A First: Workers in Southern Auto Plant Vote for Union, Will Up-or-Out Law Firms Be More Receptive to Collective Bargaining?

 No surprise, in this era when capitalism becomes raw, there are milestones in unionizing. The most recent is that autoworkers in the South not part of the Big Three are the first to vote for a union. That's the VW plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The NLRB still has to certify that and management has five days to have it say but this looks like a go.

That re-opens the conversation about the possibility of lawyers in the up-or-out large firms opting for collective action. The old-line argument was that because the system is up-or-out young lawyers wouldn't see themselves there long enough to find being represented by a union as useful. But up-or-out could exactly be the driver for unionizing. 

When I talk with former blue-collars in northeastern Ohio they hammer that the union was most useful for them on their way out. It was the union which got them the best terms and conditions for the exit.

The same could apply to lawyers in large firms who have to struggle on their own when axed to push for severance, time to continue to appear on the website and other resources. Like most sectors, the law-firm one is disrupting, both through changing demand and technologies such as generative AI. The timing could be right for become motivated to investigate the benefits of unionizing. 

Meanwhile, some large law firms are doing quite well in Profit Per Equity Partner. Here are the top 5:

1 Wachtell $8,507,000

2 Kirkland $7,955,000

3 Quinn Emanuel $7,270,000

4 Susman Godfrey $6,989,000

5 Paul Weiss $6,574,000

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