Study the following statements, taken from opinion poll on lawyers’ greediness. Say if you share/oppose these opinions. Justify your point of view. Quote the most interesting statements.
Write an essay on one of the following issues.
1 “Lawyers are parasites on the taxpayers’ backs.”
2 “Lawyers are like rhinoceroses: thick skinned, short-sighted, and always ready to charge.”
3 “Entry into legal profession has been made more difficult than necessary so that there won’t be too many people competing for the work.”
4 “The publicity only surrounds lawyers because we need them so much.”
5 “Lawyers often exploit the misery of those whose interests they are supposed to defend.”
6 “The legal men should be avoided at all costs if you want to keep some of your wealth and sanity.”
7 “Humankind has embraced capitalism as its favorite religion. Greed is commandment number one.”
8 “There’s nothing wrong with charging a rich tariff to those who can afford it.”
9 “Justice is not for sale to the highest bidder.”
Part 2: Text A
Law Firms
Most towns in the United States have small firms of attorneys who are in daily contact with ordinary people, giving advice and acting on matters such as consumer affairs, traffic accident disputes and contracts for the sale of land. Some may also prepare defences for clients accused of crimes. However, in both the United States and other industrialized countries, lawyers are becoming more and more specialized. Working in small firms, lawyers now tend to restrict themselves to certain kinds of work, and lawyers working in large law firms or employed in the law department of a large commercial enterprise work on highly specific areas of law. One lawyer may be employed by a mining company just to prepare contracts for the supply of coal. Another may work for a newspaper advising the editors on libel matters. Another may be part of a Wall Street firm of over a hundred lawyers who specialize in advising stockbrokers on share transactions.
Text B
Law Firm in Practice
Read the text and retell it using the italicized words.
Law firms advise businesses, governments, public sector bodies and financial institutions. They provide a wide range of services for organizations in the key areas: finance, banking, property, commerce, marketing, advertising, litigation and disputes, taxes, employment and employee benefits, insurance.
A law firm acts for companies in relation to the whole spectrum of corporate law (company creation, shareholders agreements, joint ventures, and strategic alliances). It also expertises in banking and financial services.
Experienced lawyers of the firm deal with all types of property transactions including investments, leasing and development projects. They ensure professional expertise in intellectual property matters: copyright, patents, know-how and confidential information.
Commercial litigation practice of the lawyers covers all kinds of disputes: lawsuits, arbitration or alternative dispute resolution. The lawyers conduct these disputes, prepare the case and assist the client.
The taxation group of a law firm offers a comprehensive corporate tax planning and advice service.
Vocabulary
consumer n потребитель
employee benefits n пособия / выплаты работникам
libel matters n материалы, содержащие пасквиль
stockbroker n биржевой брокер
strategic alliance n стратегическое объединение / альянс
Text C
Law Firm Structure
Linus Walker has applied for a position at a law firm. Read his job interview.
Mr Nichols: So, at this point, I’d like to ask you if there’s anything you’d like to ask me? About the firm, for example.
Linus: Of course. I do have some questions. I guess I’d like to know what it’s like to work here. Um, I wonder if you could describe the firm’s culture for me?
Mr Nichols: Well, as you certainty know, we’re a relatively small commercial firm. We’re what’s known as a law boutique, since we specialize in two areas of the law: Real Property and Debtor-Creditor. Since we’re specialists, we try to maintain high standards in our work. As for the firm’s culture, I’d have to say we’re pretty traditional. People dress quite formally, in suits, and we don’t call partners by their first names. It’s a good place to work, definitely friendly, but people are serious and work very hard.
Linus: That sounds good to me. Perhaps you could tell me something about the structure of the firm.
Mr Nichols: Well, the firm is headed by the two senior partners, Mr Robertson and Mr Michaels. They founded the partnership 30 years ago. They’re still quite active, especially with the older clients, but the day-to-day affairs and the finances of the firm are managed by the full partners, that’s Mr Graham and myself. We also oversee the two departments. But a salaried partner is in charge of each of them.
Linus: I see. And how are the departments structured?
Mr Nichols: Well, in the Real Property Department, there are three associates who report to the partner, and they’re assisted by two paralegals. In the Debtor-Creditor department, there are two associates and two paralegals. There’s also one secretary for each department who basically assists the partner who heads the department, but who does on occasion do work for the associates as well, since they’re responsible for all the clerical work that needs to be done. Of course, there are always summer associates or clerks working at the firm, on average four of them, not just during the summer, but also during the term breaks. Right. I guess that’s all there is to say about the structure. How does that sound to you?
Linus: Very interesting. Actually, the size sounds ideal – not quite as small as the firm I worked for in Cambridge, where I did my summer clerkships, but not too big, either. And nowhere nearly as large as the European Commission where I worked last!
Vocabulary
associate n помощник партнера
boutique n (небольшой) модный магазин; law boutique n небольшая высокоспециализированная юридическая фирма
clerical work n канцелярская работа
clerkship n работа клерка / секретаря
day-to-day affairs n повседневная работа
Debtor-Creditor n должник-кредитор
full partner n полный партнер
on occasion иногда, время от времени
paralegal n помощник юриста без диплома юриста
senior partner n старший партнер
A Answer these questions.
1 What does Mr Nichols say about the atmosphere of the firm?
2 What does Linus say about the size of the firm?
B Complete this organigram of the firm using the words in the box below.
| Associate Full Partners Mr Robertson Paralegal Real Property Salaried Partner |
Vocabulary tasks
Describing a law firm
A Look at the following phrases used by Mr Nichols to describe the firm. Which can be used to speak of a department or company, and which of a person? Which can be used for both?
………..are headed by ………..
………..are assisted by………..
………..are managed by………..
………..are responsible for………..
………..is in charge of………..
………..are assigned to………..
………..report to………..
B Using the phrases in A, describe the structure of a law firm with which you are familiar or the one just described in the text. Refer to the positions and duties of the personnel.
Practice areas
C Read about five lawyers talking about their firms, practice areas and clients.
1 I’m a newly qualified lawyer and I’ve just landed a job as an associate at a mid-size law firm. The firm offers a wide range of commercial law services. Our lawyers provide advice on many different legal areas, including banking law, corporate law and corporate tax, employment law, commercial litigation, property law, to name a few. In the next months, I’ll be rotating through some of the departments to get an idea about the different practice areas. At present, I’m working in commercial litigation and am enjoying it. My duties include a good deal of client liaison, lots of research and some writing of briefs and letters. Urn, while I’m at this firm, I intend to specialize in an area of the law that involves a lot of trial work, because I think I’d really like to be a litigator.
2 I’m a sole practitioner in the area of employment and labour law in a small city. Some of the legal issues I commonly deal with are wrongful termination, sexual harassment, and discrimination on the basis of gender, age, religion, disability, national origin or race. I also handle wage and overtime disputes, employment contracts, public-sector employee issues, and disability and workers’ compensation issues. I counsel clients about their rights and options. I also provide advocacy for them, including representation in mediations, arbitrations and litigation. My clients are primarily individuals. They usually need advice in handling personnel matters and resolving disputes. Two paralegals assist me in my work at my office.
3 As an attorney, I protect the innovations and inventions of my clients. I represent both plaintiffs and defendants in trade-mark, trade-secret and copyright infringement suits in both state and federal courts. I have a good deal of experience in domain-name disputes. I carry out international trade-mark and service-mark registrations and do availability searches and clearances of marks, trade names and logos. My work also involves providing counselling to photographers, architects, graphic designers and creators of fine art. I try to give them an understanding of the laws and procedures that affect them and their businesses. I also serve as a trial consultant and expert witness in intellectual property (IP) law. For bigger cases requiring additional staffing and resources, I have a good working relationship with a large IP firm and can arrange representation under this firm if a client requests it. This requires a separate retainer agreement.
4 I’m a senior partner in a large law firm. My main areas of expertise are competition law and international tradelaw. I advise domestic and international clients on all aspects of competition and international trade laws, including domestic and multi-jurisdictional merger transactions, criminal cartel cases, and trade and pricing practices, represent clients before the Competition Tribunal in merger transactions. I advise clients on a regular basis with respect to restrictive trade practices under the Competition Act. Some of the industries my clients come from include transportation, steel, pulp and paper, telecommunications, media and entertainment, financial services, electronic products and services, food services, and consumer products. On a regular basis I write papers and hold presentations for business and professional audiences on various topics dealing with competition and international trade law.
5 I’m a shareholder in my firm and I am head of my firm’s Litigation Division. I represent landlords, tenants, developers and contractors and have tried many cases (mostly to successful conclusion) in court or arbitration. I assist clients with all types of real-estate-related litigation, including lease and contract disputes, mortgage foreclosures, property-tax disputes and land-use disputes. My practice also involves all types of real-estate transactions. In addition to lecturing and writing about real-estate issues for professional groups, including lawyers, accountants, lenders and real-estate professionals, I teach courses on real-estate law for law students at the local university. I’m an active member of several professional organizations, including the state and national bar associations, to name but two.
D Tick the information you hear about each speaker.
| Speaker 1... 1 has a few years’ working experience. 2 works as a clerk at a mid-size commercial law firm. 3 will get to know other departments of the firm. 4 meets with clients regularly. 5 plans to specialize in commercial litigation. | |
| Speaker 2... 1 is a sole practitioner. 2 works in the area of employment law. 3 deals with wage disputes. 4 represents clients in mediation. 5 has many clients who are small businesses. | |
| Speaker 3... 1. works in the area of secured transactions. 2 carries out trade-mark registrations. 3 serves as an expert witness in court. 4 assists clients who are in artistic professions. 5 is a partner in a large lP firm. | |
| Speaker 4... 1is a senior partner in a mid- size law firm. 2 specializes in competition law. 3 represents clients before the employment tribunal. 4 deals with infringements of the Competition Act. 5 has clients in the telecommunications sector. | |
| Speaker 5... 1 owns shares in his firm. 2 argues cases in court. 3 works in the area of real property law. 4 represents landlords but not tenants. 5 teaches courses on litigation at the law university. | |
Discuss these questions.
1 Which kind of firm do you work in or would you like to work in?
2 Which areas of the law have you specialized in or would like to specialize in?
E Law firm culture
Read the following excerpt from an article in a law-school newspaper about law firm culture. Which type of firm would you prefer to work for? Why?
One factor which plays an important role in the culture of a law firm is its size. Law firms can range from a one-person solo practice (conducted by a sole practitioner) to global firms employing hundreds of attorneys all over the world. A small law firm, which typically engages from two to ten lawyers, is sometimes known as a boutique firm, as it often specializes in a specific area of the law. A mid-size law firm generally has ten to 50 lawyers, while a large law firm is considered to be one employing 50 or more attorneys.
F Read about Richard, a law student, talking to a group of first-year law students at an orientation event at law school. He tells them about his experience as a clerk in different law firms. According to Richard, what are some of the benefits of undertaking a clerkship?
Hi, for those of you who don’t know me yet, my name’s Richard Bailey. I’m here to tell you about my experience doing summer and winter clerkships. In law school, the professors will always tell you it’s important to do some of work experience because it’ll improve your future job opportunities. Have you heard that yet? Well, it’s definitely true. I’m now in my last year here, and I started doing summer and winter clerkships in my first year. It’s been a tremendous learning experience.
Most of my clerkships have lasted for a period of four weeks. I’ve tried to vary the firms I work for, from a small two-man firm right through to a huge global firm. Each firm was different. At smaller firms, I was expected to be more independent and was responsible for more things. I liked that a lot. Since I was usually the only clerk there at the time, I’d have to do whatever work needed to be done.
Working at the bigger firms was quite different. I was usually one among many clerks. The work I performed there tended to concern bigger cases that were quite important and so they had more ‘prestige’. That was really interesting. At the larger firms, I usually had a chance to move between groups in different practice areas, helping out where needed. This allowed me to gain some insight into what was involved in the legal work carried out in these teams and in the different practice areas.
At the smaller firms, I wrote case briefs for the partners and associates, and all kinds of correspondence with clients from the first day on, which I liked doing. At the bigger firms, I was asked to do research and to help to maintain court books. That was a useful learning experience, too.
In my opinion, the main advantage of a clerkship at a large firm is that you meet a lot of new people. There’s a big network of people — so many different lawyers and clients. There’s also a greater emphasis on learning and developing the various skills a lawyer needs in courses and seminars.
I must say that both the larger and the smaller firms tried to give me a sense of being a part of the company, as if I really belonged to their team. At the larger firms, I was even invited to some of their social events, and that was really fun. However, the smaller firms definitely made you feel more comfortable; everything was more friendly and relaxed. But in both types of firms I never felt that I was wasting my time. My advice to you all is that it’s really important to try to do clerkships, starting in your first year of law school. I also think it’s valuable to get to know a variety of firms, with different practice areas and different sizes. I’m sure it will help you decide what kind of law you want to practise later, and what kind of law firm you’d feel most comfortable in.
G Answer these questions.
1 What types of firms are mentioned in the text?
3 Where does Richard study?
4 Why do the professors encourage students to do work experience?
5 Who is he talking to?
6 What does he tell the first-year law students?
7 How long have Richard’s clerkships generally lasted?
8 What were clerkships for Richard?
9 Where did he do his clerkships?
10 What was his job at the small firm like?
11 What is the main advantage of a clerkship at a large firm?
12 What is Richard’s final piece of advice?
13 Do you agree with the way Richard characterizes small and large law firms?
H Tick the advantages of small and large law firms Richard mentions. In some cases, he says both types of firm have the same advantage.
| Advantages | Small firms | Large firms |
| more autonomy and responsibility | ||
| opportunity to work on prestigious cases | ||
| chance to rotate through different practice areas | ||
| asked to write briefs and letters | ||
| allowed to conduct research and manage court books | ||
| opportunity to make many contacts | ||
| more training offered | ||
| made to feel part of a team | ||
| invited to participate in social events | ||
| family-like atmosphere | ||
| made good use of time |
Text D
Law Firm Kravitz &Bane
Read the text and translate it.
The law firm of Kravitz & Bane had almost three hundred lawyers peacefully coexisting under the same roof in Chicago. Two hundred and eighty-six to be exact, though it was difficult for anyone to keep score because at any given moment there were a dozen or so leaving for a multitude of reasons, and there were always two dozen or so shiny, fresh new recruits trained and polished and just itching for combat. And though it was huge, Kravitz & Bane had failed to play the expansion game as quickly as others, had failed to gobble up weaker firms in other cities, had been slow to raid clients from its competitors, and thus had to suffer the distinction of being only the third-largest firm in Chicago. It had offices in six cities, but, much to the embarrassment of the younger partners, there was no London address on the letterhead.
Though it had mellowed some, Kravitz & Bane was still known as a vicious litigation firm. It had tamer departments for real estate, tax, and antitrust, but its money was made in litigation. When the firm recruited it sought the brightest third-year students with the highest marks in mock trials and debate. It wanted young men (a token female here and there) who could be instantly trained in the slash-and-attack style perfected long ago by Kravitz & Bane litigators.
There was a nice though small unit for plaintiffs’ personal injury work, good stuff from which they took 50 percent and allowed their clients the remainder. There was a sizable section for a white-collar criminal defence, but the white-collar defendant needed a sizable net worth to strap on Kravitz & Bane. Then there were the two largest sections, one for commercial litigation and one for insurance defence. With the exception of the plaintiffs’ work, and as a percentage of gross it was almost insignificant, the firm’s money was earned by billable hours. Two hundred bucks per hour for insurance work; more if the traffic could stand it. Three hundred bucks for criminal defence. Four hundred for a big bank. Even five hundred dollars an hour for a rich corporate client with lazy in-house lawyers who were asleep at the wheel.
Kravitz & Bane printed money by the hour and built a dynasty in Chicago. Its offices were fashionable but not plush. They filled the top floors of, fittingly, the third- tallest building downtown.
Like most large firms, it made so much money it felt obligated to establish a small pro bono section to fulfil its moral responsibility to society. It was quite proud of the fact that it had a full-time pro bono partner, an eccentric do-gooder named E. Garner Goodman, who had a spacious office with two secretaries on the sixty-first floor. He shared a paralegal with a litigation partner. The firm’s gold- embossed brochure made much of the fact that its lawyers were encouraged to pursue pro bono projects. The brochure proclaimed that last year, 1989, Kravitz & Bane lawyers donated almost sixty thousand hours of their precious time to clients who couldn’t pay. Housing project kids, death row inmates, illegal aliens, drug addicts, and, of course, the firm was deeply concerned with the plight of the homeless. The brochure even had a photograph of two young lawyers, jackets off, sleeves rolled up, ties loosened about the neck, sweat in the armpits, eyes filled with compassion, as they performed some menial chore in the midst of a group of minority children in what appeared to be an urban landfill. Lawyers saving society.
Answer these questions.
1 Was Kravitz & Bane a small or a large firm?
2 Where was the firm located?
3 How many lawyers worked there?
4 Why was it only the third-largest firm in Chicago?
5 What departments did it have?
6 What area of law was its money made in?
7 What were its requirements for candidates?
8 How did the firm earn its money?
9 What does the Latin term ‘pro bono’ mean?
10 Why E. Garner Goodman was called a pro bono partner?
11 What were pro bono projects of the firm?
Part 3
Reading tasks
Read the questions and the extract below from a journal article about the partnership structure of law firms.
For each question 1-6, decide which section (A, B, C or D) the question refers to. You will need to use some of these letters more than once. There is an example at the beginning (0).
0 In the USA, attorneys are prohibited from forming law firm partnerships with people who are not practising lawyers. D
1 Some observers believe that the prevailing organizational framework of law practices will ultimately be replaced by something else.
2 Professional associations have established regulations which ensure that law partnerships differ from other commercial partnerships.
3 Increasingly, law firms are adopting behaviour typical of businesses.
4 A partnership structure could interfere with a legal counsel’s obligations to his clients.
5 The US legal system has traditionally favoured the notion of a lawyer’s personal liability for actions taken on behalf of clients.
6 US attorneys may not receive payment for services rendered together with a business associate who is not a lawyer.