Not everyone is feeling the pain. Consider the folks who now bill out at GBP 1,000 per hour, for instance:
U.K. regulatory lawyers advising clients on the financial crisis and scandals like those involving Bernard Madoff bill as much as 1,000 pounds ($1,440) an hour — 50 percent more than mergers-and-acquisition lawyers did during a takeover boom two years ago.
“It’s our time in the sun,” said Darren Fox, a regulatory lawyer who advises hedge funds at London-based Simmons & Simmons. “If you ask which departments are very busy and where clients’ worries are, it tends to be in the regulatory area.”
Surprise!
Madoff, Recession Drive Top U.K. Lawyer Fees as High as $1,440 [Bloomberg]
Yeah, they’ll be a minor bump for a few compliance / reg types. Won’t make a dent in the business lost on the deal side. Law blows goats, and the big firm business model is about as zombie as Citigroup, only they don’t know it yet. For 95% of the boneheads thinking of a law career, law school will be an unremittingly grievous error and misallocation of time and (probably borrowed) money.
Silver spoon, Ivy,coke addicted, ex frats boys don’t really want to go back to school… they’d rather have daddy pay for the soco apt until he sets them up with a better job. Kinda like he set them up in prep school, into the Ivy league, with those summer internships, with every job they’ve ever had
I’m sure law school admissions will be on the rise… idiots are always looking for an “easy” way to make bank. See: Wall Street
That’s all the world needs is more douche bag law school students…
@1 agree, not the best allocation of time but at least mom and dad get to brag that their kid is in law school! don’t forget after law school you get to brag that you went to law school even if you don’t practice law! saying you went to law school will make everyone with less schooling feel inferior! you will be like the smartest person at every wine party! you’re basically paying $150k for bragging rights!
They will be the next targets of 90% tax if they have U.S. clients , because Joe the Taxpayer will cry foul for getting ripped off.
@1 – As opposed to the bright and sunny prospects of having Finance/Banking experience right now?
@2 – How is this different from an Ivy League MBA?
Off the top of my head, there are only about a dozen lawyers in the world really worth that kind of dough. A few deal and BK guys and several white collar guys.
But they certainly don’t practice anywhere near London.
@4 – what you are forgetting here is as follows:
1) a large number of congressfolk have law degrees
2) an even larger number are heavily funded by trial lawyers
So kid gloves are always applied to legal fees. Worst that happens is the occasional bankruptcy judge shaved 10% off some truly egregious overbilling and everyone moves on.