There’s wealth and then there’s wealth.

One of the most common criticisms of a lot (not all!) of the so-called “economic” analysis that has dominated the political and legal minds of the last 30 years is its inability to account for value that cannot be reduced to monetary terms. The criticism, while duly noted, tends to be immediately forgotten. As a result, we’ve had an entire generation that’s felt compelled to justify its decisions on purely economic terms. The economic crisis may be affecting this tendency as much as its affecting other ways of viewing the world. Last year, some big law firms that were getting less work from their clients gave graduating law students to whom they’d given offers of permanent employment an offer that sounded to good to be true: go get another job — let it be low paying and “public interest” — and we’ll pay you a part of your salary in the expectation you’ll come work for us permanently next year. But now, according to Georgetown Law Grad Russ Ferguson, those firms are finding out, to their surprise, that the students who took advantage of the offer like their alternative jobs too much. Most importantly, they’re realizing that they’re wealthier in real terms in their lower paying jobs:

These new lawyers have found that their new jobs are more fulfilling and more interesting, and — more importantly — they’ve seen that they can live on a smaller salary. As one of my classmates put it, “Add up the hours I worked this week and add up the hours my friends at law firms worked. Divide our salaries by the amount of hours and you’ll see — I’m rich.”

(hat tip to the ABA Law Journal)

If you’re a bitter lawyer, there’s a site for you.

I had my down days in nearly twelve years of practice, but it didn’t (I hope) embitter me. There are a lot of bitter lawyers out there, though. Many of them are bitter because they would rather be doing something else. Many are quite creative. The ones at Bitter Lawyer have put that creativity to work on a website likely to be bookmarked on the web browsers of many big firm associates. They have webisodes, columns, and their own version of legal news (an interview, for example, with Ashley Dupre, the ex-prostitute patronized by ex-Governor Eliot Spitzer) . As the founders of the site write:

Feeling trapped? Head spinning with self-hate? Tired of taking orders from humorless workaholics? Have more than two headhunters on your speed dial? Talking to friends about moving to Sun Valley or writing a screenplay? Congratulations, you’ve come to the right place. The founders of Bitter Lawyer know exactly what you’re experiencing. We’ve worked at Big Firms, pulled all-nighters, been stuck in windowless conference rooms for weeks. In short, we know what it’s like to be an attorney, which is why we created this website.

Our singular goal is to create an engaging, insightful entertainment destination for lawyers. But we’re new at this. So please, send us your thoughts and opinions and tell us how to make Bitter Lawyer a more interesting and exciting experience. This is your site. Tell us what you want and we’ll do our best to deliver it.