This pretty much sums it up.

Having received some criticism from those who have heard the Jewish nose story about a million and one times (we go to a lot of cocktail parties), I am reverting back to my old rant.  Credit goes to Amanda for finding this article.

I can say this certainly got my blood pressure up this morning...  A Case of Supply v. Demand

The comments to this article are what especially got me all fired up.  The general public hates us.  I guess I always knew that, but the outright disdain and "they deserve it" attitude of the comments really make me angry.

Plenty of professions require its clients to pay by the hour...  accountants, psychologists, babysitters, architects, and massage therapists (to name a few and exclude some obvious, less-appropriate professions).  What is it about the legal profession that makes people think the services offered are any less valuable than those of a psychologist? 

What baffles me is that those comment-leavers fail to recognize that the billable hour price reflects the perpetuating problem.  People take out a TON of debt to go to law school.  They graduate from law school and pass the bar and must pay back that debt... and they charge in six minute increments!  Certainly, there are those multi-million dollar lawyers who charge exorbitant rates and rake it in... but in most cases those lawyers have years and years of experience, extensive knowledge in a lucrative niche, and a little bit of luck.  That is not the majority of the profession.  This article (and the public outcry) is about brand new lawyers with a mountain of debt and no jobs.  We're not talking about the lawyers who have been practicing for 25 years and have 6 cars and a house on each coast.  Every profession has those people: doctors, veterinarians, computer programmers... you name it.  There will always be those who hit it big.  Who get are in the right place and right time and work their butts off.  The majority of the legal profession makes a salary commensurate not only with experience, but also with the amount of debt they had to incur to even become lawyers.

At a base level, if my billable rate were any lower, I wouldn't be of any value to my firm and I would be moving into the guest room at my parents' house.  The gall of these people to tell me that I deserved to graduate law school with over $200,000 in debt, in a market saturated with lawyers, just because of the bad rap lawyers have gotten over the years makes me very, very angry.