Is There a ‘Lawyer Bubble’?  The legal profession is facing some
fundamental changes, and one former big-firm partner is sounding
the alarm    • Share   • Read Later Getty Images  A new book by
a former litigator at Kirkland & Ellis, one of the nation’s
largest law firms, has delivered a frisson to the already
rattled legal profession. In The Lawyer Bubble: A Profession in
Crisis, Steven J. Harper argues that legal jobs are disappearing
not because of short-term economic fluctuations but because of
powerful long-term trends. The word bubble is an overstatement —
it is hard to believe that the legal profession will end in the
sort of high-speed implosion that subprime mortgages did. But
the legal profession is facing some fundamental changes, and
Harper deserves credit for sounding the alarm.   Harper begins
his case with a basic and troubling set of facts: roughly 45,000
law students graduate each year with an average of more than
$100,000 in debt — and only about half of them will find long-
term, full-time j