WSJ’s anonymous “Lawyer of the Year”
December 19, 2007
Akin to the American Bar Association’s “Lawyer of the Year” award, the Wall Street Journal last week asked its readers to nominate their most newsworthy lawyer of the year. Well, the results are in - but nobody seems to know who the person actually is!
According to the Journal, the “landslide” winner is “Loyola 2L,” (otherwise known as L2L) a law blogger whose claim to fame is beating “a loud and consistent drum of discontent around the Web by posting in online forums about the job prospects for graduates of nonelite law schools.”
L2L first appeared on the law blog scene about a year ago; from the moniker, the Journal speculates he or she was a second-year student at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Many of L2L’s comments center on how law school rankings (Loyola is a tier-two school) play an unfair role in access to well-paying jobs upon graduation.
Although now presumably a third-year, L2L’s true identity (gender included) remains a mystery to the general public.
Also of note, D.C.’s Roy Pearson (the “Pants Suit” plaintiff), received a high number of nominations along with former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Some of the responses today from WSJ online readers are supportive, but most so far are not. One person wrote: “I can’t believe you put this idiot up as the lawyer of the year!. For Pete’s sake, we all know that Tier 1 schools lead to the best opportunities and Tier 2 students have to work harder for it. This was true 30 years ago and its true today.”
“Happy Lawyer” said: “I will give him (?) credit for beating the drum, but it’s mostly sour grapes. Many lawyers I know worked for small firms and make small-firm money. Many of those lawyers (including myself) made the jump to Big Law and make more money. However, aside from paying law school debt, being at Big Law is also not an “end” - but just another means to achieve your goals.”
Agree or disagree?
LIZ FARMER, Legal Affairs Writer
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L2L is not one person. The character was a regular commentator on David Lat’s Above the Law blog before its first appearance on the WSJ blog, and it started on the infamous AutoAdmit student site years before that. Once the schtick took hold on AutoAdmit dozens of people jumped on the bandwagon and started posting as L2L, often in dueling posts, each claiming to be the authentic L2L. Now, the name L2L has become like a hereditary title, passed on from one generation to the next, as much by self-appropriation as actual designation, with some people wearing it brilliantly and others klutzing it up. It would be difficult, though probably not impossible, to trace the personna back to its original manifestation but there is no point in doing so. The personna is just a way to vent, and has no serious point to make. Anyone who reads and responds to L2L “feeds the trolls” in internet parlance. No doubt that will continue to happen, however, since so many people on blogs seems to be psychologically underemployed. Or, as one poster put it, “there are a lot of lonely people out there dealing badly with the quiet desperation problem.”