The Lost Lawyer: Failing Ideals of the Legal Profession

by Anthony T. Kronman

Book Overview

Anthony Kronman describes a spiritual crisis affecting the American legal profession, and attributes it to the collapse of what he calls the ideal of the lawyer-statesman: a set of values that prizes good judgment above technical competence and encourages a public-spirited devotion to the law.

For nearly two centuries, Kronman argues, the aspirations of American lawyers were shaped by their allegiance to a distinctive ideal of professional...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674539273
• ISBN13: 9780674539273
• Release Date: March 1995
• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

RESCUING THE FADING IDEALS OF ADVOCACY

This is a very interesting book by Yale's Law School Dean, Anthony Kronman about law schools, legal teaching, the practice of law, Courts and the governing principles of law firms nowadays in the United States.The central idea is that the modern American legal profession is in a crisis, a crisis of morale. Disguised by the material rewards of the profession, the downturn has been brought about by the demise of the traditional set of values that until recently played a definitive role in the aspirations of American lawyers. According to the author, previous generations of lawyers conceived their highest aim to be an attainment of practical wisdom about human beings and their affairs- that anyone who wishes to provide effective and real deliberative counsel must possess. This wisdom was perceived as a result acquired only by becoming a person of good judgment, and not merely an expert in technical matters of the law. The cultivation of this character virtue, was an important professional ideal, and contributed fundamentally to the perception that lawyers had about the intrinsic value of their work. And it is this ideal which is now dying in the legal profession. Lawyers find it increasingly difficult to attribute intrinsic fulfillment to their profession. Mainly, as the attention shifts to other means (material, metalegal, etc.) for fulfillment, lawyers cultivate less the traditional values and are ill prepared to provide sound legal and political advise. So, Kronman embarks in a journey to restate the original ideals of what he calls the lawyer-stateman. Therefore, in the first part of the book, he seeks to define and defend more demanding standards of professional excellence. In doing so, he dwells with some complex philosophical issues involved, in simple terms. In the second part we get a more practical and sociological analysis of legal institutions and their cultural dynamics: the current shape of the Courts, legal schools, legal firms, and other institutions involved.Why should this book be read by all lawyers and students? Because it provides a clear diagnostic of most of the shortcomings of the profession and clues to possible solutions.Anybody involved in the legal profession as a lawyer, cannot avoid the sensation of looking at a mirror when reading: "The fascination with moneymaking that pervades large-firms practice today tends, in a subtle but significant way, to unsettle the delicate balance between sympathy and detachment in which practical wisdom consists"..."a culturally reinforced preoccupation with money makes it more difficult to sustain the kind of self-forgetfulness required to deliberate for and with another person on his or her behalf"..."this demands that he temporarily suspend his own interests, for only by doing so can he clear an effective space in which his client's interests may be entertained with real feeling". And in fact, as Kronman states, many modern clients are primarily concerned with making money, a