Sports

Recession is Hurting Lawyer Sports

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Yes, I have my Al Bundy-esque stories of high school sports glory. You’re not going to believe this, but I used to be a tailback. 4-year letterman, 3-year starter, with a sub-5.0 forty time good enough for D-III, probably could have made a D-II team if I really wanted it.
Yes, I used to … care.
But, by the time I got to Biglaw my athletic days were long gone (Mmm … college). By the time I got to Biglaw, I could pull a hamstring walking from my seat at Shea to the hot dog stand (Mmm … hot dogs). When I was a summer associate, a colleague broke his collar bone running out a grounder at the firm outing. I vowed that would not be me. Sitting is the better part of valor. So, I stayed clear of firm organized (non-beer pong) sporting events and leagues.
But I was glad they existed. Hyper-competitive people who are not me should release some of that energy on athletic fields and gyms instead of unleashing all of it in the office.
Sadly, this recession means cutbacks. Am Law Daily reports that one of the things being axed is firm sponsored teams in lawyer sports leagues:

New York’s Lawyers Athletic League, for instance, has seen the number of teams in its winter basketball league drop about 30 percent over the past two years, from 142 to 100. Participation in Los Angeles’ primary legal industry sports league, the Landau Lawyers League, has also experienced a decline in participation levels for its softball and basketball leagues. And in Houston, the basketball, softball, and football leagues organized by the city’s young lawyers association have all gotten smaller over the past 18 months.
One big reason the Houston leagues are shrinking: some firms simply don’t want to pay the entry fees required to field teams.
“The bigger firms don’t seem to have pulled in the reins,” says Earl Spencer, a lawyer with Weingarten Realty Investors who chairs the Houston Young Lawyers Association’ sports committee. “But at smaller firms, where 400 or 500 bucks makes a difference, there is more reluctance now.”

Even at firms that can afford to participate, the optics of paying for employed lawyers to have fun, while recently laid off lawyers cash unemployment checks, are not good.
Additional details after the jump.


Hey, the last thing anybody wants would be for a laid off lawyer to show up at a basketball gym to heckle his or her former firm:

In New York, reluctance to pay steep entry fees–which can climb as high as $2,975 per team for the basketball league–doesn’t explain the across-the-board drop in participation, says league commissioner Steve Frenchman.
“A lot of firms can’t justify sponsoring a team when they have to let people go,” Frenchman says, adding that the layoffs have also left a smaller pool of potential players.

I think there are many ways to justify the cost of sponsorship, even in the face of layoffs and other cutbacks. Just think about how much better it is for everybody if there are at least a few basically fit people in the office. It’s like having some tasteful art on the walls, they just make the day go by a little bit faster.
For those that participate, sports can help form bonds with lawyers from across your city. And, by “bonds” and I mean “people you can call when you get laid off because your firm can’t afford you and its basketball team.”
Most importantly, if some maniac junior partner can go out, shoot some hoops, throw some elbows, and tire themselves out a little bit, that really benefits even the non-sporting members of the office. Saving testosterone for the gym helps keep it from spewing all over the email.
So, yay lawyer sports. Let’s hope they rebound as the economy gets better.
Game Off: Downturn Hitting Lawyers Where They Work and Play [Am Law Daily]

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