My Sunday Feeling

I don't know much.  But I know this.

I'm glad I'm not in law school.  

Not because law school, especially the first year, is a completely soul killing, brutal and largely costly experience.  Although that is reason in and of itself do be glad that this endeavor is in my distant past.  

The job market is nothing short of dismal.  And this was before the pandemic.

It is my privilege again be a mentor to first year students here at the local law school.  I tend to like this gig.  I like being around young people.  And I have been fortunate, with the exception of one complete, and I do not exaggerate, psychopath to have likable, well rounded, law students in my charge.  

This year's models will be writ on history's immortal scroll as two of my favorites.  A is a cheerful sort, a horsewoman from Tennessee.  J is a country boy from a little town in the Ozarks.  He is a baseball fan.  He also possesses an acerbic sense of humor and a deadpan mode of discourse.  J and I understand each other for some reason.

Anyway, as if the first year of law school were not sufficiently traumatic, they are now forced to divine the secrets of the law through Zoom or Google Classroom.  I can't imagine.  I have had meetings with Zoom that typically involved no more than 5 high school boys.  It can be pretty confusing with all of the cross-talking that typically goes on.

Multiply that by a factor of 5 online with a bunch of mouthy future lawyers.  I found law school instruction on a face to face basis to be fairly incomprehensible at times.  I just can't imagine trying to absorb the law school experience over the Internet.  I just can't.

But these kids were raised on the Internet.  I was not.  They are making do.  J told me the other night that he rather liked doing law school from his home in the hills.  It's turkey season in Arkansas.  He hunts in the morning and studies in the afternoon and at night.  A enjoyed having horses underneath her again when she was back home.  They both also said they didn't much miss being around other law students.

And boy I get that.  However, I have to say that I enjoyed my law school buddies, then and to this day.  Then again, none of us were regarded by our fellow classmates, or the faculty come to think of it, as the second coming of Learned Hand.  Look him up.  So there's comfort in that.

They have both asked me how I think this national emergency will change the practice of law.  Which is only their future profession. And I tell them I don't know.  It is too early to tell.  If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that the big firms will be fine.  But will they offer clerkships for this summer?  A law firm is a business like any other.  When the economy is bad it affects them.  I'm guessing that solo practitioners that are young in the practice will get hit the hardest right off the bat.  Too many-at least for my tastes-young lawyers are forced to "hang out shingles."  If nobody is coming through the door, or if they can't get into court (which they basically can't right now as courthouses all over Arkansas are shut down) they don't make any money.  

But what do I think is going to happen?  I don't know.  I've seen a thing or two in my day but I've never been through a global health crisis.  

The best answer when you don't know is to say "I don't know."  So that's what I say.  

I suspect many business models in all kinds of businesses are about to be rewritten.  That's about all I feel comfortable predicting.

J acknowledges that he feels a great bit of uncertainty about the future.

"But you know?, he said. "I'm glad I'm not a 3L.  I've got two more years.  Maybe things will have straightened up by then. I don't know what those folks are going to do."

Let me rephrase my earlier remarks.  I am glad that I am not in law school.

But boy am I glad that I'm not a 3L in they year 2020.  

I don't know what those folks are going to do.