Legal Commentary

Our colleagues at The American Lawyer have debuted a new blog: The Careerist. Senior reporter Vivia Chen is the lead writer, with posting assistance from Law.com's Audree Wong.

TAL editor Aric Press describes the new blog as "an adroit, focused, useful, and amusing look at lawyers and their careers." Users can access the blog here or via The Am Law Daily blog or lawjobs.com's Career Center.

Says Chen in her opening post: "No one wants to think of themselves as a careerist -- that is, somebody who will do whatever it takes to get ahead. And we're not advocating that as a lifestyle. But we know that there's a gaming aspect to making it in the legal profession. We started this blog with a simple premise: You may not be looking for a job, but you sure as hell need to be looking out for your career."

And she kicks off the discussions with a quickly controversial query: Is Stanford Law School professor Deborah Rhode correct when she asserts that our industry has a prejudice against unattractive people? Chen ponders, "Is the profession that prides itself as a meritocracy on a makeover binge?"