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Across the Great Divide: Dealing with the Legal Profession's Generation Gaps

By Douglas B. Richardson

The generation gap is nothing new. In a pattern as old as time, the successor generation has always viewed its forebears as stodgy and unduly authoritarian, while the 'old folks' have tended to view the energy and impulsiveness of youth with suspicion, if not derision. It now appears, however, as if the accelerated rate of social change has also wrought profound and fundamental changes in how members of different generations relate, collaborate (or don't), and communicate (or not). Not only are we not in Kansas, Toto, there may not even be a Kansas once today's emerging young leaders take the controls.

In the lingo of the social scientists, folks born between 1925 and 1945 are often called the 'matures,' 'traditionalists,' 'builders,' 'seniors,' or 'veterans.' They comprise about 20% of the U.S. population but less than 10% of practicing lawyers. They are in or entering their emeritus years, and to young lawyers they embody 'the old days.' The 'boomers' born during the baby boom of 1946 to 1964 make up about 30% of the U.S. population and a little under half of today's lawyers. Their careers are now peaking, and a lot of them will be retiring in the next decade. They drive the power structure of most firms, and although they think of themselves as more individualistic, more optimistic, and more committed to personal integrity than their predecessors, younger associates tend to view them as defenders of the power structure and status quo.

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