Reflections of a Boston Lawyer

I am not even close to worthy of the sacrifices our men and women in uniform have made to protect my freedoms. Nothing I have done in life begins to hold a candle to their service.  So let me begin by simply saying "thank you" to any of them who may read this post.  My country, my family and I are forever in your debt.  I cannot ever emphasize that enough. Although I never served in the military, I am a patriot.  I deeply love my country and what it stands for.   I proudly served a term as President to a bar association that launched a program to provide free legal advice to military veterans.  I recited the Pledge of Allegiance when I was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar, and repeated it every time I participated in admissions ceremonies for new lawyers.  I get teary-eyed when I think about the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner as it is being performed and try to imagine the setting in which Francis Scott Key penned them.  My father served in the Army during World War II

A little more than five years ago, when I was President of the Boston Bar Association, I assembled a stellar group of lawyers and academics to focus on the plight of men and women who were about to enter what had become a severely diminished job market for law school graduates. We were in the midst of cataclysmic change affecting our profession, resulting from the near-crash of the nation's and the world's economies.  Not only had law firms in every major city reduced their hiring targets, but many of them rescinded offers they had made to law students preparing to graduate. Thousands of graduating law students found themselves with no job prospects and overwhelmed by student debt. I had no illusions that this task force of brilliant, accomplished leaders would find a magic bullet, but we all hoped that something could be done. Although the task force report clearly defined the problem, the small but, we hoped, manageable measures it recommended (an incubator program for a s