Glass Half Full: The Decline and Rebirth of the Legal Profession

Glass Half Full: The Decline and Rebirth of the Legal Profession

The hits keep coming for the American legal profession. Law schools are churning out too many graduates, depressing wages, and constricting the hiring market. Big Law firms are crumbling, as the relentless pursuit of profits corrodes their core business model. Modern technology can now handle routine legal tasks like drafting incorporation papers and wills, reducing the need to hire lawyers; tort reform and other regulations on litigation have had the same effect. As in all areas of today's economy, there are some big winners; the rest struggle to find work, or decide to leave the field altogether, which leaves fewer options for consumers who cannot afford to pay for Big Law. It would be easy to look at these enormous challenges and see only a bleak future, but Ben Barton instead sees cause for optimism. Taking the long view, from the legal Wild West of the mid-nineteenth century to the post-lawyer bubble society of the future, he offers a close analysis of the legal market to predict how lawyerly creativity and entrepreneurialism can save the profession. In every seemingly negative development, there is an upside. The trend towards depressed wages and computerized legal work is good for middle class consumers who have not been able to afford a lawyer for years. The surfeit of law school students will correct itself as the law becomes a less attractive and lucrative profession. As Big Law shrinks, so will the pernicious influence of billable hours, which incentivize lawyers to spend as long as possible on every task, rather than seeking efficiency and economy. Lawyers will devote their time to work that is much more challenging and meaningful. None of this will happen without serious upheaval, but all of it will ultimately restore the health of the faltering profession. A unique contribution to our understanding of the legal crisis, the unconventional wisdom of Glass Half Full gives cause for hope in what appears to be a hopeless situation. "Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduate students, and above." -J. R. Vile, Middle Tennessee State University, CHOICE "As the title suggests, Barton gives an optimistic spin to the situation. He foretells rebirth through dramatic changes in tools and approach. Barton's optimism sets his work apart, as does his insightful overview of emerging technology. He examines specific online legal information providers and virtual alternatives to traditional practice." -Carey A. Sias, Law Library Journal "Recommended to be read by all law school deans, law firm managing partners, government ministers for justice, law society bodies, national legal profession regulators, and all current and aspiring law students in the US and internationally." -Magdalene D'Silva, The Modern Law Review A counterintuitive and optimistic reconsideration of the crisis in the American legal profession Benjamin Barton is the Helen and Charles Lockett Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee. His scholarship ranges from bias in the judiciary, to the backgrounds of Supreme Court Justices, to libertarianism in the world of Harry Potter. His scholarship has been covered in Time Magazine, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Sydney Morning Herald, and ABA Journal. He is the author of The Lawyer-Judge Bias in the American Legal System.