WASHINGTON, D.C. Aug. 26 (DPI) – The Wall Street Journal earlier this month published a lengthy report on the eye-popping profit growth of America’s largest law firms – and the less-stable business landscape that the firms’ partners face as a result.

Major corporate law firms have always operated in another realm compared with the rest of the legal profession, but their growth – and their impact on the culture of the profession – is transforming life for lawyers across the nation. For one thing, lawyers who once toiled to become partner of a major firm are now finding that that status no longer confers lifetime job security, and the constant pressures of building a book of business have taken all the fun out of practicing law, according to the Journal.

Readers, many of them lawyers, were only too happy to share their views about what’s become of the profession, which for generations has been one of the bulwarks of our civilized society.

Today the largest law firms are more profitable than ever, and they have more lawyers than ever. In about a generation the average size of a large firm has grown from about 200 lawyers to more than 1,000. And per-partner profits have skyrocketed from about $500,000 to more than $2 million.

The most popular comments add much insight to the discussion about the legal profession today:

I am a lawyer and have worked at several international law firms, and what I have seen is that technical proficiency is not even part of the partner equation. Law is not a profession, it is now a business. It is 90% about your client list, and 10% about getting along with others in the firm. You just have to give the clients the impression you are good, even if your associates are more knowledgeable. It is a pyramid scheme. Just be a good schmoozer and drinker.
Doctors and lawyers both are in the same boat. Being a doctor is not a profession anymore either. That is why Americans get ripped off so badly every time you want to see a doctor. Recently I was charged $300 for a ten minute meeting with a physician’s assistant, not even a doctor. I knew all I needed was some antibiotics, but I am not allowed to write the prescription myself. Why are they charging $1800 an hour?
It is unconscionable.

This article focuses on the very top of the top tier law firms.  While there is obviously a role (and apparent demand) for such firms, they do not represent the bulk of practicing attorneys found in small and mid size firms across the country, including your local sole practitioner, who provide much needed legal services to individuals, families and small and mid size businesses.  Attorneys in this category necessarily must hussle for work, drive to keep overhead down, work with clients who have difficulty paying and run their practice as the business it is.   In the end, many such attorneys comprise middle to high-middle income America.
Life of the average attorney is a far cry from those in this article.  We work hard, are valued by our clients and provide valuable services.  And, in terms of competency, we are as good as the big-shots and charge a fraction. 
I don’t know how long the mega-firm model can continue.  As long as the economy grows and profits are being made, I suppose.

The profession will change far more in the coming decade, as machine learning and AI take over much of the lower level work that is currently being billed out at very high rates. Fasten your seatbelts.