The following posting is made with permission
from the State Bar of Wisconsin who originally printed it as an article with
the same name included in the Wisconsin Lawyer’s Voice of Experience, Vol. 14 No. 1,
January 2016:
I was reminded recently about what I
told my great-uncle Gust while taking a sauna with him when I was about 5 years
old. He was complaining about aches and
pains, and saying he was old. I told
him, “Guzzie, you were old the day I was born.”
All the guys in the sauna, including my uncle, had a good laugh.
This is my last year in the Young
Lawyers Division (the “YLD”). To be a “young
lawyer” you have to be in your first five years of practice or under the age of
36. I graduated from law school in 2005,
and I am now 35 years old. You may have
heard about the problems facing young lawyers today, and you should care about
them for the same reasons that I do. You
owe it to those that have helped you and to your profession as a whole.
If you’re
in the Seniors Lawyers Division (the “SLD”), then you have paid your dues in
more ways than one. You have to pay to
join the division, and you have to be at least 60 years old. When it comes to the problems facing young
lawyers you might think, “I’ll leave this issue for experienced but younger
lawyers.” However, they might be the
saying the same thing. After all, you
were old the day I became a lawyer. I
kid, I kid. All I mean to say, as I tell
my partners nearing retirement, we still need you.
Your
division has already done a lot for mine.
The leadership of your division writes a recurring column in the YLD’s
newsletter called, “The Voice of Experience.”
The SLD provides scholarships and financial support for young lawyers to
attend the Leadership Summit each year.
I know at least one of our current board members got her start through
that program. And the SLD continually
asks the YLD for ways it can help. But
by this article I hope to appeal to the membership the SLD and encourage them
to buy a young lawyer lunch, a drink, or a cup of coffee, to take the time to
get to know a young lawyer even if they seem resistant at first.
Young
lawyers may be resistant to talking about their struggle because they are told
to “fake it until you make it.” I
understand where they are coming from because I only recently started to feel
comfortable with my career, my long-term ability to repay my student loans, and
my decision to become a lawyer. Don’t
get me wrong. I love being a lawyer and I always have. However, for a long time my decision to
attend law school felt like a huge financial mistake.
When I
graduated in 2005 my monthly student loan obligation was over $1,000.00 per
month. My pay was $15 per hour with overtime discouraged. That
means after paying my loans, I might have $1,000 per month to live on.
About five years after I graduated, I looked at the annual tuition at George
Mason where I attended law school. In 2005 it was about around $21,000 per
year and by 2010 it was $39,500 per year. The job market got worse over
that time and some firms were still only paying $30,000 per year ($15 per
hour). However, the employed, at any wage, were then and still are the
lucky ones.
I was on
the Challenges Facing New Lawyers Committee, I had friends on the task force
before that and on the new implementation committee, and I have been involved
in young lawyer issues for a few years.
Thoughts of suicide are not uncommon for struggling young attorneys. I remember thinking that suicide would not
help me because my mother co-signed for my loans. Thank God for that, but nobody should be
having those kinds of thoughts.
Obviously,
you cannot fix these problems. However,
you can help young lawyers in their careers.
You’ve been a lawyer much longer than them and have learned a few things
a long the way. Whether it’s giving practice
advice, helping them understand the other side of the table when it comes to
negotiating employment, or something else, you can help them. You can make the challenging
times our new colleagues face a little less challenging and a little more
cordial. Thank you for listening.
© November 2015 Brandon J. Evans
