New Associates Making More Than Chief Justice?

3--5--2000

National and other news sources are trumpeting the fact that new associates at large law firms are in demand and as a result some are making more than the Chief Justice of the nation's Supreme Court.

It's a sad fact, and merely another indicator of the lopsided sickness of our legal system. The fact that new associates are paid so highly in the first place is an indicator of the sickness. The fact that some at the very top firms might get more than the Chief Justice makes includes other "infectious" indicators. There is no doubt that numerous, qualified, respectable non-lawyers could be found to take the benches and break the stranglehold of the legal "professionals" in the nation's courts. And few of them would find any problem with the 60, 80, and 140 thousand dollar salaries.

We rely too much on lawyers. They steal too much money through the tort system. The practice of law is a parasitic activity; it creates no wealth on its own but sucks lifeblood from productive sectors of the economy.

When will the average citizen become tired of the outrage and speak out, stand up, and promote meaningful reform of the legal system? When will America reform its self-serving, lawyer-dominated system for something resembling the real "justice" the Founding Fathers intended?