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70 Md. L. Rev. 373 (2010-2011)
Three Generations of U.S. Lawyers: Generalists, Specialists, Project Managers

handle is hein.journals/mllr70 and id is 377 raw text is: THREE GENERATIONS OF U.S. LAWYERS: GENERALISTS, SPECIALISTS, PROJECT MANAGERS WILLIAM D. HENDERSON* As this Essay is being written, the legal services industry is in the midst of a significant economic recession. In response to harsh eco- nomic conditions, the nation's corporate clients have tightened their legal budgets and altered their spending habits. As a result, large law firms, who in recent years hired roughly twenty-five percent of all law school graduates, have dramatically cut the sizes of their incoming as- sociate classes.' In turn, highly qualified law school graduates have expanded theirjob searches to markets and to employers that are nor- mally reserved for the broad middle tier of law school graduates. As the downturn cascades through the entire entry-level market, a dis- turbingly large number of recent law school graduates are either un- employed or underemployed. Although many of us who are middle aged or older can remember prior economic recessions (for example, the early 1980s, the early 1990s, and right after September 11th), there is a palpable sense among legal employers and legal educators that this particular recession feels different. Does the Great Legal Recession that commenced in the fall of 2008 mark the beginning of a true sea change for traditional corpo- rate law firms and, by extension, U.S. law schools? The answer to this question is yes. This short Essay will walk interested readers through some of the essential supporting data. The story follows a relatively simple narrative in which successive generations of U.S. corporate law- yers have evolved from generalists, to specialists, to someday, in the not too distant future, project managers. Further, the story's analyti- cal lens is primarily one of supply and demand gradually shifting over time. What I think will surprise readers-particularly legal academics and law firm partners, and less so law students and recent law school Copyright @ 2011 by William D. Henderson. * Professor, Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington; Director, Law Firms Working Group (American Bar Foundation/Indiana Law). 1. See, e.g., Ben W. Heineman Jr. & David B. Wilkins, Big-Firm Associates: Why They Go and How to Keep Them, LAw.com (Feb. 29, 2008), http://www.law.com/jsp/articlejsp?id=12 04212425546 (reporting that twenty-five percent of students began their careers at the 250 largest law firms). 373

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