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21 Prof. Law. 1 (2011-2013)

handle is hein.journals/proflw21 and id is 1 raw text is: Senior Lawyers Serving Public Interests: Pro Bono and Second-Stage Careers Deborah L. Rhode The United States is facing a demographic transformation with profound implications for all sectors of society. As lives have lengthened, what was once considered 'old' has become old-fashioned. The legal profession is no exception. It is about to encounter the largest, healthiest and wealthiest generation of lawyers to approach senior status 2 Many will be asking the question that Peter Laslett posed in A Fresh Map of Life: How are we going to use this sudden ... unanticipated release from mortality?3 For a substantial number of lawyers, the answer will involve some second stage of work that involves public service. This overview seeks to provide a better understanding of this transformation of retirement and the opportunities it presents to promote justice for those who need it most. I. The Changing Profile of the Legal Profession and Employer Responses As the Baby Boom generation reaches retirement age, an unprecedented number of lawyers will be available to consider sustained involvement in pub- lie interest work. Precise numbers are impossible to assemble because many jurisdictions have no data on the age distribution of practicing lawyers.4 However, estimates suggest that about a quarter of the nation's 1.1 million lawyers are over 65. Over the next two decades, the number of attorneys age fifty or older will triple, and by 2020 they will account for almost half of the legal profession.6 The increased life expectancy and improved health of this generation means that many senior lawyers will have a substantial period in which full- or part- time work is possible.7 For many of these practitioners, paid legal employment will be hard to come by in either the Deborah L Rhode is Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law, Director of the Center on the Legal Profession, Stanford Universityh private or non-profit sector. In legal aid and public interest workplaces, recent financial constraints are curtailing job opportunities. In the private sector, as Marc Galanter has documented, most of the growth in demand for legal services targets large or mid-sized law firms that employ pre- dominantly younger attorneys.9 To maintain high profit-per-partner ratios, these firms operate with a leveraged work force that limits opportunities for senior lawyers. Many of these firms have formal policies or informal practices that transition senior attorneys into retirement. Recent surveys find that between 40 to 60 percent of firms with at least 50 lawyers have mandatory retirement policies.'t About 40 percent of surveyed lawyers in manage- ment positions favor mandatory retirement, largely on the ground that it opens opportunities for younger colleagues, facilitates orderly transitions in leadership, and avoids awkward conversations with unproductive older partners. However, most lawyers believe that such policies are too inflex- ible, and in 2007, the American Bar Association passed a resolution calling on firms to end manda- tory retirement.2 Whether most firms will move in that direction remains unclear, but however they respond, the graying of the profession is likely to pose increas- ing challenges. The possibility of age discrimina- tion suits compounds the difficulties. In 2009, 40 firms were subject to EEOC complaints alleging such bias.3 Many firms see a cautionary tale in Sidley Austin's payment of $27.5 million to settle such a case, and Kelley Drye's revisions of its policy withdrawing equity status of senior partners in the wake of litigation.4 Almost 4 out of 10 of Am Law 200 firms repot that the treatment of senior lawyers is already a significant management problem. (Continued on page 23)

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