Although well-intentioned, I think the Harvard Law article is dangerous. The legal community is potentially pretty low-hanging fruit for EA recruitment: it contains a lot of people who make a lot of money and who generally make misguided but well-intentioned charitable decisions, both regarding how to donate their money and how to use their talents.
Changing the culture of this community will be complicated, however. Early missteps could be extremely costly to the extent they give the community the wrong initial perception of EA-style thinking. In short, the stakes are high, and although I commend those who want to try to make inroads into the community, I suggest treading cautiously.
Here’s an EA forum post on the second (Harvard Law) article: http://effective-altruism.com/ea/8f/lawyering_to_give/
Although well-intentioned, I think the Harvard Law article is dangerous. The legal community is potentially pretty low-hanging fruit for EA recruitment: it contains a lot of people who make a lot of money and who generally make misguided but well-intentioned charitable decisions, both regarding how to donate their money and how to use their talents.
Changing the culture of this community will be complicated, however. Early missteps could be extremely costly to the extent they give the community the wrong initial perception of EA-style thinking. In short, the stakes are high, and although I commend those who want to try to make inroads into the community, I suggest treading cautiously.