Whoever came up with the idea of a wallet fitting in a back pocket must have known something we’re forgetting.  Sitting on your wallet is a constant reminder of how that money is made.  Maybe that was the reason why for most men’s wallets were designed to fit in our back pockets. Here allow me to make my case for the American dream.

One day last week the American dream walked in the front door of my office, sat down in front of my desk and tried to export the law firm’s earnings.  And that reminded me once again why the American dream is just that; a dream.  The Yellowbook representative stopped by to sign next year’s contracts for advertising the law firm.

We cover several Iowa towns and cities and like many lawyers over the years we’ve done less and less because tort reform minded jurors have done less and less for our clients. That’s right tort reform goes hand-in-hand with job losses and the results have downsized most law firms and what they can do for people. It’s all a part of the economics of the practice of law. Jurors get nervous about the general economy and don’t feel very generous when sitting in the jury box, the give less and in turn lawyers can do less and less. It’s simple socio-legal math.

America’s bad economy results in a reduction in the inventory of wrongs that can be righted. Consider China’s labor force starting to have labor strikes as America’s workforce has fewer strikes. Their manufacturing economy is rising and ours is heading towards the abyss.

I’m not complaining because I’m of the opinion what goes around, comes around and what the tort reform minded voters have done is certainly coming around to them. Our business is a lot like a pendulum swimming back and forth and after 30 years of practicing law I can see we have been gyrating with the rest of America’s economic woes. You could say we are in a social recession along with the economic one.  And that brings me back to legal advertising. Lawyers can’t pay for advertising if their incomes don’t support it and over the past 10 years legal incomes have not supported expensive yellow page ads. The lack of demand for yellow page advertising is a factor of many different things, but mostly the lack of jobs and tort reform being a reflection of the public’s state of mind about personal rights and compensation. If you’re scared of losing your job you’re not likely to award very much for pain and suffering. That is our reality.  

So here is the YellowBook lady sitting in front of me and we are discussing the downward spiral. Just as I have over the past five or so years, again I reduced how much we were buying. The representative was dismayed and voiced her frustration with the business climate. I looked out the window admiring her new Audi while listening to her bemoans the business climate she faces.  Part of me feels bad for her and there’s that other part that is admiring her nice shiny foreign made car.

“How do you like your Audi?” I ask.

“Oh, I just love it.” She proclaimed and then went on to catalogue all the features and describing how much nicer it was than other American cars.

Time for a lesson in economics, I thought. “Well, it works like this. A lot of my clients today are unemployed. They make American goods and products. And when you buy an Audi, rather than a Ford or Chevy, you do nothing to keep them employed. When they are unemployed I have fewer clients and that lowers the law firm’s need for more advertising. You see when it came to your business by buying a foreign car you loaded a gun and then shot yourself in the foot.”

In this case more foreign products means fewer ad dollars.

So how do you like your Audi, or VW or BMW? How’s business in your neck of the woods? Is your business climate Ford tough? Are you picking up your unemployment check in an American or a foreign car? You may like the smell of that Audi leather, but what good is it if you can’t find a job. How does the smell of being unemployed compare to Audi leather?

You may be sitting on the reason why you lost your job. Just perhaps your wallet is in your back pocket to remind you when you take it out to pay for something it make a difference to all Americans.  America’s economic problems are just as real for the law profession. So you law school graduates that are having a tough time finding a job, take a look at your ride and ask yourself if that foreign job you drive is working for you.

For me new jobs started with the three Ford’s that Barbara and I drive to work. Ford Tough or tough luck, you choose. Now if we could only take our heads out of our a….