First off, attorney compensation at the top tier firms is ridiculous. When I was at Brobeck over 10 years ago, starting salaries were still under 6 figures. When did a first year associate who essentially knows nothing start deserving 160k starting salaries?
As in-house counsel at a company that uses Latham, I can assure you that I think twice when I’m calling for advice. I’m calling someone senior for their thoughts and I’m not paying for junior associate research. I’ll do that myself or farm it out to admins for help.
When you think that some 25 year old with no work experience and 3 years of law school is earning 40-50k more than tenured professors or PhDs at biotechs, that easily tells you where our economic system is out of whack.
As for “Armageddon”, maybe I’ll go ahead and take the nihilist approach. If the shit is that bad, what’s the point?
