All Posts Tagged With: "justice system"

An underfunded public justice system means law students face some tough choices

Law today is not really one profession, but several. For most lawyers, specialization is simply inevitable. True, some general firms still exist, particularly in smaller markets, but most lawyers will spend their careers in specific practices. When they enter law school, students are not required to have a practice area in mind, and the first-year curriculum is designed to cover all of the most fundamental material. But by the start of second year, the decision looms. And increasingly, hard financial realities—not just interest or inclination—drive a student’s choices about practice area.

The rising cost of legal education is well documented, and most students face significant debt upon graduation. After seven or more years of university, it’s natural that they expect some payoff. For many, a certain income level is not only desirable but a bare requirement—they need the money. We are talking, after all, about adults who range from their mid-to-late 20s to considerably older. Some already have families to support; others are eager to start. The combination of these costs and education debt is a very powerful incentive to look for jobs that will cover the bottom line.

Most people outside the profession think all lawyers are very well off. But actual earnings vary considerably. When Service Canada last collected the information in 2007—available on its Job Futures website—lawyers were earning an average of $50,600 a year after two years of employment. More striking is the disparity between the top 20 per cent, who were earning an average of $70,000, and the bottom 20 per cent, earning an average of $30,800. That gap doesn’t close as time goes by. In fact, it widens. Law is a profession where some do very well indeed while others toil at the margins. And it isn’t simply that some lawyers are more successful than others. Practice area has an awful lot to do with it.

Just as the cost of legal education has been climbing, funding for areas of law that rely on public dollars has been in retreat. Though legal aid systems vary from province to province, one consistent theme is inadequate public investment. British Columbia is dramatically slashing its legal aid budget. As a result, family law has been hard hit, with the elimination of full-time staff lawyers and of a major family law clinic in Vancouver. In Ontario, the criminal defence bar is boycotting the system in protest of inadequate funding, refusing to accept legal aid certificates in a small but growing number of cases.

Any student graduating into this environment must face some tough choices. Is it really worth taking up practice in an area of law starved for public investment? Is it even possible?