We Have Enough Lawyers!

I read with horror that 1714 of Israel's best and brightest are about to become licensed lawyers. (Some of my best friends are lawyers (and my father was one).) It is not that lawyers do not have a place in society but 1714 of our best and brightest? Let's try to imagine how we could change society by redirecting that brilliance to stuff that really matters.

Israel has a shortage of doctors. Israel has a shortage of biomedical and technology engineers. We have a national advantage in agricultural technology but not enough smart people going into agriculture or food related industries. Did I mention that food and sustainability as well as healthcare and healthcare costs are some of the biggest challenges facing the world today and Israel is in a position to be an international change agent in these fields? Imagine if our best and brightest applied their ambition and drive to create great industries, invent ingenious solutions to pressing problems and employ scores of people instead of creating the legaleaze and red tape that inhibits greatness and progress. Look at what my old friend Benzi Ronen is doing at Farmigo to bring healthier sustainable food directly to people's home and improve the income of America's farmers. Good thing he did not become a lawyer.

What about teachers? Imagine if these articulate, creative minds set about changing Israel's future by challenging our young people to think hard, ask questions and aspire for intellectual greatness. I shudder to think what would have happened to the challenged children of Ramle/Lod if Hili Tropper became a lawyer instead of the principal of Branco Weiss High School (Please click this link to watch this video) in Ramle! So why did 1714 of our best and brightest choose to argue the minutiae of contracts, gum up the legislative works and don the black robes?

I humbly suggest that as a society we do not respect the really important and transformational agents in our society. Becoming a doctor is a long process but it is transformational, same for biotech engineers. Teachers go un-respected and we have done nothing to change those impressions but they are the most important change agent for our nation's future. Partly because doctors and teachers are employees of the government, they are looked at and treated like bureaucrats. As a society, we pay them like bureaucrats, treat them like bureaucrats and tenure them like bureaucrats so when our ambitious kids grow up dreaming of greatness, the last think they want to become is a doctor-bureaucrat or a teacher-bureaucrat that needs to go on strike for respect and pay.

Our media glorifies the role of celebrity lawyers like Dov Weisglass and Ram Caspi but our kids barely hear about Hili Tropper, Gil Shwed, Simcha Blass or Dr. Hagai Karchi. They are not celebrities like they should be if we want to inspire our children for greatness and to help society. We see meglomaniac Ran Erez of the teachers union making headlines on the front page of newspapers while harming our children's education but no profiles of the teachers and principals of Leyada, Boyer or Horev High School in Jerusalem who are doing amazing work in education. Does that make sense? The people a society glorifies speaks volumes about its values and values drive professional aspiration. The professions that we choose to pay meaningful wages for also speaks to our societal values. We do not pay teachers and doctors per their investment in training and professional importance and that speaks volumes about how much we respect them and how important they are.

Again, do not misunderstand me, there is a place for lawyers in society. We need them too. But 1714 per year? How many potential doctors do we accept into our universities and how many of our aspiring doctors are forced to go to Italy, Hungary and other places to learn medicine? What is that message? When our kids read in the newspapers that doctors are on strike but 1714 lawyers will begin their apprenticeship this year and start climbing the income ladder, what can we expect? I will tell you: we can expect a further deterioration in our educational system, a further shortage of doctors and that we won't lead the world into the 21st century of technological change.