Should Lawyers Form Their Own Unions?
Amid all the gloomy news of the sour economy and law firm layoffs, there have been a few comments at ABAJournal.com urging lawyers to band together and form unions.
Crazy talk, you think?
Not according to these posts at PrawfsBlawg “Law-Firm Associates Should Unionize” and Law Memo “Attorney Labor Unions.”
The article reposted on Law Memo makes the point that lawyers could form unions. PrawfsBlawg chimes in with reasons they would be powerful: “Associates at big law firms are perfectly suited to unionize. They are overworked and underpaid. And partners utterly depend on them. If associates actually used their latent collective bargaining power, it seems to me they could extract huge concessions from partners.”
This made us wonder what a union for lawyers would look like.
So tell us …
Under what circumstances would a union for lawyers work? And would you join one?
Answer in the comments section.
Read last week’s answers to this question: Given the Power, What Would You Ban?
Answer of the Week:
Posted by RFC: I’d ban a number of things:
Government interference with personal choices.
Campaigning. There’s better reality TV.
The terms “green,” “carbon footprint,” and “eco-friendly.” It makes me want to go buy dirty diesel and run the tap for hours.
Political parties. What used to serve a true valuable purpose 200 years ago is now a circus of ineffectiveness, name and insult-hurling, and us taxpayers paying a fortune in annual salaries for idiots who do absolutely nothing to accomplish nothing.
Insurance companies. ‘Nuff said.
Last updated at 2:40 p.m. CT to include SSRN link to “Attorney Labor Unions.”
