Golden Handcuffs - law student reconsiders career in public service - includes response

Washington Monthly, Nov, 1995 by Gibson Cromwell, Charles Peters

Of course, civil servants do wield a great deal of power in practice. I've seen it at work. The professional who's been at, say, Health and Human Services for 16 years can often run circles around the political appointee who has only been there six months. And even when the bosses are experienced, implementing decisions does carry certain de facto policymaking power. I'm no stranger to the real responsibilities that come with the civil service; they are responsibilities that I've already shouldered and enjoyed.

But, I must admit, like my ambitious friends, I eventually want to do more than just implement the policies of others. I want to make them myself. So how do you get to be one of these important decision-makers? Theoretically, of course, civil servants can receive political appointments. It is not unheard of--Lawrence Eagleburger, for example, served as secretary of state. But it is somewhat rare. Of the hundreds of top Clinton Administration officials, you'd be hard-pressed to find 10 who rose through the civil service. Robert Rubin came from Wall Street, Warren Christopher from O'Melveny and Myers, Robert Reich from Harvard. I'd have a better shot at these positions, I hear again and again, if I took a high-powered legal job or if I entered academia. That's a hard message to ignore.

The problem, of course, with joining a law firm with the eventual goal of working for government is what you might call "golden handcuffs." Dozens of classmates have told me that they're only going to law firms for two or three years, "just to get some training." They strain as if trying to convince themselves. But all too often, once the law firms have got you, you're hooked. The most senior career attorney in government will earn $115,000 a year. Even young lawyers can get $62,473. That's plenty of money. But in any of 20 big New York law firms, you can make $150,000 before you're 30.

Soon, you get used to that kind of money. Only the most puritan lawyer resists becoming accustomed to living well--to eating sushi and vacationing in Mexico and sending the kids to private schools. If you have a family, they subtly but certainly add to the pressure. Your notion of fair value also creeps upwards. What once sounded like a bounty of gold begins to shrink. Unmarried twentysomethings making $150,000 would seem to have plenty of money. But I often hear lawyers complaining about how much the investment bankers make. "I could do what they do, and they're making so much more than I am!" a self-proclaimed Marxist whimpered while working on Wall Street.

The Other Way

Even if these people do end up in public service work eventually, something seems not quite right about gunning for a top government job by spending a life working on Wall Street. In a number of other leading democracies, entering the nation's service isn't one of the least-coveted choices by the best students--it's the most. The reason is that, in those places, career civil servants heavily influence policymaking at the highest levels. When those top students look 30 years into the future, they know they have a shot at the top.