2013 Legal Market Outlook: Litigation Outlook For 2013: Obamacare, Banks, Pensions Will Make Lawyers Rich

Is 2013 a good year for the legal economy?  Yes!

"Is law school a good investment?"

Forbes Magazine, a leader in the business and legal world, has recently come out with a new article that states more good news for lawyers and law school graduates in 2013.  The article can be read at the link below:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2012/12/20/litigation-outlook-for-2013-obamacare-banks-pensions-will-make-lawyers-rich/

Forbes lists five categories they think will provide especially lucrative employment for lawyers in 2013:

• Regulation: Obamacare, environmental restrictions on industries like coal and logging, and new financial rules will all spawn litigation as affected businesses use the administrative law system to battle unelected bureaucrats.
• Consumer class actions: Lawyers will increasingly target manufacturers and retailers with lawsuits based on fuzzy theories of consumer harm, such as slight errors in labels.
• Financial: Consumers hate banks almost as much as they dislike repaying their debts, and that means lawyers and politically ambitious attorneys general can take advantage of the climate to sue banks and other financial institutions over lending practices.
• Social media: The law in this area is still unsettled, so expect lots more suits over privacy and slander.
• Pensions: Underfunded pensions are setting up a battle between public-sector employees on one side and creditors and taxpayers on the other.

 Of course, many of the nay-sayers still doubt that the legal profession will change.  Little do they know that tough economic times end through massive changes in the economic and legal structure.  Coupled with less people going to law school, law graduates and unemployed lawyers will see a turn around in legal employment.  And that turn around will begin in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

Graduating law students are largely scared right now due to the popularity of negative press regarding legal employment.  Since 2007 the legal market has been sluggish, but that sluggish market will not last forever.  There are ups and downs in every profession, and law has seen ups and downs for centuries now.  Just because times were hard in 2007-2012 does not mean that year 2013 or 2014 is going to be a horrible year for lawyers.

In fact, 2013 already seems promising for the legal profession as a whole.  Some firms are already talking about hiring more attorneys while other firms are taking it cautiously, taking a "wait and see" approach.  The reality, however, is that coupled with smaller class sizes at law schools and baby boomer attorneys beginning to retire, the legal profession is going through a massive overhaul that means more and more jobs for new graduates.  It also means that since 2004 (the class of 2007), this is the best time to go to law school.  With smaller class sizes, law graduates are bound to find that there is a higher demand for lawyers and a smaller supply. 

In the next ten years we could see thousands of lawyers retiring and less and less people to fill their places.  Further, more and more people are going to law school not to enter law, but instead to enter the business, finance, and real estate markets.  A law school degree (JD) is seriously starting to be seen by employers as a valuable asset.  Law school teaches students how to think strategically, how to write well, and how to understand complex information.  In short, a law school degree is relevant to a wide (read: huge) variety of careers.