The new leader of Husch Blackwell has a background in business. He is not a lawyer. But calling him a “nonlawyer” turned out to be highly offensive to many of the professional staff within law firms who argue (through many blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook posts over the past few days) that the term we used in the headline and body of the story does a “disservice” to business professionals in law firms and is plain old “lazy” writing.

In part, the argument, and it's a valid one, is that using the word focuses on what the person is not, rather than what they are. The bigger complaint is that calling business professionals nonlawyers perpetuates a caste system within law firms in which lawyers look down on those without a law degree, failing to appreciate the exact advice for which they pay those business professionals. This column is focused on that very issue: but first some quick thoughts on The American Lawyer's decision to use the term “nonlawyer.”

As I told those in the legal marketing community whom I've spoken with over the last two days, I'm torn. I very much see their point that there could be other, better ways to describe professional staff in firms. But it is also our job to quickly and succinctly tell our readers the news, with a key emphasis on the “news” part. And, despite it being 2017, it is still news that those without law degrees (it would have been faster to say nonlawyer there) are leading law firms. I'm not sure saying “business executive” in place of nonlawyer in the headline for this story would have conveyed the uniqueness of this news event. I can imagine several lawyer-managing partners who view themselves as business executives. And law firms may or may not have ethical reasons to differentiate between those who are attorneys and those who are not. Hey, even the bio for Paul Eberle, Husch Blackwell's new chief executive, says he was one of the first “non-attorneys” to lead a firm.