Profession or Business?

HT to the WSJ Law Blog for pointing to an opinion by a federal judge that criticizes the legal community for focusing too much on making money and not enough on legal skill.

Although my time in the legal world has been brief, I couldn't agree more with the commenter who says this:

"The practice of law is a wonderful profession, yet a terrible business to be in."

I enjoy studying law and researching how the law impacts real life situations and truly believe I will enjoy practicing law after graduation next year (in fact, I can't wait to start meeting with and counseling clients on legal matters). But at the same time, I hate worrying about billing hours and am not sure how much I will enjoy the pressure to be a "rainmaker." I understand that business is part of the profession and I accept that. I just wish it was different.

I wonder how many other "professions" have similar feelings. Have all professions become businesses? Health care certainly looks like a business from the outside looking in. Even religious institutions look like this to me. Are there any true "professions" anymore, in the sense that the judge uses the word?

job happiness

I ran into this chart from Time.com that ranks job professions based on those in the profession who say they are "very happy."

Clergy rank at the top of the list. As someone who has worked for and with clergy in the past, I raise this question. Are 67% of clergy "very happy" with their job or do 67% of clergy feel like they need to say that they are "very happy" with their job? Probably depends on the day they are having...

I also note just for kicks that lawyers are very happy nearly 50% of the time while legal assistants are very happy only 20% of the time. From my experience in this profession (and from being married to a legal assistant), I imagine that the lawyers who are "very happy" have assistants who are not and visa versa.

Lawyers rank just below physicians and just above...car salesman? Are car salesman happy, or is this much like the clergy thing. Who wants to buy a car (or a faith) from someone who isn't happy?

Belmont getting some props...

from ESPN. Love it!

Big Ten basketball coaches

As the college basketball regular season approaches, I was looking ahead at the Badgers schedule and noticed something: the Big Ten has some great basketball coaches this year.

The Big Ten has gotten used to the likes of Tom Izzo (MSU), Thad Matta (OSU), Bo Ryan (Wisconsin), and Bruce Weber (Illinois). These are four great coaches, with a lot of respect around the league. In fact, all of these coaches have taken their teams to the Final Four at least once. With the addition of Kelvin Sampson (Indiana) last year and Tubby Smith (Minnesota), Todd Lickliter (Iowa), and John Beilein (Michigan) this year, this is a very impressive group of coaches and possibly one of the better groups of coaches ever assembled for a single year in the Big Ten. Kelvin Sampson was named Coach of the Year in 1995 with Oklahoma, Tubby Smith took Kentucky to the national championship in 1998, and Todd Lickliter and John Beilein both took programs with very little respect and turned them around (Butler and West Virginia, respectively). Should be a fun year for the Big Ten.

Some good articles on the new coaches:

Tubby Smith
Todd Lickliter
John Beilein

My apologies to Penn State, Northwestern, and Purdue, but who are we kidding?

UPDATE: Bo Ryan did not take the Badgers to the Final Four. Dick Bennett was still the coach in 2000. My bad.

Autumn

With two big trees in our front yard, we have had plenty of leaves. Raking them was more fun than I thought it would be.

Homecoming Pictures

Some pictures from Homecoming in Madison. I caught my cane, so whoever goes up against me in my first case can eat it.