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Intra-profession class resentment surfaces

Published: Sep 16, 2009

 Law       

Interesting post at Simple Justice, the blog of New York criminal lawyer Scott Greenfield: “But What Do Biglaw Children Think?”  Greenfield is addressing the recent series of “small law” open threads on Abovethelaw. ‘”Small law” being “the practice areas that the inconsequential people practice, like personal injury, real estate, and, oh, criminal.”  Greenfield focuses on the comments, many of which are dripping with contempt for the practice of law  outside the context of elite firms.

The problem here, by the way, isn't Lat's facial snarkiness about the subject of "small law."  He's actually trying, within the confines of his audience.  The problem here is the attitude of the audience.  Think about this the next time a wave of Biglaw layoffs roll around and some of their refugees get hungry enough to ask for a job.

I’d quibble with conflating the ATL commentariat with its broader readership, but his point about the insularity and inflated self-estimation of some of “BigLaw’s children” rings true.

                                                        -posted by brian

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