Say what you will about the state of American politics, but there can be no doubt that the legal industry has gotten a big boost from the state of the world recently. While lawyers have been suffering criticism for years (too expensive! too annoying! a cog in every wheel!), they’re now embraced as protectors and defenders of the Constitution, indeed, of the Republic. All good. Separation of powers is being touted vigorously once again.

It’s not that lawyers have changed all that much; the world has. I have long said, “Everybody hates lawyers until they need one.” That’s still true.

So I’m celebrating them here.  For so long, so much bad news focused on lawyers—their inefficiencies, the bloatedness of BigLaw, the lack of diversity in the industry, the failure to embrace technology until other legal service providers did it for them, the glut of attorneys, the glut of law schools, the relaxation of law school admissions standards, the disconnect between legal education and law practice—that, truthfully, the profession seemed a bit tired.

Here, we’ll talk about good lawyers, great lawyers, and some evil ones. We’ll address the changes that are invigorating the legal profession and the challenges and opportunities the legal business still faces.

Welcome to LawyersMakeHistory.com!

—Lori Tripoli

 

Lori Tripoli, J.D., is an accomplished freelance writer and editor focusing on law and the legal business, environmental policy and sustainability, higher education issues, and travel. A lawyer by training, Lori’s work has been published in dozens of publications, both legal and general interest. Lori was a founding editor of Sustainability: The Journal of Record and was editor of the New York Law Journal Westchester Edition. She is the author of a textbook, Contemporary Law Office Management (Aspen/Wolters Kluwer, 2011, 2013). In addition to freelancing as a writer and editor, Lori also served as an academic department chair in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Kaplan University online, where she oversaw the Master of Science in Legal Studies, the undergraduate and graduate environmental policy and management programs, and the undergraduate political science program.

She began her career working at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C., and worked for law firms and consulting firms before switching to publishing. Lori earned a B.A. in Political Science from the George Washington University and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.

She tweets @LawyerHistory, @EnviroEditor, @LegallyLori, and @BashfulAdventur.

Lori’s non-work passions are environmental conservation, travel, and personal and professional histories. She blogs about her globetrotting habit at BashfulAdventurer.com. View samples of Lori’s work at LoriTripoli.com.