Purpose of this Podcast

At its heart, this podcast is a search for ways to survive as a young lawyer long enough to overcome the financial hurdles and lack of practical legal skills to earn a career.  Newly minted law grads face a radically different world at the beginning of their careers from the one that hiring committees walked into.  Legal education has remained in the early 20th century while market forces have rocketed the business of law to heights undreamed of, leaving the legal profession behind.

This podcast is part search, part chronicle and mainly a different point of view of the legal industry than the one normally presented.  The present view of the law is dominated by the culture of BigLaw firms which influences bar leadership, legal press, public impressions and the expectations of law students.  BigLaw does have its place in the legal landscape and fills its niches very well, its just casting too long a shadow over the rest of the law for other stories to be told.

I want to look at these other stories and other paths or definitions of success in the law.  We'll look at the forces that have shaped the legal industry's past and present to try and predict where it will go in the future.  These questions are geared to young lawyers who are trying to start their career, but the topics will be of interest to law students who will soon enter the workforce and prelaw students who are thinking of going to law school.  The three different stages of people all have the same ultimate goal: to become a successful lawyer.  Each one has a different point of view of the business of law with different questions that I think will surprise and inform the others.

This is a search for a different model of success, for many models to fit different people in whatever way they seem fit.  Lend me an ear.