Professions Facing Extinction
Legal Profession Goes First, Then Yours is Next
Did you ever think the legal profession would go on the endangered species list? The extinction of a profession has been rare and not top of mind.
Forget the lawyer jokes. Whether or not you are a lawyer or hire lawyers, this moment in history will have a domino effect on your profession. If you are not a professional, you can stop here.
For the last 105 years, many people still alive have participated in the growth of old professions and the emergence of new professions. We've experienced much expansion, innovation, mergers and consolidations, and rapid emergence of professions that did not exist before 1800, such as computer programmer, software engineer, sociologist, and psychologist.
Don't Think It Will Happen to You?
How could you miss the daily blasts of Trump's slow-rolling coup? The strategy for eliminating professionals is clear and repeated daily—in case you missed noticing it in the past 80 days: Pick out targets to weaken the whole and then do everything possible to break the profession, break the agency, break whatever is working and doesn’t need fixing.
If you are one of the 1.3 million lawyers still practicing law in America, how much time do you have left before the forces of extinction invade and compromise you for an early demise? That begs the question: What does the early onset of the terminal disease look like? Here's one strategy the Administrative Branch might try to run lawyers off a cliff and to their extinction: Any lawyer who has been complicit in lying to the courts or in refusing to implement court orders can have their law license revoked.
“Someday” arrived on April 14, 2025, when Trump defied mealy-mouthed constraints the corrupt Supreme Court placed on his unlawful actions regarding habeas corpus and related constitutional constraints. History and truth are captive to Trump's self-serving whims and schemes.
Is Your Profession Next? What Are Signs of Upheaval?
For several decades, I was an active member and the certification expert for The American Society of Association Executives, which has 48,000 members from 7,400 organizations. That's not the universe of professionals—only those who join that society.
There are more than 90,000 professional associations, according to IRS classifications for tax codes for trade groups and professional development organizations. About half of the ASAE membership is associations, representing a profession, plus specialties within professions, such as more than 200 specialties in nursing. The other half of the membership is businesses that make money because professions exist and have communities of practice. Airlines, hotels, software companies, and thousands of other profit-making businesses count on much or all of their income from professional practices and meetings.
ASAE is the association of associations. Members of ASAE include more than one legal association, which I worked with directly on their credentials and standards, including the American Bar Association, American Society of Trial Consultants, International Trademark Association, and the American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America).
Associations rarely discuss the extinction of the profession. They have no backup plan.
Their leadership spends most of their resources on membership recruitment, professional development programs, and legal fees to advocate for their profession, such as making sure their profession is written into the language of government contract requirements and making the case for IRS tax-exemption status for national and state affiliates.
The grand assumption by thousands of professions for more than 100 years is they are not on anyone's endangered species list. The other grand assumption is "all for one and one for all" and that means we exist to help each other stay in business—maybe thrive.
Suddenly, It's Your Profession and All Others at Risk
The Trump regime is only a tipping point. It's in your face and impossible to ignore across all professions. The immediate shock waves getting your attention are streets and online job search sites filling up fast with thousands of professionals and career civil servants, which Musk and Trump are tossing into the rapidly growing population of unemployed.
To understand the seriousness and ripple effect of driving the legal profession to extinction, you need to stay focused on the definition of professional. If any of these five conditions stop, you are no longer a professional—just a worker in the world with only your name for identity.
What is a professional? The definition has been clear and without exception since the Medieval Period. Starting in the 16th Century, we saw the emergence of the criteria for a profession and it has lasted until now. Specifically,
1) specialized training,
2) consistent standards of performance,
3) active competition for the best talent through mentorships, apprenticeships, and internships,
4) credentialing processes, such as licensure, certification, accreditation, and boards, and
5) ethical frameworks that put service to customers or the public above self-interests, above corruption and shoddy work, and above political coercion.
If professions disappear, it's a house of cards that would collapse society.
Just as we never imagined the horror of someone flying an airplane into the World Trade Buildings on September 11, 2001, and never imagined the deaths and disruptions for two years that came with the global Covid-19 pandemic, we did not imagine why or how the United States government, at the direction of the Trump Administration, would attack professions.
If thousands of professionals are suddenly fired or resign because their standards, values, and ethical codes can not exist in a world where customer service and interests must completely flip to a world of loyalty to a regime, bribes and kickbacks, and training or an educational system controlled by self-interests and whims, what will those thousands of professionals do next?
Professional Upheavals Started 10 Years Ago
The possibility of professional upheavals and extinctions entered the conversations when OpenAI released ChatGPT at the end of 2022. The growth has been exponential and mostly on a theme of transitions, learning new skills, and imagining a greater good for professionals and their customers at the same time.
Ten years ago, when professionals felt the first tremors of the life quake ahead, the general reaction was universal arrogance and denial. Dr. Daniel Suskind, a Fellow in Economics at Oxford University, and Dr. Richard Suskind (his father) wrote a best-selling book in 2015, The Future of The Professions How Technology Will Transform The Work of Human Experts.
The main takeaway is that we are on the brink of a period of fundamental and irreversible change in the way that the expertise of these specialists is made available in society. There was no OpenAI or ChatGPT back then. This was all about the technology already impacting professions.
The overwhelming response was everyone agreed strongly that the evidence was abundant and changes would happen—except in their profession.
High-status professionals, like elite surgeons or top-tier lawyers, believe their expertise is irreplaceable due to the complexity and nuance of their work. They rely on tacit knowledge and judgment gained through years of experience, making them feel immune to technology shifts. They see technology as a tool to assist them, not replace them, believing their unique human skills are essential.
Professionals deeply embedded in local communities, such as family doctors or small-town lawyers, underestimate the impact of technology because they prioritize relationships and community ties. They claim that their clients prefer personalized, face-to-face interactions and that technology, while efficient, cannot replicate the trust and understanding they provide. They did not consider what happens when technology sold to them as a business benefit becomes a barrier or missing link with customers, patients, and other humans.
Professionals in highly creative fields, such as artists, designers, or writers, believe passionately that technology can never replicate human creativity, originality, and emotional expression. They think AI might be a tool for productivity, but not a source of truly innovative ideas. They did not see the disruption coming that ChatGPT and OpenAI technology caused in the two years before the 2024 election.
What is Your Backup Plan if Your Profession Goes Next?
We wonder about these questions and hope you do too:
What was your backup plan when you could no longer do your work the way you did it before COVID-19? How is that working now?
What was your backup plan when AI and ChatGPT models exploded in every layer of your profession, from beginner to owner of the enterprise, and across all systems, frameworks, and business models?
What is your backup plan when a political regime, compounded by the economic collapse of world markets, advances beyond threats and goes for the extinction of your entire profession?
It Was Hard to Get Here and Now You Face Extinction
There are many excuses for having no backup plan. There are many reasons why some professionals think they will be spared by the executioner. The default setting is your ego and denial. After all, it was tough enough to make great grades and get into college. Then there was the work and sacrifice necessary to complete the degree and figure out a long-term solution for financial debt. On top of that were the challenges of navigating the career ladder and choices within a profession for specialization or further study.
All of this is complicated by the fact that most professional fields emphasize a craft or calling, but completely miss the mark on business building, marketing, and customer retention. That's why there is such a huge, lifelong, exhausting scramble for every professional who realizes the world has no idea what they really do and why they have to hustle for business.
The main reason for no backup plan is that humans don't like change and it seems easier to look the other way instead of preparing for the worst. The thought of losing your job, not to mention the horror of your entire profession going extinct, is too much for most of us.
The first time we lose a job, see our biggest account go to another, or experience the dramatic changes that came with business disruptions of a pandemic, we face questions that beg for answers in advance:
How is your financial health? Have you earned in excess of expenses and saved up enough money to pay all of your bills for a year while you learn new skills and go through the job search process?
How is your mental health? If you can no longer do what you love or what you have always done well, are you ready to change professions (entirely, because of extinction)?
How is your social health? Do you have a strong, in-person network, or have you allowed relationships to dissolve while you substitute social media for deep and meaningful conversations?
How is your business health? Many professionals, when tossed out of their comfortable or familiar work, think that going into business for yourself is a fast solution. Here's the problem: That's not a profession. It's only a business model with hard decisions, such as who you want for customers and what you will do for them? What can you do that they will pay for? Keep in mind that the bridge back to the profession you had for 20 or more years is burned. The extinction team took care of that. It's gone.
First They Came for the Lawyers
Did you stand together and take on the threat of extinction? Was the extinction because your profession was no longer needed or because you could no longer stay in it without giving up your ethics, identity, values, and everything you are as a human?
Associations are good at survival. Professions have been good at this, too. The key is to band together and stay strong and consistent against the threat. If it is time for the profession to exit, then all come together to form a new scenario for the future and build bridges for everyone to cross over or escape tragedy.
The jaw-dropping behavior and executive orders of the Trump Administration are real. Their strategy is to destroy a profession from the inside out, one firm at a time.
If all lawyers, law schools, law firms, and multiple associations representing all of the personnel in the law business—from legal aids to Supreme Court justice, banded together to enforce their standards, codes of ethics, and mission statements (customers count plus nobody is above the rule of law), the extinction process would take a different course.
Extinction, done as nature intended, happens this way:
Climate change alters habitats faster than the species can adapt.
Loss of habitat due to disasters such as floods, fires, and earthquakes.
Exhaustion of a food source vital for the species' survival.
Introduction of a new, highly effective predator.
Disease and widespread epidemics.
Competition by invasive species for resources.
Extinction of professions happens this way:
Automation and robots perform better and cheaper than humans.
Recession and economic downturns mean job losses in many professions.
Software replaces traditional and repetitive skills, such as knowledge management and remembering thousands of bits of information.
New technologies make existing jobs obsolete, such as automated phone systems.
Shifts in consumer habits, such as fewer newspapers and more apps on a mobile phone.
Decrease in demand for a service.
Globalization and outsourcing to any of 193 other countries in the world with better systems, better management.
Lack of training or educational opportunities to fulfill professional requirements across all standards of practice.
In both nature and the professions this is the extinction game plan.
Adaptation. Rapid response to changing conditions and preparation mean survival. Hope for the best and plan for the worst is more than a motto. When you think of the worst, use human creativity and imagination to put together countermeasures for the "unthinkable." That was the major finding of the 9/11 Commission, specifically, Americans were prepared in a traditional sense but failed to "think the unthinkable just like a terrorist thinks."
Know Your Enemy. Extinction in nature and professions is driven by external forces rather than internal failings. This is why attacking a profession from the inside out—playing to corruption and illegal activities is a terrorist tactic.
Interconnectedness. This is why the association for a profession matters. This is why an association of associations, such as ASAE, matters. The decline of one profession will impact related professions and industries.
Necessary vs. Unnecessary. Nature kills off what is unnecessary for survival. If a profession disappears, is that a sign that mankind no longer needs it? Or was extinction attempted by forces outside the profession and, therefore, only temporary for limited personal gain, causing a new form of regrowth and professionalization?
Spring is a great time for new growth and getting together, in person, with other professionals, and coming up with your backup plan. Get away from the computer screen and take only a journal and pen into conversations with other professionals who will help you think through the unthinkable and the unimaginable.
That's the key to your extinction scenario: 1) Don't go alone—come together—in person or Zoom sessions, and stick together as a profession group (local, state, national, and global all count), and 2) Start with the unthinkable by making a list of every horrible thing you do NOT want to experience or endure, then use your imagination and creativity to go to the opposite scenario. That's your backup plan.
Do you feel like you're on the edge of something amazing, and you just can't figure out what it is? That's where I come in. My name is Georgia Patrick. I work with curious, intense, understanding professionals—still in practice and retired—to tap into their full potential and get extremely clear on their gift (their value) to individuals actively seeking such wisdom. It starts with an email. Maybe later, a short call to make sure I hear you.
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Georgia, thoroughly enjoyed your article. I found this especially profound: "This is why attacking a profession from the inside out—playing to corruption and illegal activities is a terrorist tactic."
Georgia, I am impressed with your ability to see the genius within your writers. You are a rare miner of that which is precious.