The Good News: Yes, We Are Still Relevant

• Author: Adam Newhouse
• Pages: 67-75

67

CHAPTER 8

The Good News: Yes, We Are

Still Relevant

Of course, the bar may experience the Great Recession quite

differently; yet the possibility of long-term growth, innovation,

and resurgence should not be discounted, and claims regarding the

death of the profession and some of its leading institutions may be

premature.188

—Eli Wald

Those of us who grew up in the pre-digital world may find it unnerving

to operate in the new economy where technology appears to have taken

control of the direction and mode of our thinking. Doomsayers tell us

our professional ship is sinking. No wonder so many of us are confused,

while prospective law students keep wondering whether the risks of

going to law school are worth the gamble.

Burying our heads in the sand will not free us from the confusion.

We need to coldly reassess our strengths and weaknesses before we

either buy into doomsayers’ laments or move boldly to carry our profes-

sional mission to new heights. First, we need to know: are we still rel-

evant today?

Is Law a Commodity?

In the wake of the Great Recession, some proclaimed the beginning

of a new era for lawyers, calling for the need to de- and reconstruct

our profession. They contended that law was becoming so commod-

itized that a traditional lawyer would soon become a thing of the

188. Wald (cited in note 16) at 2053.

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