In Business

Lawyers see opportunities and challenges

In the past, a lawyer provided clients with legal advice and representation for everything from writing a will to criminal defense. Today, the law profession has become specialized, with law practices representing specific legal areas such as bankruptcy, employment, international concerns, medical, insurance and banking.

That evolution benefits clients, according to Kenneth J. Allen, whose Valparaiso firm, Kenneth J. Allen & Associates, PC, focuses on tort law including accidents and injuries caused by negligence or unsafe conditions, and product liability.

“Specialization is a wonderful thing for the client,” says Allen, who began practicing law in 1980. “The consumer gets a better product.”

This specialization stems from the increasing sophistication and complexity of federal, state and local laws and regulations, says John Bushemi, a partner at the law firm of Hoeppner, Wagner & Evans in Merrillville, specialists in business and corporate law.

Legislation and court decisions continually shape the way laws are interpreted, and keeping abreast of those changes requires lawyers to concentrate in areas of specialization, he says.

Bushemi, who has been a lawyer for 35 years, served as an Indiana state senator from 1976 to 1990, and has witnessed changes in the law first hand.

“This necessitates lawyers becoming specialists in a specific type of law,” Bushemi says. “As a consumer, you want a specialist. There is an ongoing trend for more specialization. The key is to connect with the consumer.”

Specialization is also important for those going into law, says Robin Remley, who started practicing law in 2001 at a large area law firm and recently opened her own office in Munster, concentrating on employment law.

“It can be a difficult profession if you pick the wrong kind of law to practice. Some people know what kind of law they want to practice from the beginning. They like to research, but not appear in court,” says Remley. “I was always interested in employment law and human resources issues.”

The lawyers disagree whether specialization has also led to fragmentation and more litigation. James E. Daugherty, a Merrillville attorney who specializes in divorce and child custody cases, says changes have led to a more litigious society and less civility among lawyers.

“One thing I have found over the years, often with newer attorneys, is there’s less cooperation or resolution,” he says. “(In the past) we would talk and reach an agreement. We’d shake hands and your word was good.”

However, today, Daughtery says, “It’s almost a badge of honor to deceive the other attorney.” This only fuels the negative public perception about lawyers, he says.

On the other hand, Remley says she finds lawyers in Northwest Indiana to be “very collegial with other lawyers. It’s a kind of community, a family.” She sees many of the same lawyers in her casework, often on the other side of the issue. “We try not to make it personal,” she says.

Rather than a lack of civility, Allen says he sees lawyers becoming better advocates for their clients. And he says, there are actually fewer cases going to trial despite the perception of a litigious society.

In the 1960s, he says, about 6,000 civil jury trials were held annually. Those numbers have dropped to 4,000 a year, he says.

“Civil trials have decreased and frivolous law suits are being thrown out even before the jury hears the case,” Allen says. “It’s too expensive to litigate some of these cases.”

Advertising is another area of change affecting the law profession, Daughtery says. Until recently, lawyers were prohibited from advertising their services.

“The only way an attorney could prosper is to have satisfied clients and referrals from them,” he says. “Now you see billboards and one page ads for lawyers.”

Allen says another change is the increased number of law school graduates; but not all are practicing law. Some enter banking, insurance or medical settings. “Law is a good liberal education,” he says.

Young lawyers can advance today because of a trend to force lawyers to retire, Allen says. “There are other things older lawyers can do. There’s nothing wrong with having more than one career.”

The number of women entering law practice has also increased in the past few decades, the lawyers say.

Prior to 1892, women were prohibited from receiving a license to practice law. Myra Colby Bradwell passed the Illinois Bar Exam with honors in 1869 and applied to the Illinois Supreme court for admission to the bar.

But the court refused her application because she was a woman. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld that decision in Bradwell v. Illinois. The opinion of Justice Joseph P. Bradley in the case reflected the 19th century societal belief that women shouldn’t participate in the workforce. Eventually, Illinois changed the rules for admitting women to the bar. In 1890, Bradwell was admitted to the Illinois bar and in 1892 she received a license to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The percentage of women who are graduating from law school is now proportionate to women in the community,” Daughtery says.

There also seems to be more acceptance of female lawyers, but not just because they are women, Remley says. “The more experience in the law that you have, the more lawyers accept you.”

Women face challenges in the law profession as they do in any workplace, she says, especially when children come along.

“In Northwest Indiana, most employers work with women when they’re having a baby and easing them back in to the workforce after the baby is born. I was lucky with my firm because they let me come back three days a week,” Remley says.

“But you have to remember that law is a business. There are billable hour requirements (at a law firm) and you need to meet those quotas.”

Technology has been a boon for lawyers of both genders, Remley says, because “a lot of lawyers work at home sometime during the week and telecommute.”

Bushemi and Daughtery also applaud the technology they say has revolutionized the practice of law. Word processing introduced in the 1980s allows lawyers and their staffs to “generate enormous volumes of documents,” Daughtery says.

Technology changed “the behind-the-scenes aspects of law practice and the use of the lawyers’ time,” Bushemi says. Word processing not only allows more documentation to be produced, but the documents are also cleaner and more accurate, he says.

The Internet has also changed the practice of law, the lawyers say.

“A single-lawyer office can have the same law library as a 200-lawyer firm,” Daughtery says.

When he started his practice, Bushemi says he went to the large law libraries in municipal courthouses to research cases.

“We had to go book by book by book on the shelves and read about the cases and appellate decisions,” he says. “It was time-consuming. Now we can do faster legal research. It’s more accurate and less expensive for our clients. The difference is one hour versus five hours in billing. We can pass the savings on to our client.”

What hasn’t changed, Bushemi says, is the role of the lawyer.

“We still research the facts of a client’s case. We apply the facts of the case to existing law. We appear in court to represent our client. Our mission and goal are the same—to provide legal services for our clients.”