bluecivic

You are theorizing a pretty big level of inefficiency and, lets say, density on the part of client corporations pre- this software.

Why do you think the business model is collapsing?

How can you show that the current biglaw downturn is not just the product of a big recession that will subside?

Why do you think that corporations will pay less for legal services in the future in a systematic way?

In more direct answer to your question yes I think representing private companies is public service because you are part of an important adversarial public institution. Thats why there are ethics rules, etc.

This response is overly broad. Depends on where you go to law school, and how you do, and what your career goals are.

Well I think that since a lawyer's job is a conduit between the state and the individual there is unavoidably a public policy/justice component in this work. The problem is that the way that the adversary system works is that lawyers are forced to advocate whole-heartedly for whoever their client is. So a lot of the agency a lawyer possesses is in terms of whom to represent. And so when people unthinkingly go to big law you get a flood of talent to where, on the aggregate, areas in need of help in order for justice to prevail do not get the talent. It's not really a problem you can pin on any individual making a rational choice to go make money but more an institutional problem in where the flood of talent goes. So maybe if we can burst the "biglaw is the definition of success bubble" things could get better. Just my opinion though. Open to be convinced otherwise.

EDIT: I'm not saying its any more morally problematic for an INDIVIDUAL to go work for private companies in law and not view themselves as in the profession of public service, than it is to work in the private sector in any other capacity (which is obviously fine and necessary for capitalism to work!). My criticism is institutional and a problem of talent aggregation away from where its needed IMO.