Law schools around the country have apparently woken up to the fact that many young attorneys are going out on there own and starting a law firm. Perhaps its the economy. Perhaps the schools are listening and finally offering practice advice instead of dogmatic case law training. What ever the reason, I say it’s a good thing.
Karen Sloan at the National Law Journal reported law schools across the country are now starting law firm start-up incubators. In the article, Sloan discusses how a young attorney, Yogi Patel, has joined the City University of New York’s (CUNY) program that encourages providing low-cost legal service to the underserved communities. CUNY offers lawyers a support staff, low rent office space for up to two years, and a network of solo practitioner mentors while lawyers start their own law firms.
According to Sloan, CUNY is not alone in having a law firm start-up incubator. There are many other schools across the country who have or are starting these programs. Although, interestingly, it appears the larger, more prestigious schools like Harvard are not interested in spending money on these types of programs. For smaller schools, the impetus behind the move appears to be the economy. The National Law Journal Article has this interesting quote from Dana Morris, assistant dean for career development at Maryland Law:
“Looking down the line at the economy, we knew we would have more students looking at going solo, and we were looking for ways to creatively meet that need . . . We absolutely did this in response to the economy.”
It is no secret that the economy is forcing a lot of lawyers to look toward starting their own law practice. From my view, there has been a veritable explosion of law firm start-up related blogs and websites in the last three years (yes, I’m one of them). This is probably much different from what Carolyn Elefant at MyShingle.com experienced when she started her much-read blog. In the article, Ms. Elefant has some interesting perspective on the issue. I, for one, am glad that law schools are finally taking notice and it is great that law schools may be changing their ways.
I do, however, wonder about the “serving underprivileged communities” aspect of the law school programs. Does this mean that the students are operating as quasi-legal-aid-providers? If so, these programs are not doing a whole lot that is new or different. Most law schools have a clinic program where second and third year law students learn how to practice law while a faculty member (mentor) oversees their efforts. To my knowledge, the law school clinics often serve those who could not otherwise afford an attorney.
Law school clinics and serving those that cannot afford legal services is great. Society needs it. I wonder, though, if these students are really getting a good idea of what law practice is like. Working as an associate attorney at a busy, general practice law firm is much different than working for a legal aid clinic. Dealing with clients who can afford your services is much different than working for those who cannot. The issues that lawyers at private law firms work on are often very different from legal aid clinic services. I have done work for both the borderline poverty level client and for the very rich client. I can tell you, the issues are very different.
Ms. Sloan’s article didn’t discuss whether these students are eventually allowed to broaden their practice scope. I imagine that there is some kind of contractual tie-in, where the lawyers agree to serve the low-income community for a number of years. I have no problem with that. However, I fear that these lawyers may get stuck in practice areas and serving only a segment of society. If that is what they want to do, great, more power to them.
There are many ways to start a law firm. If you can get your current or former law school to sponsor you and pay for stuff, you should jump on that deal right now.