Laughable

This article was pathetic to me, in light of my previous post. When there is a need to create a group to address the woes of a profession, that is a very very sad thing -- an eye-opening thing.

Starting salaries for first-year associates are now at $160,000. There's a reason for that. You work your fucking ass off, dummies. It's not rocket science, and your push for "work-life balance" is going to fall on deaf ears, little law students. No law firm gives a shit about your well-being. They only care about one thing.

Money.

When I read this article this morning, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I love that I'm not a part of that anymore. Even though I now make the same money that I did when I was a second-year associate, I am content. The money is decent. I have time to live. And, should I ever develop the urge to have children, that is actually a viable option.

Among the article's gems:

Associates at many major firms are expected to bill 2,200 to 2,500 hours a year, she said, compared with an average of 1,700 hours in 1980. Add in work time lawyers can't bill and many are toiling 60 to 70 hours every week, she noted.

That crushing schedule requires sacrificing everything for the chance to become partner even as the odds of achieving that goal become longer. Absent flexible schedules and hands-on guidance from firm elders, minority lawyers and young mothers increasingly drop out after a few years.

"The female hamsters are leaving the cage or getting flung from the wheel," Dauber said.

Well, duh.