and decide that they don't need profits per partner north of $2 million, or even $1 million, to have a good life? I don't know. Some lawyers thrive in a high-pressure big-firm practice, and truly wouldn't have it any other way. But others, if they stepped back, took a deep breath, and reflected, might decide they want a different kind of life.
Sustaining the current big-firm business model is hard. It doesn't leave much time in the day for reflection. Maybe there's even less time in a recession, what with marketing, pitching and firm strategy meetings. (Maybe there's more rejection in a recession, too.) It's hard to knock a person out of the daily grind, to get him or her to stop, look around and think. But maybe it's time to do just that.
