A warning from a boomer attorney

Originally posted on JD Underground:

Ok- i am one of that loathed class, a boomer. I have been lurking for a while and my advice to you is that if you do not want to wind up like me, get out now while you can.

I am a partner in a law firm in a small formerly industrial city in the Northeast that now has no hospital (3 closed), no new car dealer,( 4 closed), all major industries closed, a main street with more vacant than open stores and no place to even buy a pair of shoes downtown. We exist to keep going because we can not afford to stop. We used to have 2 secretaries and a paralegal. Now there are none. We had a live answering service. Now their is voice mail. We used to be part of a respected profession. Now we are the subject of lawyer jokes and blame for the ills of the world.

The sad part is I loved what I did and worked hard to get there. I had name recognition and award from the bar. I should say there would be plenty of work if I wanted to only work for nothing. I can not and put food on the table and pay for health insurance at more than a grand a month.

Many of our peers have given up the ghost. Some have gone bankrupt. The economic model is no longer there.

When do we quit? Probably very soon since we are about to give up our office space and go virtual to save more money. We are both too old and without marketable skills to find another job. I tried. So, I hang on hoping for a miracle.

Our retirement plan included real estate heavily and you all know where that has gone. Too young for medicare but old enough for huge medical bills. The stress of our lives causes many of our physical problems. We are strokes waiting to happen. It was not worth it and I so wish I had done something else 20 years ago to prepare for this. I wish I could do something, anything else.


We are losing money each month despite cutting everything we can. We are bleeding. Many law firms have gone out in our state in the last decade. We are heading there.

http://www.qfora.com/jdu/thread.php?threadId=17106

Yet another example of the crumbling legal profession. Go to law school at your own risk. In fact, going to law school financed with student loans is financial suicide. Some will make it, most will not. Feeling lucky???