Legal Commentary

What Can Be Outsourced Eventually Will Be

By Patrick J. Lamb

Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Then President of a think tank in Washington, D.C.  Then, motorcycle mechanic.  Not a normal career path, to be sure.  This is the path taken by Matthew Crawford, author of Shop Class As Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into The Value of Work.

The author and his book were featured on an NPR story, 'Soulcraft' honors an honest day's work.

And this has everything to do with the legal profession because . . .?  Let's start with part of the dialogue on the broadcast.  Economists have taught that "anything than can be put on a container ship will be manufactured where labor is the cheapest."  But then the critical jump: "A similar logic has emerged for the product of intellectual labor, anything that can be delivered over a wire....will be."   Crawford then focuses on a distinction between work that has to be done on site and work than can be delivered, whether via a container ship or the internet.

I was fascinated by this distinction because it captures the "off-shoring/contract lawyer" concept, and because it helps crystalize the Jeff Carr "Four Buckets" theory as well as the gospel of Richard Susskind.  Crawford's lesson:  "Find some work where you can make yourself useful to other people in a straightforward way that engages your own judgment and thinking so that your actions feel like they are genuinely your own."  This lesson is true whether you are fixing motorcycles or providing counsel to a client.  If you don't, your job may well be one of those sent elsewhere.

Full post as published by In Search of Perfect Client Service on July 13, 2009 (boomark / email).