Just Join the Court-Appointed List!

That's a bit of advice that comes from non-lawyers all the time.  When I was laid off, I was told I should just join the court appointed list and I would have an instant client base.  Well, I didn't get very far.  In order to join the list, you must show that you have a certain amount of experience in criminal law, i.e. a trial or two under you belt.  Although I would have loved to foray into criminal defense, I lacked the appropriate experience and I tucked away that bit of advice for a day when I'd feel more comfortable with criminal law.
Now, it's been eliminated as a possibility here in New York City.  There were barely any waves in the news about the latest decision of His Majesty Mayor Bloomberg--perhaps because it will affect lawyers primarily.  Later, it will affect indigent criminal defendants as well.
Basically, here's the article, but I'll summarize:
About 1,100 attorneys in New York make a living through a court-appointed list (i.e. 18-B attorneys).  It's my understanding that you can make a decent living through 18-B assignments alone, but the trade-off is that the hourly rates are low and the Court often slashes the amount of time you've spent on the case.  So, if you defend a rape case and you claim 25 hours, the Court will say, it took you only 15 and you will make a sub-par hourly rate ($75 or $60/hr depending).  Nonetheless, you can up to $100,000 a year with such cases--according to my source.  Of course, there are 18-B attorneys that don't take full advantage of the cases, but supplement their private practices.  Please feel free to correct me if you know better.  The benefit is that the the pay is guaranteed and the source of clients is never-ending--until now.
Bloomberg decided that 18-B attorneys cost too much to be sustainable and would rather set up Legal Aid Offices to represent indigent defendants.  So, like that, with a wave of his majestic scepter King Bloomberg eliminated "jobs" for 1,100 attorneys.
Of course, the Legal Aid Offices that are set up will hire attorneys to deal with the same cases. But how many?  There are 5 boroughs.  I would assume that each borough will have something between 50 and 75 attorneys each--making approximately $45,000 a year.  Once again, feel free to disagree with me.  $45,000 sounds like a wonderful wage for so many of my unemployed readers, but it's hardly a sustainable income in New York Shitty when coupled with law school debt.
So, this story did not make a splash, but I feel it must be noted as another stab to the corpse of the Legal Market.  Don't forget the support staff that these 1,100 attorneys likely employed. Poof!  There goes their jobs as well.  Lastly, we must remember the indigent defendants who are likely to get sub-par work from a understaffed Legal Aid Office and an underpaid attorney.

Industry Shill Provides Nuggets of Info Among Useless Advice! The Tide is Turning...

Ran across this shill article by Ari Kaplan.  Yes, the majority of the article is utter bullshit.  However, there were some useful reflections on providing a warning to future law students about the debt load and dearth of high paying jobs these days.   He discusses why lemmings are so stupid:

...Most prospective law students sincerely believe they will graduate in the top 10% of the class. "You sign the loan papers with the idea that it will all pay off and it is the idealized big firm life that allows people to take debt," notes Indiana University Maurer School of Law Professor William Henderson. He recommends that the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar direct schools to walk students through the application process more carefully to conduct an intelligent analysis of their career prospects. 

True.  What they don't believe is that they will be among the other 90% of graduates that don't do so well.  Obviously, mathematics is not the lemming's strong point.

Law school applicants are generally naive consumers of debt. "As soon as tuition rose to a level where people had to borrow significant sums in order to go to law school, you had students with no experience taking out loans, repaying them or understanding what it means to have debt," says University of Miami School of Law Dean, Patricia White. "It was a little bit like the foreclosure crisis and the mortgage debacle," she adds. 

Wow.  Dean White might be the ONLY Dean that I admire.  Do you know that she tried to dissuade accepted applicants from attending her esteemed establishment.  I think I'll even ask Nando from Third Tier Reality to refrain from giving UMiami his toilet treatment. Do you know what she did????

To address this disparity, last fall, in her first year as dean, White sent accepted applicants who had already paid their full non-refundable deposit a unique letter that generated national attention. In it, she asked, them to reconsider their choice of attending law school. The dean offered them the option to defer their admission for one year to further reflect on their chosen path. Of the 32 students who accepted her offer, only eight enrolled this year. [emphasis is mine]

and then she goes on to call out the JD degree in BIDER fashion:

"Part of the problem is that students enroll in law school without really knowing what they will do," says White. She describes law school as "the great generalists graduate school" because the typical undergraduate has no real sense of what law is. "It is more common for undergraduates to have a popular culture sense about what the law is," she adds. [emphasis is mine]

Amazing.  Brilliant.  RESPONSIBLE!  Bravo, Dean White. You're my new hero, anti-hero. You're the new Darth Vader because I love you and hate you at the same time.  You're Dexter.  You're a killer with good intentions.  You did the right thing and those 8 idiots that enrolled at University of Miami have been fairly warned--so you can sleep at night when they are working at the local Walmart.  You did your part.

Then Kaplan goes on with his list of ludicrous hints to make the most out of law school.  He suggests you become a "Creative Hustler." I've called myself a hustler on more than one occasion, but it's because I'm hustling to pay my mortgage, student loan fees and eat.  That's the hustle that many law grads are accustomed to you.

 So you can have a good a good laugh, here's a few more of his suggestions:
You must be motivated. "You cannot succeed without a tremendous amount of drive; you need to put yourself on the line and risk failure," says Fulbright & Jaworski Partner Robert Owen. "If you don't have that kind of internal drive, it is not a good profession for you," he adds.

Develop targeted knowledge. "Learn something about something other than law," says University of Southern California Law School Professor Gillian Hadfield. 

"Understand your client's business; it is not enough to understand the legal problem," advises Richard Fields, CEO of Juridica Capital Management (US) Inc. "When you understand your client's business, you can find solutions quicker, faster and cheaper," he adds. 

Ultimately, confidence is the key to success in the law, notes Shepherd. 

Let me summarize: if you go to law school, be a lawyer.  Lawyers must be confident, understand their client's business and know things other than the law.  A lawyer, by definition, is a jack of all trades and the master of none.  Especially the type of lawyers that don't get jobs after law school--those that end up being sole practitioners.  If you do not heed my advice, you too will be a sole practitioner--because you will have no other options.

Thanks for nothing, Kaplan.  I realize that encouraging people to take the plunge of a lifetime is probably part of your contract, but try and keep the bullshit to a minimum next time.  This article was almost good.

On a totally unrelated note, I hate Phaedra Parks from Housewives of Atlanta. "Be a Lawyer, honey. Get your money!"  UGH.
That's why she's married to an ex-con--probably the only bastard that deals with her work schedule and she's airing her life story for profit on Bravo.  SURE.  I hate the glorification of the legal industry by Hollywood--or Atlanta in this case.

What About Becoming a Paralegal?

So, I try to be charitable--even though I am poor--by giving out legal advice when someone cannot afford to pay me.  I was in the Court of Appeals one day on one matter and I saw a couple there who were being victimized by the Family Court System.  I spent some time speaking to them and found out that they were both unemployed, but the mother was being denied access to her son from a previous relationship and had no idea why. I told them to call me if they needed any help.
I got a call a few weeks later and I coached the mama on how to do a Motion that I would have done, if they had retained me. I sent her examples and read through her work and told her how to file it and serve it.
Yesterday was the big day in court, where she would go in and argue her motion.  She called me in the afternoon all giddy and said that she kicked ass and had a "Matlock" moment.  She now wanted to become an attorney.  She asked if I would sponsor her to go.  LMAO. I don't have the money to sponsor myself, by way of paying my loans on time.  I didn't want to shut her down. I didn't know what to say. So, I said, "Why don't you look into becoming a paralegal.  It's cheaper and quicker and you will do a lot of the work that the lawyer does--except go to Court."
Did I say the right thing? I'm not even sure how paras are doing during the recession.  Does anyone know?  I'd like to give this "client" some real guidance and I know law school is NOT the right option.
At my big firm, the paras were paid $40K with OT.  Some paras there got 100K when the the getting was good.  I found this article that says that they are earning decent salaries when living in a metropolitan area.   I currently outsource to a paralegal who is self employed for as much as $199 to $250 a case, depending.  I think he is probably doing well. I owe him $600 as we speak.
Anyone have any ideas?