The Destruction of Young Lawyers: Beyond One L

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Young lawyers are morosely unhappy by every conceivable standard. They arrive at our law schools brimming with enthusiasm, but a decade later they are reporting staggering levels of anxiety, drug addiction, and depression. In legal circles there is talk about a “crisis of professionalism” and a “decline in civility,” but the problem goes much deeper. Through ignorance and greed, the legal profession has designed a complicated system of education, licensing , and practice that drives young lawyers into fear, alienation, and selfhatred . The author of this book—a law professor and practicing attorney— argues that young lawyers face a series of institutional absurdities built into the fabric of law school, the bar exam, and law firm practice. The current system is churning out a tidal wave of disaffected and bitter lawyers who see the legal system as a Byzantine maze, an endless artificial game totally disconnected from considerations of justice. The Destruction of Young Lawyers shows how these struggles can be reversed through massive structural change and is the first step toward diagnosis and treatment of the specific problems facing young lawyers. If you are interested in the law, you better read this book. It tells the scorching truth about law schools and the so-called profession better and more honestly than any book I know. —Gerry Spence, renowned trial lawyer and founder, Trial Lawyer’s College Easily the best of the lawyer books, The Destruction of Young Lawyers is tightly reasoned, clearly and lucidly written, full of examples and anecdotes, and wellpaced . I found myself getting lost in it; the story drew me right along so that when I looked up it was hours later. The book is a real page turner. —Richard Delgado, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh This engaging and subtle series of essays summarizes and expands our understanding of the sources of stress and distress in the lives of today's lawyers. —Mark Tushnet, Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Douglas Litowitz is a law professor at Ohio Northern University and a practicing lawyer. He is the author of Postmodern Philosophy and Law, and many publications in the areas of critical theory and jurisprudence. The Destruction of Young Lawyers Beyond One L Douglas Litowitz Beyond One L The University of Akron Press Akron, Ohio problem reached public conscious about fifteen years ago with initial war that lawyers were experiencing m health problems and “running from law.” In 1991, the American Bar Associ acknowledged that the legal profe was at the “breaking point” due t “emerging crisis in the quality of law health and lives.” By 1995, the chair o ABA’s Committee on Professionalism a ted that lawyers were leaving the profe because it had become “a nasty busin and was “no longer fun.” By the mid-19 the Wall Street Journal was consulting choanalysts to figure out why lawyers become “depressed, anxious, bored inso acs,” and newspapers on both coasts reporting that lawyers were “miserable the legal life.” Books with ominous such as The Betrayed Profession, Law sus Life, and The Lost Lawyer starte appear. Even Justice Sandra Day O’Co of the United States Supreme Court claimed that lawyers were becomin profoundly unhappy lot,” and that they “dissatisfied with their professional l When she attended the thirtieth annivers her Stanford law school class, she shocked that the vast majority of a responded to a questionnaire by s that they would not enter the profess given another chance. And fellow Sup Court justice Stephen Breyer noted “lawyers increasingly describe their profe in negative terms” and have a “negative temporary image” as hostile, narrow, detached. These gloomy assessments come from mainstream of the legal profession from an underground band of disgru outcasts. And the bad news is buttre by a mountain of empirical data. It is well established that public perceptio lawyers is at an all-time low; lawyer orting record levels of dissatisfaction, stance abuse, and mental illness; oned of attorneys appear to be clinically ressed, alcoholic, or addicted to drugs; attorneys are reporting anxiety levels at st double (and perhaps up to five times ater than) those of the general popula- . For the first time in recent memory, a tage industry has sprung up to help yers find ways to leave the profession, indeed a recent survey by the New rk Law Journal found that 40 percent of ng associates at large firms plan to ve the profession. All of the available evice —anecdotal and statistical—points he inescapable conclusion that the legal...