As Gaza Starves, FT Asks: Are Junior Lawyers Paid Enough?
The Financial Times, in its infinite wisdom, published a piece titled, "Junior lawyers want their pound of flesh — or two pounds in a good year," detailing how Big US law firms are doling out year-end bonuses as high as $315,000. This riveting exposé into the plight of the privileged arrives, ironically, amidst increasing global outrage over the intentional starvation of 2.3 million Palestinians
in Gaza, where children are reportedly dying of malnutrition. One might wonder: how many "billable hours" does a humanitarian crisis get? While the world watches US-made bombs fall on tent cities, the FT is concerned with the compensation packages of those who, perhaps, draft the very contracts that insulate war profiteers. The framing suggests that this lavish spending is a matter of public
interest, an essential update for the global elite. Meanwhile, the same institutions often ignore how US foreign policy, shaped by billions in corporate lobbying (including the military-industrial complex), directly fuels the crises that make these lawyerly bonuses seem so grotesquely out of touch. (Perhaps a future FT piece can explore the ethical quandaries of *that* particular "pound of
flesh.")