Lemmings or Luddites?

"Sympathy for the Luddites," by Paul Krugman (New York Times)

Money Quote: "So should workers simply be prepared to acquire new skills? The woolworkers of 18th-century Leeds addressed this issue back in 1786: 'Who will maintain our families, whilst we undertake the arduous task' of learning a new trade? Also, they asked, what will happen if the new trade, in turn, gets devalued by further technological advance? And the modern counterparts of those woolworkers might well ask further, what will happen to us if, like so many students, we go deep into debt to acquire the skills we're told we need, only to learn that the economy no longer wants those skills?"

So should we quit calling law students lemmings and start calling them Luddites? Other than the extent of the non-dischargeable debt and lost opportunity costs, are displaced lawyers worse off than any other career that has collapsed in history? Or this century?

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"Law Schools are Turning Our Kids into Profit Centres," by Stephen J. Harper (Business Insider Australia)

Money Quote: "Where can an investor earn a 7.9 per cent guaranteed annual rate of return? Not 30-year United States Treasury bonds; they pay around 3 per cent. Not other countries' sovereign debt; some of the most economically fragile nations in the Euro zone sell 10-year bonds bearing interest rates of less than 6 per cent -- and it's certainly not guaranteed. Try your kids. The interest rate on subsidized federal student loans is currently 3.4 per cent, but it will jump to 6.8 per cent on July 1 and covers just a slice of the market anyway. For undergraduates who don't qualify for the subsidy, it's already 6.8 per cent. For graduate students (including law students), the rate is 7.9 per cent."

Yes, you are a profit center.

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"Largest State to Require Practical Skills Training," by Karen Sloan (National Law Journal)

Money Quote: "A task force of the State Bar of California has recommended that new attorneys be required to complete at least 15 hours of practical skills training and 50 hours of pro bono service before they are admitted to practice."

So goes California, so goes the rest of the nation! Coming soon to a State near you!

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"Law Schools: Get Back to Basics," by Sherri Lee Keene (National Law Journal)

Money Quote: "As law schools ponder how they might better prepare students to meet the increasing demands of legal practice, they need to go back to basics and consider the greater role that practical legal writing should play in building practice competence."

Ms. Keene is the associate director of legal writing at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Some old saying about "to a hammer everything looks like a nail" is popping into my head right now.