How Lawyers Lose Their Way: A Profession Fails Its Creative Minds

by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic

Book Overview

In this penetrating book, Jean Stefancic and Richard Delgado use historical investigation and critical analysis to diagnose the cause of the pervasive unhappiness among practicing lawyers. Most previous writers have blamed the high rate of burnout, depression, divorce, and drug and alcohol dependency among these highly paid professionals on the narrow specialization, long hours, and intense pressures of modern legal practice. Stefancic and Delgado...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822335638
• ISBN13: 9780822335634
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Formalism and the Law

It is interesting that there is only one review posted for this book (as of March 2008). You may surmise that busy lawyers just don't have the time for reading this kind of book. You would be right. That is a shame. The legal profession is jam packed with disenchanted/lost souls who made a pact with the devil early in their careers. The trade? A life perversely ruled by "formalism" in exchange for the material rewards of professional success. Those who have a hard time dealing with it later in their careers often realize that they have made a bad trade. They have sacrificed meaning in their endeavors, stifled inner creativity and anesthetized their own humanity. I am not suggesting that all lawyers are inhuman. But the life of a lawyer is typically dull, intellectually sterile, repetitive, unappreciated and not very rich in terms of its humanity. Others have written about this professional malaise. However, the authors of this book put forth a thoughtful analysis of the intellectual underpinnings of the predicament of modern homolexicus. The legal profession is a left lobe dominated pursuit. There are many left lobe dominated pursuits. However, what makes law unique is the disproportionate amount of right lobe thinking humanities types who chose the law with lofty idealism or, in many instances, for want of a more compelling career alternative. The intellectual allure of the law turns into a very different reality in very short order. Bottom line: Understanding your predicament is the first step towards finding a strategy for change. I recommend this book to all lawyers, not as a elixir, but as a catalyst for personal empowerment