ATRA Ally in NY Authors Insightful Wall Street Journal Letter

ATRA’s chief ally in the Judicial Hellhole known as New York is the author of an insightful letter to the editor in today’s Wall Street Journal.

Reacting to an op-ed piece published earlier this month, “A Message to Aspiring Lawyers: Caveat Emptor,” which criticized law schools for misleading would-be students about their legal job prospects upon graduation, Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York executive director Tom Stebbins’ letter focuses on “the dire consequences the glut of debt-saddled lawyers has on our economy.”

“America’s annual surplus of lawyers has made us the most litigious country in the world,” Stebbins explains, as too many lawyers chasing too few legitimate lawsuits has resulted in greater political pressure on state lawmakers to increase liability and make it easier to sue an ever wider array of wealth- and job-creating businesses.

“Here in New York,” reports Stebbins, “the trial lawyer lobby spends millions annually” to convince legislators to do its bidding instead of looking out for their job-seeking constituents.

ATRA director of communications Darren McKinney recently posted similar remarks online in response to a National Law Journal story, “Avoiding Law School in Droves.”

McKinney wrote: “The more lawyers that flood the field, the greater the likelihood that many of them will be left with few employment prospects beyond hanging out solo shingles and ginning up often meritless and even fraudulent claims of slip-and-fall, medical liability, asbestos, disability access and so on.  All of which serve to undermine economic growth and job creation.”