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70 Md. L. Rev. 451 (2010-2011)
Back to the Future in Law Schools

handle is hein.journals/mllr70 and id is 455 raw text is: BACK TO THE FUTURE IN LAW SCHOOLS WILLiAM L. REYNOLDS* I. INTRODUCTION It was a pleasure participating in the Symposium on the Profes- sion and the Academy: Addressing Major Changes in Law Practice and hearing thoughtful (and interesting) people discuss the future of my professions-the practice and teaching of law. Of particular interest was the willingness of participants to talk about law in contexts other than BigLaw' and T142 schools.' No doubt that was partially due to Copyright @ 2011 by William L. Reynolds. * Jacob A. France Professor ofJudicial Process, University of Maryland School of Law. This Essay is an adaptation of remarks I made at the Symposium. Thanks to the panel and the audience at the Symposium for their comments then and later. Thanks also to Michelle Harner, Juliet Moringiello, and William Richman for comments on a draft of this Essay. 1. There has been much discussion lately about the viability of the traditional BigLaw business model. See, e.g., Andrew Bruck & Andrew Canter, Note, Supply, Demand, and the Changing Economics of Large Law Firms, 60 STAN. L. REv. 2087, 2088 (2008) (examining the long-term effects of introducing external market forces into the legal industry). Many have predicted its demise to some extent. See generally, e.g., John P. Heinz, When Law Firns Fail, 43 Surrom U. L. REv. 67, 68-70 (2009) (suggesting that large firms will continue to shrink and dissolve because of their collective participation in what has increasingly become a winner-take-all market); Larry E. Ribstein, The Death of Big Law, 2010 Wis. L. REv. 749 (arguing that the recent downsizing of large firms is due more to a fundamentally flawed business model than to a shrinking economy and predicting dire consequences for firms that fail to adapt to changing corporate environments). I believe that prediction is un- likely because the doomsayers overlook several factors. First, the cost of lawyers in a large business transaction is small in comparison with the cost of other players in such an ex- change-especially investment bankers. E.g., CHRIS RISEY, WHITE PAPER: INVESTMENT BANK- ING FEES EXAMINED 4 (2009), available at http://www.lanternadvisors.com/Investment BankingFeesExaminedWhitePaper.pdf (noting that, on average, when companies employ financial consultants at fee rates typical of corporate law firms, the total cost of the same service with a positive result is a fraction of what investment bankers charge). Clients dealing with very large sums of money are not going to concern themselves with this sort of loose change. Second, a client does not have to worry about being second-guessed if she chooses a prominent firm like Wachtell, something all too likely to happen if disaster strikes while using legal talent with a less prestigious name. Third, prestige itself counts. What general counsel at a meeting of museum trustees wants to admit that her company uses Dewey Cheatham & Howe? In short, as companies start making large profits again, they will become less concerned with cost and more concerned with reputation. 2. T14 refers collectively to the fourteen schools that consistently place at the top of annual law school rankings. Martha Neil, Yale's Still #1 in Latest U.S. News Rankings; Harvard, Stanford, Columbia & Chicago Follow, A.B.A. J. (Apr. 15, 2010, 12:09 AM), http:// www.abajournal.com/news/article/law._school_rankings/. Recently, critics who doubt whether law school makes economic sense as an investment have questioned the continued willingness of persons to apply to law school. See generally Neil J. Dilloff, The Changing Cul- 451

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