An eagle-eyed Ivey Files reader sent me the following, a great follow-on to my original Brain Drain posting:
Anna,
Check out this story ("Profits vs. Partners: Are the Country's Top Law Firms Going the Way of the Dinosaur?"). I think anybody considering law school and Big Law (or even just a law firm life in general) should read it. An older partner at a major law firm basically told me the same thing when I asked him about law school.....though he said that if you really love what you do (he was a labor lawyer and really did love it), the situation becomes a lot more bearable. Nonetheless, I don't think enough people considering law school know about this.
The first paragraph:
"There is a real generation gap between those around 35 and those around 45," a 33-year-old partner at a major national law firm said recently. "Older people still have this weird idea that this is a partnership and we're in professional services, yakkety yak and blah blah blah. I don't see how they think that would pay for this 47-story glass building that we're in. Younger people see this as a business. I see myself as a midlevel director in a billion-dollar corporation."
Read on... it's worth it.