Today’s New York Times has an article on the first page of the Sunday Styles section characterizing law and medicine as “the falling down professions.” The article talks about the growing size of law firms, increasing focus on billable hours, and assorted other pressures that make lawyers unhappy.

We can take all that.

But then the Times hits below the belt: “Increased competitive pressures also mean that young associates are often locked into arcane sub-specialties, like pharmaceutical product liability.” (at p. 9)

Them’s fightin’ words!

You could be a tax lawyer, for God’s sake! A real estate lawyer! A trusts and estates lawyer!

Who wouldn’t want to be a pharmaceutical product liability lawyer, dealing with high-stakes, cutting edge issues, and hanging around with cool guys like us?

If you take off the gloves, NYT, we can, too:

You could be a reporter!

We’re sure the article in today’s Times will set off a firestorm in the blogosphere. We don’t know; we haven’t looked.

But only we are taking this personally.

Are we allowed to demand a retraction?