NEW YORK, NY Jan 25 (DPI) – Author and lawyer-journalist James Stewart wrote a powerfully intimate account of a 55-year-old corporate lawyer who filed for bankruptcy after losing a partnership and settling on a non-equity-owning “service partner” position at another firm.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/business/

partner-in-a-prestigious-law-firm-and-bankrupt.html

Stewart’s essay in Saturday’s New York Times is likely to become the most emailed article in the days ahead as lawyers of all types contemplate anew the changing landscape of their profession.  The article is loaded with references many metro lawyers will easily recognize – the impact of divorce on their wealth, the high cost of living in New York City, and the re-defining of once-secure partnership positions in major law firms.

Bottom line: The legal profession no longer offers nearly as many staid, comfortable careers, and is laden with new risks.

The subject of the essay, former Dewey & LeBoeuf partner Gregory M. Owens, may become a poster child of the risks at major law firms these days.

Perhaps wisely, NYTimes.com attached no comment board to Stewart’s article. Here’s why: even as an employee at his new firm Owens most recently made about $350,000 annually, and Stewart pointed out that that income – after taxes, family support payments and the general cost of NYC living – barely made ends meet for the struggling lawyer.  Reader comments from non-lawyers would likely have been harsh and unforgiving – and probably will be on other sites.

“Big Law” – typically the 200 largest law firms in the U.S. — long depended on serving major corporations, which have become more adept at bringing legal expertise in-house, and on preparing major financial and Wall Street securities transactions. Today, all agree, too many lawyers and firms are chasing too few business opportunities, forcing the profession to re-structure.