Debt: The Silent Killer

[zaprowsdower]

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in the precise manner as the law firms in the above links

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<p>Except that they can’t use it in precisely that way, since the only person with an HLS degree would be one associate who is not doing much work. Which, again, may run them into problems with attorney advertising laws and which will almost certainly upset clients who choose them specifically because of their Harvard credentials.</p>

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Frankly, I suspect some law firms probably do

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<p>Why? You found no examples of this.</p>

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But, as I asked before, if the Harvard brand name truly carries no value, then why were the law firms stated above emphasizing their Harvard connection so strenuously?

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<p>Again, it’s a huge leap to assume that, because some people will use a credential they already have in their advertising, others would be willing to pay thousands of dollars for it. And that leap is tougher to make when you see that many firms could advertise this way for free but choose not.</p>

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Be honest - how many such firms have all of their associates billing 2000 hours a year? I would say almost none.

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<p>Again, you’re betraying your ignorance of the legal market. People don’t choose these firms because they require less work. They choose them because they have no other options. Small insurance defense or personal injury firms often work their associates like dogs.</p>

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the mere fact that you went to HLS indicates that you are clearly more academically capable than the average new law grad those firms would usually be able to hire.

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<p>“Academic capability” is completely meaningless to some small-time ID firm. If anything, the fact that you’re likely to be extremely dissatisfied with the mindless work you have and have a lot more options when you (almost inevitably) want to leave will make them less likely to hire you. If the choice is between an HLS grad who wants to take it easy and a TTT grad who will kill himself working 80-hour weeks to stay employed, the HLS grad is unlikely to win out very often.</p>

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And since they think it works, that also implies that they would attach some dollar value to it, however theoretical it may be.

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<p>Again, using something for free doesn’t necessarily imply that you attach any dollar value to it. And the fact that many people who could use it for free don’t even bother would suggest that dollar value is not likely to be high.</p>

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What you seem to be referring to is the scheme where firms deliberately try to obtain the Harvard brand.

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<p>Well, yeah, since that has been the entire subject of the debate.</p>

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But of course no law firm is going to explicitly state that this is what they’re doing

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<p>No, but you haven’t even found a firm where this appears to be what they’re doing.</p>

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Does anybody want to seriously argue that a HLS grad truly can’t find such a job?

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<p>I’ve actually found an example of someone doing just that:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/845523-debt-silent-killer-14.html#post1065583195[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/845523-debt-silent-killer-14.html#post1065583195&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Check out the posts from “zaprowsdower”.</p>