WSJ Contributor Not a N00b (Contrary to Blogger)

Just yesterday, we added our two cents to a growing debate that started with Douglas McCollam’s WSJ op-ed, “The End of BigLaw.”

Adam Smith, Esq.’s Bruce MacEwen, a long-standing law-firm consultant and blogger, didn’t think much of the piece, saying the WSJ “Has No Clothes” for publishing the piece.

Then Jason Mendelson weighed in, arguing that McCollam had it right all along (i.e,. that BigLaw is doomed) and that MacEwen was pandering to his clients.

Before this gets too nasty, we’re happy to report that at least one of MacEwen’s ad hominem attacks is misguided. After the jump.

One of the issues MacEwen had with his Scottish compatriot was an apparent lack of bona fides in the legal industry.

MacEwen began

I’m here to tell you to pay no attention [to McCollam].  Or, if you insist, that it will go deeply unrequited.

The author is Douglas McCollam, described by the Journal as “a former correspondent for BusinessWeek, [and] a contributing writer for The American Lawyer.”  So far as Google and I can tell, he has actually written a grand total of one article for BusinessWeek and perhaps two or three for The American Lawyer, the most recent in 2005.

Mr. McCollam’s credentials as a domain expert in our industry aside, the article falls quite spectacularly on its own merits, as a truly impressive exercise in the abject failure of critical thinking

And then went on to address the substance of McCollam’s piece. We’re not going to go through that again.

But we are happy to report that we heard from McCollam, who does indeed have stronger credentials than MacEwen turned up. The Business Week stint was admittedly short, but McCollam says that was due to personal issues.

Still, despite MacEwen’s poor search results on Google, he confirms that he was indeed an editor and writer for the American Lawyer between 1997 and 2004, then a senior editor for Legal Times in DC in 2006 and 2007. A few of the more-interesting pieces we found by him are:

• The Boy Wonder, American Lawyer, June 1, 2009 (we completely forgot about this one – we saw it in the print version of the magazine and meant to write about this former Adams and Reese lawyer who stole more than $23 million from his firm and clients and was sentenced to 15 years);
• Commentary: How Michael Vick Is Like Richard Nixon, Legal Times, August 24, 2007;
• Last Men Standing, American Lawyer, February 6, 2004 (what can we say, if it involves breast implants and a $2 billion compensation fund, we’re reading it);
• Commentary: When Liberty is on the Line, Law.Com International News, November 14, 2007 (about Pakistan’s roundup of lawyers); and
• Wachtell’s Secret Formula, American Lawyer, October 18, 2001 (we’ve written more than our share of articles about the firm, including harping on a similar theme just recently; but we didn’t have any lines as good as “Like Bigfoot, Wachtell’s fees are the stuff of campfire legend, discussed around boardroom tables in hushed whispers by awe-struck competitors.”).

There are plenty more to be found with better searching. Those should indicate that McCollam isn’t a complete n00b to the field.

He also wrote a legal affairs column for The Deal Magazine, one of our favorites, for a few years. Apparently, he does freelance work in non-legal fields, too. We just came across a cool feature he wrote on Louisiana Cajun knifemakers.

Even more relevant: McCollam made his bones as a commercial litigation associate at a small firm for four years.

So even though we don’t see why MacEwen brought the credentials up in the first place, as he said, judge the arguments on their own merits – but at least be aware that McCollam has spent more than ten years writing and editing about the legal industry and isn’t the naif MacEwen made him out to be.

Remember, it was the internecine squabbling among the Scottish clans, as much as anything, that allowed the English to invade and occupy the country.

Related posts:

1. Diving into the “End of BigLaw” Debate
2. Lawyer/Sex Blogger Actually Fired; Presumably Will Fight
3. Sex Blogger to Lawyer’s Wife in 8 Months
4. Grade Report