Making law practice more liveable - but are storm clouds on the horizon?

Twice in the last month, the New York Times has run articles about the legal profession. The first article, The Falling-Down Professions, reports that professions like law and medicine are losing social prestige. That theme elicits little more than a shrug from me, but I did find this quote interesting:

This decline, [author Richard] Florida argued, is rooted in a broader shift in definitions of success, essentially, a realignment of the pillars. Especially among young people, professional status is now inextricably linked to ideas of flexibility and creativity, concepts alien to seemingly everyone but art students even a generation ago.

"There used to be this idea of having a separate work self and home self," he said. "Now they just want to be themselves. It's almost as if they're interviewing places to see if they fit them."

You think?

With that in mind, we turn to the more recent article, Who's Cuddly Now? Law Firms, which relates how large law firms are trying to stanch the bleeding of associate turnover by allowing associates to take reduced billable hour requirements in exchange for salary reductions, increasing parental leave, and taking other steps

I tend to agree with Enrico Schaefer when he says,

Let me say it again. As bad as hourly billing is for clients, it's worse for lawyers. To live your life as though each minute spent doing something else besides billing the client was a wasted moment is a waste of life.

As a partner I know in a respected Denver firm recently remarked, "I'd gladly give up 20% of my income not to have to deal with billable hours."

Will my generation finally get law firms to rethink the life-affecting tradeoffs they make in clinging to the billable-hour system? Maybe. I hope so. But I wonder how these seeds of change will be affected by the threat of economic instability. Gerry Riskin has been warning of doom and gloom for the legal profession and warns against thinking of law practice in terms of business as usual. Bruce McEwen sees law firms as having a less cyclical business and suggests that some features of law practice are likely to change but that the upheaval may be less dramatic than one might think.

I think it will be interesting to see how all these dynamics flow together, and I hope that economic instability does not quash efforts to make it easier to practice law and still have a well-rounded life.