<story><title>The takeover of America&apos;s legal system</title><url>https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/the-takeover-of-americas-legal-system</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>matthewmcg</author><text>I have practiced law for more than ten years, attended some of the institutions mentioned, and have worked in and with firms that would be considered &amp;quot;elite.&amp;quot; I don&amp;#x27;t recognize any of the phenomena described in this article. Frankly the writer is either very far from the reality of modern legal practice (chasing noise in the system, without any real data) or she&amp;#x27;s viewing things selectively to serve some ideological purpose.&lt;p&gt;Most legal bills are paid by large corporations. The U.S. is the leader in this respect--on average U.S. companies spend about 0.4% of their revenue on legal services, almost triple the rate in a civil law country like Germany. Effectively most lawyers (including me) work directly or indirectly for businesses. This means that the legal education system, and to a lesser extent, the court system, are shaped by and largely serve the needs of businesses.&lt;p&gt;And what are all of these businesses doing with their legal spending? Largely litigation defense, transactions (M&amp;amp;A, issuing securities, or buying&amp;#x2F;selling assets like real estate), and interacting with government and regulators.&lt;p&gt;Lawyers that don&amp;#x27;t work for large business organizations spend their time representing individuals or classes of plaintiffs in tort litigation or in matters like criminal defense, immigration assistance, family law, or estate planning. Things that may not involve the huge dollar amounts of business transactions but that matter a lot to the people affected.&lt;p&gt;For every law school class on critical race theory or other topics the writer criticizes, a law student will take dozens on administrative procedure, taxation, federal courts, etc. etc. etc.&lt;p&gt;There are many valid criticisms of the American legal system. For example, you might feel that it&amp;#x27;s too easy to file a frivolous lawsuit that will settle for nuisance value. Or you might observe that corporations have been able to cripple or stall regulation that the public demands. Or that mass incarceration is bad social policy. This kind of introspection, including CRT, has long been a part of the academy and the profession, and I think a useful one.&lt;p&gt;The situation depicted in this article, that everyone&amp;#x27;s suddenly gone out of control &amp;quot;woke,&amp;quot; is just ridiculous and doesn&amp;#x27;t at all fit my own experience.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rayiner</author><text>CRT dates back to the 1970s. I assure you that the liberal NYU and Northwestern professors quoted in the article didn’t just wake up in 2022 and decide to complain about people saying that “mass incarceration is bad social policy.”&lt;p&gt;These trends are hitting academia and the non-profit sector first. At my law school, one of the top ones in the country, the Dean got up and declared himself a “white supremacist” at a town hall meeting: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonexaminer.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;northwestern-universitys-interim-dean-admits-to-being-a-racist-during-digital-town-hall&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonexaminer.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;northwestern-univers...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;My friend who works at a public interest organization—herself very liberal—has been surprised by attorneys refusing to work in cases because of the political beliefs of clients and donors (which have nothing to do with the organization’s purpose).&lt;p&gt;The changes at the ACLU are well documented: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;aclu-free-speech.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;aclu-free-speech.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Efforts by the ABA to impose commitments on lawyers that could interfere with the duty of zealous advocacy are well documented: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;judicature.duke.edu&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;a-speech-code-for-lawyers&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;judicature.duke.edu&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;a-speech-code-for-lawye...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>The takeover of America&apos;s legal system</title><url>https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/the-takeover-of-americas-legal-system</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>matthewmcg</author><text>I have practiced law for more than ten years, attended some of the institutions mentioned, and have worked in and with firms that would be considered &amp;quot;elite.&amp;quot; I don&amp;#x27;t recognize any of the phenomena described in this article. Frankly the writer is either very far from the reality of modern legal practice (chasing noise in the system, without any real data) or she&amp;#x27;s viewing things selectively to serve some ideological purpose.&lt;p&gt;Most legal bills are paid by large corporations. The U.S. is the leader in this respect--on average U.S. companies spend about 0.4% of their revenue on legal services, almost triple the rate in a civil law country like Germany. Effectively most lawyers (including me) work directly or indirectly for businesses. This means that the legal education system, and to a lesser extent, the court system, are shaped by and largely serve the needs of businesses.&lt;p&gt;And what are all of these businesses doing with their legal spending? Largely litigation defense, transactions (M&amp;amp;A, issuing securities, or buying&amp;#x2F;selling assets like real estate), and interacting with government and regulators.&lt;p&gt;Lawyers that don&amp;#x27;t work for large business organizations spend their time representing individuals or classes of plaintiffs in tort litigation or in matters like criminal defense, immigration assistance, family law, or estate planning. Things that may not involve the huge dollar amounts of business transactions but that matter a lot to the people affected.&lt;p&gt;For every law school class on critical race theory or other topics the writer criticizes, a law student will take dozens on administrative procedure, taxation, federal courts, etc. etc. etc.&lt;p&gt;There are many valid criticisms of the American legal system. For example, you might feel that it&amp;#x27;s too easy to file a frivolous lawsuit that will settle for nuisance value. Or you might observe that corporations have been able to cripple or stall regulation that the public demands. Or that mass incarceration is bad social policy. This kind of introspection, including CRT, has long been a part of the academy and the profession, and I think a useful one.&lt;p&gt;The situation depicted in this article, that everyone&amp;#x27;s suddenly gone out of control &amp;quot;woke,&amp;quot; is just ridiculous and doesn&amp;#x27;t at all fit my own experience.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>marlowe221</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m a former attorney. I left the profession after 13 years of practice and became a software developer.&lt;p&gt;I spent most of my career doing things like criminal defense and representing people with disabilities. In those areas of practice, things like CRT are badly needed. There can be no realistic dispute that the heavy hand of the law comes down more heavily on criminal defendants of color than it does those who are white - examination of the roots and causes of institutional racism are the best ways to combat this issue, and perhaps some discussion of these topics even in law school is warranted.&lt;p&gt;That said, I agree that most legal education is more practical and traditional than what is depicted in this article.</text></comment>