Lawyer’s Lantern
A SPECIAL MESSAGE TO GEN X AND Y ABOUT GENERATIONAL EMPATHY BY LORI L. GARRETT
14
If you are a Gen Xer (born between 1965 and 1979) or Gen Yer (born after 1980), I am penning today’s column for you. It is probably safe to assume that you have not spent a whole lot of time thinking about how long you are going to practice law, when you might retire, whether you will have enough money saved when you are ready to leave the profession, how you will care for your health after you have stopped practic- ing, and what you will do with your time when you actually become a retiree.
T
those reactions—it may not be intuitive to concern yourself with another colleague’s plans to bring closure to their career. However, I would beg to diff er that your co-worker’s retire- ment does not impact all of us. Let me explain why. T ere are approximately 78 million baby boomers in the
United States. T e June 2000 issue of T e American Lawyer reported that the number of lawyers in the United States over the age of 50 will nearly double to some 560,000 lawyers by 2020.1
According to Hildebrandt International, boomers
here is likely, however, someone in the offi ce down the hall from yours thinking about these very issues quite regularly. T is per- son is probably a baby boomer
(born between 1946 and 1964). T e fi rsts of the beloved boomer genera- tion began turning 65 this year. “So what?” you might be thinking.
“I can’t relate,” you may say. “T at’s none of my business” may be your reply. As an Xer myself, I can understand
DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JULY/AUGUST 2011
constitute 70 percent of law fi rm partners (the study was not limited to U.S. law 200 fi rms). I was not able to fi nd a report that counted the number of boomers working in corporate legal departments, but it is probably safe to assume that fi gure is substantial. Nevertheless, it is well documented that boom- ers make up the largest generation currently in the workforce, and their departure from the profession, or alternatively, their decision to work longer than any previous generation, will have real consequences for future generations.2 For example, retirement will off er some the opportunity
to follow passions not previously realized because of the limitations on their time due to work. T ere are a number of pro bono opportunities that could use the tremendous talents of our profession’s boomer generation.3
Or, if in
approximately 10 years all of the some 560,000 lawyers who are over the age of 50 retire—which is nearly half the number of lawyers in the profession4
—the most signifi cant
source of knowledge and experience in our profession will be walking out of the door. Of course, this does not take into consideration the number of lawyers entering the profession, which may not completely make up the diff erence, as law
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