What Should Young Lawyers Wear to Work?

Today, Above the Law features an amusing recap of an event for young lawyers held by the Chicago Bar Association entitled “The What Not to Wear Fashion Show,” in which a panel including lawyers, law students and a judge discussed appropriate legal attire as models walked down a runway displaying sartorial errors supposedly common in the legal profession.

To summarize the panel’s conclusions, male lawyers should wear a gray or blue suit that fits, and female lawyers should avoid ponytails, the color pink, hoop earrings, heels, tight-fitting clothing and otherwise dress pretty much just like a man, except they shouldn’t wear pants, except when they should. They should also avoid wearing engagement rings because engagement rings provoke jealousy among other women, and should avoid wearing anything even remotely provocative–for instance, any item of clothing that displays an inch of skin anywhere–because it’s the responsibility of all young female lawyers to avoid “tempting” their invariably married and male bosses.

Appropriate attire for legal professionals (male).

Appropriate attire for legal professionals (female).

I think we can all acknowledge that a double standard is applied to male and female lawyers with regard to professional attire. That said, choosing work clothes isn’t that much fun for lawyers in general. While it seems like the rest of America has transitioned to t-shirts and flip-flops, we are still stuck in suits and ties.

Still, it’s worth considering why we wear professional attire. First, it reassures clients. Clients come to lawyers with problems that they themselves don’t know how to solve. They are looking for reassurance that their problem is in the hands of a capable professional. A relaxed dress code is intended to advertise a creative and fun workplace. However, clients with serious legal problems aren’t primarily concerned with how freewheeling your office is. A suit and tie on a lawyer says “I’m prepared to go to court or meet with opposing counsel on a moment’s notice,” just as cargo pants and hiking boots on an outdoorsy dude says, “hey, I could totally start rappelling down a rock face at any moment.” When clients see that you’re ready for action, they can relax a little.

Second, “business casual” sounds great on paper, but in fact it’s a nebulous standard which usually requires you to buy a bunch of new clothing. Business casual is fine when everyone agrees about what it means, which is never the case. Sometimes jeans are OK, sometimes they’re not. Sometimes you are only allowed to wear “dressy jeans,” whatever that means. You have to figure out what kind of shoes to wear with “dressy jeans,” which usually leads to wearing loafers, even if you hate them.

Additionally, it seems like most men’s casual pants available these days are somehow pre-faded, pre-scuffed or otherwise intentionally damaged so that they will look worse and worse over the course of about a year and need to be replaced. Wearing pants that were intentionally nicked with a razor by some factory worker in Guam makes little sense in general and even less in the workplace.

And again, even in a business casual office, women are often subjected to a double standard under which more casual clothing may be criticized as overly revealing. The same issues regarding skirt length, showing of skin, and formality of footwear arise as with business attire, but fewer clear guidelines apply.

Hate suits? Love loafers? Boss doesn’t dig your pre-shredded jeans? Feel free to leave us a comment.