Mini Twitter Rant on Ownership of Law Firms

Hey! Who knew I had strong opinions on the ownership of law firms?!

But it turns out I do, and the Twitters heard those opinions, whether they wanted to or not:

American lawyers insist they are such special snowflakes that no non-snowflakes could own any part of their firms. https://t.co/YGYh4zXQyk

— Andrew Wheeler (@Hornswoggler) May 13, 2016

Of course, lots of lawyers work at companies...for non-lawyers. And work in government...for non-lawyers.

— Andrew Wheeler (@Hornswoggler) May 13, 2016

And other ownership partnerships -- accounting, consultants, etc. -- are not nearly as snowflake-y about taking investments from outsiders.

— Andrew Wheeler (@Hornswoggler) May 13, 2016

Basically, lawyers think they're better than everyone else. What else is new?

— Andrew Wheeler (@Hornswoggler) May 13, 2016

What I think is behind this -- and this may be my accounting-marketing background coming out -- is that lawyers are afraid the Big 4 accounting firms, the Big 3 management-consulting firms, and adjacent companies (Marsh & MacLennan, for example), will go on an attorney-buying tear and destroy the old clubby attorney-partnership model.

And they want to make sure that can never happen, so the only people exploiting the work of lawyers are other lawyers, like Ghod intended. It's not the hill I'd want to die on, but I'm no lawyer.