Lure of Law Shows Some Skewed Values

Congratulations to law student Michael Borden for landing the “perfect summer job” in a law office at “$2,000 a week.” Good for him [“As the World Turns: Law Is Hot, Animation Is Not,” May 24].

If he were a second-year medical student working in a research lab for the summer in conjunction with a combined M.D./PhD, he would get $2,000 for the entire 12-week period.

Also, rather than “lavish private parties and dinners at trendy Westside restaurants,” at the end of the summer we would have a “party” in our conference room of pizza and Cokes.

Could this be one of the reasons we are having trouble attracting bright young people interested in a career in academic medicine in the U.S. today?

Dr. LAWRENCE D. LONGO

School of Medicine

Loma Linda University

Loma Linda

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For those of your readers who don’t know, these newly (or not-yet-) minted lawyers generally do grunt work that could never justify their salaries but for the fact that the clients of these parasitic firms are large corporations, whose pompous executives have spent their shareholders’ money retaining them at vast sums, a great deal of which goes into high-rise downtown offices with rosewood paneling, thick carpet, original art on the walls and Bentleys, Rolls-Royces, and similar cars for the partners.

Any normal person seeking legal advice would conclude immediately that a large percentage of his potential fee would be going to these luxuries and overpaid, inexperienced staff, not to sound legal advice. But then any normal individual wouldn’t be able to afford the hourly rates that this grotesque nonsense demands. These “top” firms exist for one reason only (and that is most definitely not to provide quality legal services): because corporate executives are not spending money from their own pockets, but dipping into their shareholders’ pockets for legal services much as they do for their own perks.

HENRY J. SILVERMAN

Palms