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Beautiful Lawyers
Gerry Riskin has this amusing post about a UK firm that sent around a memo seeking out its best-looking lawyers as models for firm advertising materials. Riskin remarks that an American-based firm would view this kind of memo as "shocking" in light of the degree to which political correctness has permeated U.S. society. By contrast, the UK apparently has not reached similar levels of PC.
That's not to say, however, that looks don't matter to U.S. law firms. It's just an unspoken truth rather than a blatant one. I remember back to my days in law school, where the great looking women with mediocre grades received callback interviews for multiple jobs while awkward law review guys with bad skin or greasy hair had only a few. Plus, take a look at the photos up at any law firm Web site: Either the firms do a great job of touching up photos or most large firm lawyers are generally speaking, a better looking bunch than lawyers in government, non-profits and even solo practice. (Obviously, I'm speaking in generalities and based on anecdotal evidence; certainly, there are great looking government lawyers and solos as well as ugly law firm attorneys; plus, many lawyers are average looking; otherwise, many would probably be in different fields where looks count more)
So like Arnie Herz and Future Lawyer (see previous posts), I pose my own philosophical question: Is it better for a law firm to blatantly express looks-based preferences (as in the UK) or keep it covert and unspoken (as in the U.S.)? What are your thoughts (and am I right about this anyway?)
Posted by Carolyn Elefant on March 7, 2006 at 02:13 PM | Permalink
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