Old Lady Lawyer: What Some Fellow Dinosaurs Are Thinking

These are the most significant changes in the legal profession over the last 50 years.

old lady lawyer elderly woman grandmother grandma laptop computerYes, contrary to popular opinion, we dinosaur lawyers do think. We even have voiced our thoughts on the state of our profession through the years.

Out here in California, between dodging El Nino rains, mudslides, debris flows, and the occasional earthquake, the California Bar Journal wanted to hear from lawyers in the state, with fifty years in practice, about what they viewed as significant changes in the profession since admission to the bar.

I’ve only just about forty years in practice, so I’ll have to wait another decade before the bar asks me for my opinions (I suppose I could just provide some of my columns).

The bar noted that more than 800 attorneys crossed the fifty year membership line in 2015. Included in that group is the former Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Ronald George, and our current Governor, Jerry Brown.

Fifty years ago, I’m sure many of you reading this were not alive and your parents may not have even been alive, much less procreating. Thus, a little history lesson- 1965 saw the following (not by any means an exhaustive list): the arrival of the first American troops in Vietnam, Dr. Martin Luther King’s march in Selma, Alabama, the assassination of Malcolm X, the Watts riots, the premiere of the movie, The Sound of Music, a first class stamp cost five cents (no, that is not a typo) and last, but not least, for the dinosaurs among us, the start of Medicare.

Out of all the commenters mentioned in the California Bar Journal article, there was only one woman. No surprise there, given that women didn’t start law school in large numbers until the 1970s, and even then, in my class that began in 1973, women composed only twenty percent of the incoming class.

Some attorneys remembered IBM Selectric typewriters, hitting the books in law libraries, carbon paper, dictation machines, and shepardizing in those red volumes that contained the case citations which had to be checked to make sure the cited cases were still good law. How far the practice has come since then, they observed.

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Other commenters pointed out that instant communication through emails, attaching documents to be reviewed rightthissecond, has had its downside in not providing any time to actually think about a problem, perhaps even do a little research, so that the answer given was the right advice at the right time. I don’t think that the trend today to give instantaneous advice (with fingers crossed) necessarily does the client any service, especially if/when that advice has to be modified, amended, or even worse, retracted.

Some comments bemoaned the transition from the profession to a business with attached baggage: less camaraderie, fewer long term client relationships, the winning at any cost, advertising, and an extremely contentious environment. Some wish for the turning back of the clock, when life was simpler and so was the practice. Specialization was a word yet to be used.

To this old lady lawyer, what was most heartening were the comments that applauded as a significant change the women’s entry into the profession. The comments included such thoughts as “More women attorneys, thank God,” “the addition and contribution of women to the profession,” and “…the perspective and humanity plus the collaborative inclination that women bring to the profession is… one of the most hopeful signs that our laws, the administration of justice, and our society will continue to evolve and improve.” Yay! I couldn’t have said it any better myself; hats off to these gentlemen lawyers who said so.

The observers also saw increasing diversity as a positive significant change for the profession, one commenting (and I’m paraphrasing here) that a stake has finally been driven through the heart of the “old white boys club.” Hooray for that!

Of course, being lawyers, we don’t indulge in group think, so it’s no surprise that several lawyers polled had markedly contrasting views about significant changes over the past five decades. One lawyer thought that the practice was less exciting and enjoyable now than in years past, but thought that probably each succeeding generation believed that. Another lawyer thought that the practice is more interesting and challenging than ever.

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The old-timers find unwelcome the billable hour, advertising, and the transformation of the profession into a business. While one lawyer thought that the newer lawyers are smarter and better educated, he thought that they lack the same devotion to the clients that his generation had. However, is it possible that the seeming lack of devotion today could well be the result of less devotion that the client has to the lawyer? Loyalty is, after all, a two-way street.

The former chief justice, Ronald George, is heartened by the increase in pro bono activity by law firms and their most senior members. Other lawyers chimed in, saying that the availability of more free and/or affordable services has been a godsend to those who need them most. Governor Brown, noted for his contrarian tendencies, commented tersely “More laws and more damn lawsuits.”

So, what’s to be learned from all this? Fifty years from now, when many of us will be taking dirt naps, lawyers will still be lawyers. While technology performs a lot of the scut work (think doc review and boilerplate drafting), it will never replace the lawyer-client relationship and the giving of advice and counsel. We may rely on technology to help us formulate the advice, the strategy that we use, but lawyers still deliver the advice, be it over the phone, by Skype, in person or in writing. That person to person contact is something that hopefully will never change, no matter where technology takes us.

Lawyers reflect on 50 years of practice [California Bar Journal]


Jill Switzer is closing in on 40 (not a typo) years as a active member of the State Bar of California. Yes, folks, California, that state west of the Sierra Nevada, which everyone likes to diss. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see old lawyers, young lawyers, and those in-between interact — it’s not always pretty. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.