Old Lady Lawyer: One Dinosaur’s Point Of View On Millennials

Several weeks ago, my column discussed what millennials want. 

Now I’ve heard from dinosaurs on the topic, one dinosaur in particular, who I will quote anonymously as Mr. A, a long-time in-house lawyer. His perception of millennials is not anomalous; it’s shared by a lot of dinosaur lawyers who look at the newbie lawyers and shake their heads. Laugh it off at your peril; his perception is his reality, the result of working with newer lawyers and finding them lacking. Whether you agree with his comments or think it’s time for him to leave the building, Mr. A is not the only one with this mindset. He’s not an outlier.

“Yes, we dinosaurs need to want to train and share, to ensure the continuity of the profession; we owe that to our chosen profession. My experience: hard to do with people who come to the show convinced that if it happened before they started practicing it can’t be right, and that God has given them the divine right to start as partners making megabucks.”

Mr. A says he often marvels “as I wade through LinkedIn discussions at the stupefying ignorance and arrogance of new lawyers. It is incomprehensible to them that we confronted and found solutions to many of the same issues they are patting themselves on the back for waxing eloquent about, and that if they wouldn’t dismiss us out of hand, they wouldn’t have to re-invent the wheel. And you probably don’t want to get me started about how cognizant they are that blatant age discrimination against us dinosaurs… violates state and federal law.”

Alert readers will note that Mr. A is not totally dinosaurial; he’s linked in on LinkedIn.

Remember when we thought our parents were the stupidest creatures in the world, only to learn later in life that they weren’t quite as stupid as we thought they were? Their accumulated wisdom learned in the “college of hard knocks” and elsewhere meant something. If they could have spared us some pain by teaching us what they knew, they’d have done it in a heartbeat, if only we would have listened. I think the same is true for dinosaur lawyers on the theory of been there, done that, seen that, written that.

Is part of the reinventing the wheel the need for billable hours? You tell me. Wherever I worked, there were always form files and brief banks as the “wheels” from which to customize. We were standardizing work for the benefit of our clients long before the term “standardization” came into legal lingo.

I think what’s scary to some dinosaur lawyers, and count me in among them, is the confidence and ease with which some newer lawyers think they’re right… about everything. Perhaps it’s me (stop agreeing with me, please), but there’s always a little prickle in my mind as to whether the advice I’ve given is right, right for the client and the situation. Researching is always a part of that equation, but what might be legally correct today may be overruled tomorrow. (One situation that comes to mind is the California Supreme Court’s overruling a seminal case on the parol evidence rule several years ago.)

Mr. A’s comment about age discrimination? The dirty not-so-secret “secret” is that most, if not all, senior lawyers who are booted out receive severance in exchange for, among other things, a waiver of any claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. For many, if not all, severance is preferable to the uncertainties of protracted litigation. So, many senior lawyers go quietly with severance to cushion the blows, both personal and professional.

Age discrimination is alive and well in our profession and others as well. One has only to read the story about PricewaterhouseCoopers being sued for exactly that. 

An Op-Ed piece ran in the Los Angeles Times about age discrimination that older job applicants face, especially women. 

Couple that with dismal statistics for women in the law. The combination of being a woman and being of a certain age is lethal.

A practicing woman attorney was quoted in the New York Times, saying that “People might not listen to me if they knew I was 71, so I keep it to myself.” It sounds like she and Mr. A have had similar experiences.

So how do we dinosaurs and millennial lawyers bridge the gaps that seem to be everywhere? Dinosaurs rail against a lack of work ethic while millennials want to ensure that the practice does not consume their lives 24/7.

The “lack of work ethic” may be nothing more than not understanding how technology has revamped the legal profession and transformed hours of grueling work into several keystrokes to complete. We dinosaurs all remember hours spent cite checking by going through all those red volumes (and the supplements) looking at tiny print for that little “o” or even a “d.” If we didn’t need reading glasses before then, most of us needed them afterwards.

The “entitlement” issue is another kettle of fish altogether. The vast majority of millennial lawyers are not in Biglaw and are probably not expecting to make “megabucks” soon, if ever, especially if they’re carrying student loan debt. Most of them are just trying to keep the jobs they have, if they even have them, or build their own practices either out of desire or practicality.

However, I do get that millennial associates in Biglaw can be patronizing, condescending, and just downright insulting to in-house clients, of whom I was one and Mr. A is. Just because the junior associate is in Biglaw and making more money than in-house counsel probably ever will doesn’t mean that the associate is more knowledgeable about the subject at hand. In fact, associates are often clueless about the client and its goals in any particular matter, especially in litigation. So, millennials in Biglaw remember that it’s that in-house lawyer who approves the bills, thus allowing you to make those “megabucks.”

Mr. A is one of those bill approvers, and he thinks I let millennials off too lightly. What do you think?

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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 [email protected].