Government Action, Hot News, Legal Industry, News, President Obama, Regulations, Trends
One Hot Area of Opportunity for Lawyers: Government
September 22, 2009 by David Feldman · 1 Comment
Some feel President Obama believes that only “big government” can solve the nation’s problems. Others think he’s only temporarily increasing its size to help the economy, and after all, George W. Bush is the one who sent the deficit above $1 trillion. And everything in between.
When I was in Washington in early February I saw it already. With the economy elsewhere in tatters, a ton of new construction was going on and there was clearly a feeling of economic revival of sorts. This is good for lots of people, but in particular lawyers. According to the ABA Journal online, the government needs to hire 270,000 lawyers. That’s a whole lot! The report also indicates that there are five other “mission critical” areas where a lot of hiring is coming, including the medical, law enforcement and technology fields. It’s not all about the stimulus, in many cases there is simply an aging government worker population and many are beginning to retire.
Even with so many lawyers out of work, the report suggests it may still be difficult for the government to lure lawyers away from much higher-paying private sector jobs. Given the resumes I see from talented attorneys without jobs, I think this may be the best hiring moment for the government in a long time.
You should get more comments.
I work in government with many outstanding attorneys. Many specialists–experts in their field–who work in the government ultimately report to attorneys. Not everywhere of course–this isn’t true at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve–but almost everywhere.
This does make some sense. We are a nation of laws. Government action cannot be just a good idea. It has to be legal and fit within all the limits set by Congress and the courts.
Still…a lot of specialists (non-lawyers) spend enormous amounts of time writing analyses and recommendations in language that can be understood by lawyers within the agencies. It does make the work better, but it does slow it down, and there are also cultural differences that everyone needs to respect.
It ought to be great, though, for attorneys who have a taste for policy and want to have an impact. This is some compensation for the lower pay. By the way, the pay is just lower and not really so terrible once the local cost-of-living adjustments are factored in.