The Vanishing American Lawyer

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 - The Unsettled World of American Lawyers

A. Pervasive Lawyer Anxiety

B. What is a Lawyer? C. Why Lawyers' Anxiety May Be Intensifying

D. Putting Some of the Concerns Into Perspective

E. Why Should Lawyers' Anxiety Interest Us?

Chapter 2 - American Lawyers Are Not Part of a Profession A. The Problematic Emphasis on Law as a Profession

B. Two Appropriate Uses of the Term "Professional"

C. The Mistake of Transforming Professionals into a Profession

D. Could the World Get Along Without a Legal Profession?

E. Some Perspective on Lawyers as a Profession? - The English Legal Tradition

F. The Early Days in America and the Rejection of English Law and Lawyering G. The American Bar Association and the Renewed Rhetoric that Law is a Profession

H. The Significance of the Survey of the Legal Profession

I. What Makes the Professionalism Ideal Survive?

1. Confidentiality of Client Information

2. Committed Advocacy on a Client's Behalf

3. Preservation of the Rule of Law and Independence from Clients

4. Making Legal Services Widely Available

J. Law in America Is Not a Profession - And That's a Good Thing

Chapter 3 - The Transformation of Law Practice Since the 1970s

A. Judicial Abrogation of Lawyer Standards

B. The Dramatic Growth in the Number of Lawyers

C. The Impact of Globalization on Lawyers and Law Practice

D. Modern Information Technology and the Transformation of Lawyers' Work

E. The Growth of Law Firms as Premier Practice Organizations

1. How Lawyers Charge for Their Services

2. The Matter of Leverage

3. The Law Firm as a Tournament

F. Transformation of the Hemispheres of the Bar

G. Transformation of the Relative Power of In-House and Outside Counsel

H. The Diminished Significance of Licensing

Chapter 4 - How American Lawyers and Firms Should Address the New Realities

A. The Future Course of an Individual Lawyer's Career

1. Lawyers Offering Basic Services for Individual Clients

2. Contested Disputes Requiring Resolution

3. Lawyers for Corporate and Other Organizational Clients

4. Lives Individual Lawyers Are Likely to Lead

B. Private Firms Are Likely to be As Important As Ever

1. Firms Help Lawyers Diversify Risk

2. Firms Help Achieve Economies of Scope, i.e., the Ability to Work on "Projects"

3. Firms Can Develop Reputations and Brand Names - The Matter of Marketing

C. The Challenge of Meeting Diverse Client Needs Anywhere in the World

1. The Need to Serve Clients That Have National and World-Wide Activities

2. Developing Practice Teams With Diverse Skills 3. Making Racial and Gender Diversity a Part of the Firm's Reality

D. Developing Institutional Strength in a World of Individual Stars

1. Seeing Firms as Shopping Centers Rather than Department Stores

2. Making Firms Attractive Places in Which to Build a Career

3. The Challenge of Financing Firm Operations and Growth E. Finding New Ways For Clients to Pay for Legal Services

F. Why Haven't We Seen a More Rapid Response to These Trends?

F. Substantive Changes Needed in Lawyer Regulation

1. Allow Lawyers to Form Practice Organizations with Non-Lawyers

2. Allow New Methods of Financing Law Practice

3. Permit Covenants Designed to Slow LawyerMovement Between Firms

Chapter 5 - The Impact of the Coming Changes on American Legal Education A. What Students Learn in Law School

1. What it Means to Think Like a Lawyer

2. Adding Additional Substantive Legal Knowledge

3. Learning Practical Skills to Meet Client Needs

4. Understanding a Client's Substantive Problem

B. How the American System of Legal Education Developed

C. Interaction Between Legal Education and Professional Licensing D. A Road Not Taken

E. Faulty Models Driving Legal Education Today

F. Reducing the Cost of Legal Training

G. New Ways to Think About Legal Education

1. Learning How to Think Like a 21st Century Lawyer

2. An Appropriate Vision for Skills Training

3. Training in Non-Legal Matter Needed for a Practice Concentration

4. Education for Breadth and Context of Legal Understanding

H. Multiple Possible Credentials for Legal Training



Chapter 6 - Commitment to Justice in a Competitive Future A. Meeting Justice Needs Formerly Met by Lawyers

1. Guaranteeing a right to counsel in criminal cases

2. Providing Civil Legal Services to the Poor and Middle Class

3. The Future of Cause Lawyering and the Defense of Civil Liberties

4. Who Will Be the Future Judges?

B. Professionalism - A Last Look