Interesting article in the Weekend Wall Street Journal: Cut My Salary, Please!, by Cameron Stracher:

Rather than crowing about their newfound earning power, however, young associates should be trembling: Their lives are about to get much worse. Perhaps they don’t understand there’s no such thing as a free lunch (or dinner). Or maybe they do understand, but they’re too caught up in the race to care. As Pete Cornell, the managing partner at Clifford Chance told me about the young lawyers who work for his firm: "These guys are competitive. They’re competing against others in the organization, and they want to get ahead." As long as there are law firms willing to pay them to have no lives, they will take the money.

But I want to make a modest proposal, something that will improve the lives of young lawyers by forcing them to re-evaluate their priorities: Tomorrow, law firms should cut starting salaries by 50%. The first thing that will happen, I predict, is that associates will rise up in revolt and refuse to work as hard for half the pay. The second thing that will happen is that law firms will need to look for ways to make up the difference.

They might hire more lawyers, but given the limitations in the market it will be difficult for the top law firms to find enough adequate candidates. Instead, I imagine a world in which every single line in a contract suddenly does not become a source of argument, every single step in a case a matter for a motion. Without the manpower to fight over every bone, lawyers will have to focus on the meat. With no skyrocketing salaries, the minimum billable requirement will wither and die, its usefulness served. In this kinder, gentler world, lawyers will have more time to spend with their families, to pursue their other passions, and to focus on the substance of their cases.

For more, see:

• Steve Bainbridge (UCLA), Associate Trade-offs
• Larry Ribstein (Illinois), Why Are Law Firm Associates Paid So Much?