ALLIANCE NEWS - The Chicago Bar Association

Who’s Training New Lawyers
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are typically paid $20-$28 an hour with
no benefits. Many of these attorneys seek
my career counseling services, looking
for help to find permanent employment
in law. In rare instances, clients
call me from cold, dirty warehouses
where they are working with only
a foot or two of personal space between
attorneys. Notwithstanding these
few occasions, in my view, these
short-term discovery projects can
usually work well for all concerned.
For the new grads hired as
contract attorneys, they feel fortunate
that at least they are getting paid to
do actual legal work. They are doing
aspects of the work that they went
to law school to do. Hopefully, too,
they are receiving good training about
how to use a particular tech
firm’s software and how to ascertain
relevant documents in the litigation.
That’s all mostly good. It’s
all different, though, too. Are we
senior lawyers complacent to allow an
emerging industry of e-discovery tech
firms and temporary staffing agencies
train our new lawyers? Should we
worry that new attorneys may become
pegged in the e-discovery industry and
may not be trained to practice? I think
it would be easy to agree that this not
the most effective way to transition law
students to the practice of law.
C. The Back Credenza Model
Even though law students and new
grads will look at me quizzically
when I advise them to create breathing
space in their tight schedules, perhaps
over a school break, I dare go one
step further. I suggest they reach
out to attorneys in a desired practice
area and offer their services for free.
I know that most lawyers
have enormous, bulging files on
their back credenzas—files they just
can’t seem to get to. These might be
cases involving a difficult client or
perhaps poor fact patterns that are not
supported by governing state law. The
credenza may even hold a file that has
already reached its maximum billing
amount. There may be an article back
there that is waiting to be written.
Practitioners, perhaps a new
attorney who has approached you
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for guidance or even a job might
entertain an opportunity to handle
a file or two on your back credenza
with no charge in exchange for your
guidance and training. Not in every
matter, but in many, two problems
of our industry could be solved
simultaneously. In fact, the Illinois
Supreme Court recently inaugurated
a Lawyer Mentoring Program through
its Commission on Professionalism.
Supreme Court Rule 795(d)(12),
adopted in October 2010, outlines the
requirements necessary for mentors
and mentees to receive CLE credit
for this type of teaching arrangement.
III. New training methods for
the legal community to consider
A. The South Carolina Model
It has been suggested that law schools
should take on the responsibility of
opening law firms where new graduates
could be trained in the practice of law.
This is essentially an extension of
law clinics that already exist at many
schools. These firms would be run
and mentored by seasoned
practitioners. As the clients who retain
new attorneys’ legal services would be
paying something for these services,
the new grads would also receive
salaries in this venture. “What If
Law Schools Opened Their Own Law
Firms?” Karen Sloan, The National
Law Journal, August 17, 2011.
University of Maryland
School of Law Professor Robert Rhee
and Brooklyn Law School Professor
Bradley Borden write, “[Junior
attorneys] will be expected to do client
work but will also learn how to be
successful attorneys. They will learn
how to develop a book of business
and make contacts in the community
that will benefit them as practicing
attorneys.” More on this “South
Carolina Model” will be presented
in a forthcoming issue of the South
Carolina Law Review. While this is
a new concept with some kinks in the
armor, we need to seriously consider
this training model for the profession.
B. A private trainer
Perhaps private trainers, like the
tech firms, should train our legal
graduates. These private companies
are springing up, providing trainings
for new lawyers, ranging from one to
three- day long seminars. Some law
firms are paying these new companies
to do their associates’ training. Job
seekers are also participating to
gain an edge on the competition.
Similar to the other suggestions
raised in this article, hiring a private
trainer also has its drawbacks. Chiefly,
committing to a private trainer can be
a considerable financial undertaking.
Fees typically start around $900.00.
New attorneys would have to determine
whether any competitive edge from
this training would outweigh the cost.
C. The Show and Tell Model
Maybe we lawyers should adopt the
model of “Show and Tell.” Here, firm
elders actually hire recent grads and pay
them a reasonable sum. This model
wouldn’t cost firms any extra financial
outlays in the long run. Firm would
be able to hire more attorneys, show
them how to practice law and tell
them about winning methodologies
in their respective practice areas.
Show and Tell: Feeling Much
Better. The medical profession plays
this game well. Medical programs
transition students from medical school
to medical practice. Depending on
the area of specialty that the doctor
wants to practice, training programs
can run from three to six years.
As a result of this transition
period medical students have a clear
understanding of what the future holds
for them; they know what they are
getting into, how long their training will
take, and what their salary expectations
should be before they are accepted
into medical programs. These students
enter the medical profession knowing
they will work ridiculously hard for
three or more years, depending on their
specialty. They also know that they will
be well-trained to practice medicine
after they finish their programs.
Show and Tell for Lawyers.
Law firms that wanted to adopt the
medical internship model to train new
associates would start by adjusting the
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