WHY LAWYERS ARE MISERABLE - Reprint from the Washington Post and London Times
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| KEYS TO THE KINGDOM* OF LAW: 1. Excellence – People (Build a Network inside and outside the firm); Grow your Intellectual Capital (Lifelong Learning about Creating Client & Firm Success); Leverage Your Talents (Constantly Up Your Game) – Share (Not required but it keeps you grounded)
2. Develop a specific area of Expertise – Become the Go-To
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* Because it’s still a male construct, but we’re working on that.
Why are lawyers self destructing? This is not a "female thing". Stephanie McKendrick, a brilliant communicator, says: "Women are the canaries in the mineshaft". What increased female enrolment in law schools over the past 30 years and the mass emigration of women showcases is toxicity of certain practice norms to health and welfare. But it’s clear that the despair is not restricted to the colonies, the XX chromosome, or estrogen. Sathnam Sanghera, a columnist for the Times of London, reports that "British lawyers are only just waking up to the fact they are miserable and want to die." Peter Lattman, of the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog captured the gist of Sanghera’s comments. We reprint Lattman’s blog summary here, including a few of the tastier bits that Lattman skipped:
WHY LAWYERS ARE MISERABLE
Reprint from the Washington Post and London Times
1. Dehumanizing hours: "Leaving aside the question of whether money can make you happy, it is pretty obvious it won’t if you have no time to spend it."
2. The gap between lawyers’ intelligence and the mind-numbing nature of their work: "The word ‘lawyer’ may trigger images of attractive people making clever arguments in wood-paneled courtrooms, but most spend the majority of their time in back offices drafting and redrafting small print that almost no one will read. At least if you flipped burgers for a living you’d have the satisfaction of giving people momentary pleasure."
3. The gap between the ideals of those entering the profession and the reality: "Some go into law because they dream of fighting injustice, but discover on entering that most of what lawyers do benefits big business," he writes. "Others enter the profession because they are seduced by the apparent glamour of the trade, as portrayed in Ally McBeal and LA Law, only to find that the work is about as glamorous as getting a verruca (cf. point 2)."
4. The cumulatively lowering nature of the work: Lawyers "become competitive, aggressive, judgmental, analytical, adversarial, emotionally detached, paranoid of being sued and, worst of all, pessimistic. Being a good lawyer involves assuming that people will do the most awful things and that treachery is to be expected. It’s inevitable that this negativity eventually seeps into their personal lives."
5. The vortex of hatred that envelops them entirely: The public doesn’t only despise the legal profession, as is borne out by many surveys, but "lawyers despise each other (cf point 4), despise themselves (cf. points 1, 2, 3, 4), are despised by their clients (for charging too much, not always winning cases) and, in return, despise their clients back."
6. The self-inflicted nature of their suffering: Under intense pressure to attract business, lawyers seek out more of the very work they find so dissatisfying. "It’s like waking up to find someone drilling a hole into your head, only to realise the sadist wielding the Black ‘n’ Decker is actually you."
Sanghera closes with:…. I can’t help thinking these problems could be solved. All City firms need to do is take a moment or two to take a good look at themselves. But that must be difficult when time is (so much) money.
So - If you’re living a comfortable life in a modest house you own with a partner and children who recognize you, are you a "successful" lawyer? If so, what do you know that so many of us don’t?? Do tell: svanderhout@girlphyte.com
And Check out: [Are we sensing a theme here?]
Are Lawyers Emotional Wrecks? http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/06/27/are-lawyers-emotional-wrecks/
Are Law Students Emotional Wrecks? http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/06/08/are-law-students-emotional-wrecks/
06.11.2007
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