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This is a blog about being a lawyer and being in debt. As any lawyer will tell you, the two conditions are often contemporaneous. Law school costs a lot, and most of us leave law school with the sort of debt that would appall any responsible financial planner.

But we have J.D.'s, right? Our law schools and our career counselors, our friends and neighbors tell us not to worry about the debt. We can pay it off. We're the guys (and gals) with the pinstripes, the stylish square frames, and the Blackberrys. We're the ones struggling with doc review at 3 a.m., working straight through the weekend for the sixth time in a row, and deliberating every night between ordering sushi, Indian, or pasta for delivery to our offices. We're BigLaw folks. We may not have time for families, significant others, vacations, or personal hygiene, but if there's anything we don't have to worry about, it's paying off our loans.

Not anymore.

This past year, the legal world changed for good. The fancy financial instruments which firms like mine invented -- credit swaps, derivatives, and the like -- backfired on all of us. First the subprime mortgage and their associated financial instruments tanked. Then down went the housing market. People who are worried about their houses tend not to spend too much, so consumer spending declined. A lot. And then people started to lose their jobs, and because people who are worried about losing their jobs don't spend, consumer spending declined even more. And more people were laid off, and so on and so forth.

In the past ten years, legal layoffs due to the economy have been almost unheard of. As the saying went, people need lawyers in good times and bad. Law was a recession proof profession. Lawyers might get fired for not filing briefs on time, for sleeping with opposing counsel, or for embezzling funds, but they never got fired because of the economy. The job security of being a lawyer made up for the reaction of others when you told them you were a lawyer. Yes, we might be more reviled than the Gestapo, and there might be more jokes about us than dumb blonds (Q: Why will a snake never bite a lawyer? A: Professional courtesy), but at least the place wasn't going to shut down. When times are bad law firms might get rid of a few secretaries, but get rid of lawyers? Right.

And then, about a year ago, the unthinkable happened. Lawyers began to lose their jobs because of the economy. At first it was only places like my idiot firm, which shot its investment wad on structured finance and then began to collapse when the assets that supported those financial instruments became totally worthless. But soon enough it was other firms, firms which had never heard of mortgage-backed securities and wanted no part of them, firms which were so old-economy that they still accepted sacks of potatoes and marriageable daughters as payment for services. Last week, 1200 people in the legal industry were laid off. The week before was nearly as bad. And I don't think it's getting better any time soon.

This blog is primarily for lawyers and legal professionals, though anyone and everyone is welcome to read and comment on it. I'll be chronicling my own struggle to find work and pay my debt, and I'll tell the stories of others like me when I have the opportunity.

In the next post I'll write more about who I am and my particular story. One caveat: this is not meant to be a place for me to whine about the raw deal I got or to complain about my terrible lot in life. Although I'm currently jobless and worried, the fact remains that I have a place to live, food to eat, and people to support me emotionally. I think of myself as lucky. Nevertheless, I'm facing some hurdles in the form of finding a job and paying off my debt, and I'll be writing about my attempts to get over them.