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What is the cohort duration of a ‘generation’ of lawyers? Is it their ages? Or their period of qualified service? Or perhaps the date they passed their finals exams?
And why do they fall neatly within the decade of the 1990’s?
In my admittedly limited experience (I qualified in 1983) there hasn’t been a great change in the quality of young lawyers recruited each year. Each fresh-faced starter either finds their niche or leaves for a more congenial role. Being a lawyer is to be a toiler in a vast and disparate vineyard. But there are certain qualities that I have learned to recognise in the most successful ones. An open and questioning mind. Flexibility and mental toughness. Intellectual rigour. Personal modesty (smartarses are generally bad lawyers) and an avoidance of unevidenced assertions.
We should certainly value each new entrant to the profession for what they may bring it but perhaps we do them a disservice if we assess them as members of a ‘generation’ rather than as individuals. Such stereotyping sounds a little ominous for those who do not meet the writers evident preconceptions.

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