What will happen toall the lawyers as the economy continues its collapse?????

[Hope@ZeroKelvin]

Since many lawyers (but not all, I'm sure, Matt) have gotten fat these last few years, I have a suggestion of what to do with them when the groceries are running low:

LONG PORK.

[de jure]

Can we morph this thread into a thread on lawyer jokes?

Sure. But there are only three lawyer jokes in the world, the rest are all true stories. 

[Zappalives]

What do you call 100 lawyers trapped in a submarine 1000' BELOW THE OCEAN?

[swampman]

What do you call 100 lawyers trapped in a submarine 1000' BELOW THE OCEAN?

a good start

[EastcoastJD]

on the other hand, public defenders should do pretty well.  As long as they can still get Prozac.

Don't need any.  Music is my antidepressant.  Besides, being a public defender makes one really appreciate their freedom as well as their sanity.  In addition to "criminals", I also represent people who are involuntarily committed at the mental hospital.  I can only imagine the fallout I'm going to witness (however briefly) when people with mental illnesses that can be effectively managed with medication no longer have access to the meds they need to keep from going looney tunes (not to mention no access to government welfare, electricity, heat, food, water, etc.).

[captain1]

I am a lawyer in private practice (sole practitioner) in a poor rural county in central VA -  used to do pretty much a little of everything - wills, real estate closings, incorporations, a little criminal law.  Now my business is almost all court appointed criminal defense work.  That's really OK with me, I enjoy it (despite Virginia ranking 51st out of all 50 states and DC in what it pays its court appointed lawyers).  What is interesting is how many more larceny cases we are seeing - people stealing whatever they can, most because they are just trying to get by from day to day.

[sc]

I am a lawyer in private practice (sole practitioner) in a poor rural county in central VA -  used to do pretty much a little of everything - wills, real estate closings, incorporations, a little criminal law.  Now my business is almost all court appointed criminal defense work.  That's really OK with me, I enjoy it (despite Virginia ranking 51st out of all 50 states and DC in what it pays its court appointed lawyers).  What is interesting is how many more larceny cases we are seeing - people stealing whatever they can, most because they are just trying to get by from day to day.

Do you have any "feel" for how far things would have to deteriorate before criminal defense law is finished as a profession (I am making the possibly erroneous assumption that it would be the last thing to disappear in the legal industry).

Are we looking at Bosnia in the 90s?.......I am pretty sure that Somalia don't have to many functioning attorneys ...

Just really and seriously interested.....no lawyers jokes even

[Cycling in Hollywood]

In the short term, they will get very hungry. In the long term, they will become farmers or die.

My father was an attorney in Nebraska, now retired a bit early so he can concentrate on farming the land he inherited from HIS father...so maybe not so far-fetched .

[Seahorse]

Well, caveman didn't have lawyers, but Pakistan does, so I think the US has a long way to fall.

http://karachilawyers.tripod.com/

http://www.pakistanlawyer.com/bar.htm

Pakistan lawyers lead protest in streets against dictator Musharraf.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/world/asia/06pakistan.html?ex=1352005200&en=872d946e5fc982d3&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

[Vintner]

Here in Florida, public interest criminal law attorneys are getting squeezed from both sides. The state's financial problems have slashed the budget for the judicial system - meaning that prosecutors and defenders are getting huge caseloads per attorney (often 200+ at any time), with high attrition and no money to hire new ones.

Of course, in this economy, the ones who can handle the caseloads are hanging onto their jobs as tightly as they can.

[the Black Hunter]

The situation with litigation as a way of life in America, and increasingly elsewhere, is but one of many reasons we need to collapse.  To purge the system.  Lawyers are something that the system needs to be purged of.  JDD's report on the state of lawyers is therefore something positive to think about as we glimpse the early stages of Orlov's Stage 4 of collapse.

[Seahorse]

Yes, we need to get back to our evolutionary roots and dispense with this charade we call society.  The only rule of law we need is the oldest law, survival of the fittest, or, as more eloquently said, "British Rule 303."  Now, let's not be half ass about this.  I'm talking no stop signs, no 911, nada.  I'm sure that Dick Cheney is rootin for this too.  If he weren't inhibited by this thing we call law, the Constitution, enforced by a bunch of paper pushing pencil necked lawyers and judges, he could get real medieval on our collective asses with those contractors of his.  But, like all of you, I'm willing to take that chance.  I'm not really sure why he ever let a "god damn piece of paper" like the Constitution hold him back anyway.  Hell I wouldn't.  I'm waiting for it to happen too, and I'm a lawyer.  And it can't happen a  moment too soon.  Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, stonings and crucifixions, were just more injustice by court systems that didn't work.   I'm talking  rule 303.  I think being a trained Army Ranger and well armed, and having just completed an Iron Man, which for you couch potatoes is a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run back to back nonstop, I might do alright under Rule 303.  I think Tug and a few other posters would do quite well too.  Happy hunting.  Like I said, not a moment to soon. 

[justanouveaufarmer]

Well, it can't work any worse than what we've got now.  For most of us anyway.  Maybe not the guy who gets stoned for stealing a horse when he didn't.

I'm willing to give it a shot.  Might work better if we didn't have so many people though.

[Seahorse]

Well, it can't work any worse than what we've got now.  For most of us anyway.  Maybe not the guy who gets stoned for stealing a horse when he didn't.

I'm willing to give it a shot.  Might work better if we didn't have so many people though.

If you are willing to give it a shot, try Afghanistan.  They have no laws there, no lawyers.  Let us know how you fare.  Better wear your Burka or whatever they call that thing to hide your femininity.

[justanouveaufarmer]

oops, my message should've been in purple.   

That's kind of what I meant.  How well did it work for the falsly accused?  Plus we just have too many people to not have any laws.  I couldn't even manage it in my family.