Sunday, February 2, 2014

Lawyer Riches Express with Stops in Nashville and Pittsburgh

As this article documents, larger firms in Nashville, Tennessee have cranked up hiring lately.  Double-digit increases in hiring at multiple large firms, and while there's no discussion of any layoffs, stealth or otherwise, it's hard to imagine that that sort of thing is occurring, either.

What's changed?  Well, the economy has gotten better.  And clients are also embracing new payment models:
Instead of waiting to discover the bill after a transaction or issue is resolved, with alternative arrangements in place, clients and lawyers establish costs in the early phases of a project 
While it allows firms to control how much profit is made on a particular case or deal, it also can mean not getting paid for some work if the cost estimates end up being inaccurate, said Waller Chairman John Tishler. He estimates that 20 percent of Waller’s payments are based on alternative fee models, compared with about 1 percent in 2007.
And there's also opportunities exploding for lawyers who want a more flexible work schedule:
[Contract attorney company Counsel of Call], created in 2000, has quadrupled its revenues since 2009 as firms increasingly outsource due diligence and e-discovery services to Counsel on Call, and it has grown to more than 1,000 lawyers in seven markets, up from 600 in 2009.
WHOA!  four-hundred brand new jobs!  Holy fajitas, what the fuck are you kids bitching about?  That's a growth area if I've ever seen one.  We truly are seeing the dawn of a law school renaissance.

No wonder they had the foresight to open a new law school in the volunteer state!

But meanwhile, law schools have to continue their course of dumping cash from helicopters onto ignorant unenlightened folk who would rather use the bills as toilet paper.  From Pittsburgh:
The [new] three-year scholarships [at the University of Pittsburgh] range from $10,000 a year to full tuition — currently $29,660 for Pennsylvania residents and $36,864 for out-of-state students — for top students who apply by Feb. 15.
UNDER TWO WEEKS LEFT.  ACHTUNG!  This deal will not get any sweeter until it actually does.  Get. off. your. ass. now!  Pronto!  Andele andele!  Even those of you who don't want to be lawyers can profit from a law degree at these prices.

And it's not like the other top-notch school in Pittsburgh is overrun with applications:
Duquesne's law school reduced and capped its class size and began increasing scholarship aid about three years ago to maintain standards, said law school Dean Ken Gormley. He said about 70 percent of Duquesne law students receive scholarships. Those who do get three-year commitments.
That other 30 percent is truly the salt of the Earth.  Bless you, you noblest soldiers.  Bless you.  Folks, now is the time to catch this wave.  With the legal market exploding, it's never been a better time to get a law degree and find yourself at the pinnacle of the New Normal.

3 comments:

  1. So they're trying to maintain the quality of their incoming classes. That doesn't enhance the value of their degrees. It just means that they're cheating a better group of students, and charging them bit less overall than last year.

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  2. What an absolute and utter joke the legal education industry is. Law schools destroy and corrupt the lives of promising young people. The evil SOBs who run these rip-off operations know this, but don't care. You'd be an utter fool to attend law school and waste the best years of your life on an utterly worthless piece of paper.

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  3. The alternative billing model just means that clients are insisting on knowing what they are paying for up front and putting a stop to the hourly billing gravy train.

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