Career Satisfaction

Walter Bennett, THE LAWYER’S MYTH: REVIVING IDEALS IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION (2001)
Written by a former judge and law professor who takes strong issue with those who regard (or practice) law as an amoral, for-profit enterprise. Noting a direct correlation between professional fulfillment and a commitment to something higher than money or self- advancement, Bennett calls on lawyers to embrace public service and to balance their work, personal, and civic lives generally, while ‘rekindling the campfire” around which we can build a new professional mythology for a modern, more representative profession.

S. Daicoff, Lawyer Know Thyself: A Review of Empirical Research on Attorney Attributes Bearing on Professionalism, 46 Am.U.L. Rev. 1337, 1337-1427 (1997)
The first comprehensive review of the empirical literature about law students and lawyers, this article exhaustively summarized the findings through 1996. Her analyses of the findings suggest that lawyer attributes have caused a public confidence crisis, pervasive lawyer dissatisfaction and dysfunction, and a professionalism crisis.

M. Dammeyer & N. Nunez, Anxiety and Depression Among Law Students: Current Knowledge and Future Directions, 23 Law & Hum. Behav. 55, 55-73 (1999)
This is a technical review of past research on anxiety and depression in law students. It concludes that law student populations appear to have highly elevated levels of both symptoms, generally exceeding that of medical school students, and in some cases approaching psychiatric populations. The authors observe that the research done on date on law student distress substantially lags the research done to date in other areas of law and psychology. The article identifies those studies which are methodically sound, points out the methodological problems with most previous research, and recommends further discriminative and hypothesis-driven studies.

W. Eaton, J. Anthony, W. Mandel & R. Garrison, Occupations and the Prevalence of Major Depressive Disorder, 32J. Occupational Med. 1079, 1079-87 (1990)
One of the most methodologically sound empirical studies that included lawyers, the research produced shocking results. The authors sampled 104 occupational groups and found that lawyers are 3.6 times more likely than any of the other occupational groups to suffer from major depressive disorder.

James M. Hedegard, The Impact of Legal Education: An In-depth Examination of Career- Relevant Interests, Attitudes, and Personality Traits Among First-Year Law Students, 1979 Am. B. Res. J. 791, 791-868 (1979)
This is the first longitudinal study to examine law students before they arrived at law school and soon after their first set of examinations in their first year of study. The findings showed that anxiety levels and feelings of internal conflict increase significantly for the cohort. When the scores at the second testing were compared with normal population scores, the scores were significantly elevated. Hedegard speculated that the scores increased because the students were unsuccessfully resolving the conflict between the value system they brought to the law school and what they were learning about the law and how it works. He found that students with a greater need for structure and order produced higher prevalence rates for elevated anxiety levels.

G. Hess, Head and Hearts: The Teaching and Learning Environment in Law School, 52 J. Legal Educ. 75, 75-111(2002)
The Director of the Institute for Law School Teaching surveys the literature on distress and depression among law students and makes recommendations for positive change through classroom teaching. The discussion is informed by education theory, extensive teaching experience, and in-depth interviews with students at seven law schools. Hess explains the effects of the environment on students and on their learning, provides models of effect teaching environments, explains the seven principles for good teaching practice and then develops eight components of effective legal education. This is an excellent comprehensive article for faculty wishing to understand the problems experienced by law students and who seek informed guidance for maximizing the positive impact of their teaching.

Carl Horn, III, LawyerLife: Finding a Life and a Higher Calling in the Practice of Law, ABA Publishing, 2003.
Part One examines recent literature, polls and surveys, and research data on the legal profession, and raises key, recurring questions. “Is law a high calling, a profession, an opportunity for public service – or just another dollar-driven business? Why are an increasing number of lawyers dissatisfied with contemporary practice? What is behind the low public opinion of lawyers, who have historically been held in high esteem?” Part Two addresses these and related questions, proposes “Twelve Steps Toward Fulfillment in the Practice of Law”, and suggests a number of ways that law schools, firms, and bar organizations can contribute to the well-being of the contemporary profession. The value of this book lies in its broad familiarity with the growing literature on the profession and the wide-ranging suggestions of practical solutions.

Carl Horn, 111, Twelve Steps Toward Fulfillment in the Practice of Law, LAW PRAC. MGMT. (1999)
Following a review of polls and surveys showing increased lawyer dissatisfaction and dysfunction, the author suggests four “root causes” and proposes what may be the first “12-Step Program for Lawyers”. Suggested steps range from the more professional (e.g. developing good time management skills and specific recommendations for law firms and courts) to the purely personal (living under your means, nurturing relationships, and engaging in “healthy lifestyle practices”, for example). An engaging read, the favourable response to this article (which has been reprinted in a number of bar journals in the United States and Canada) led several years later to the author’s book-length treatment of these and related issues (LawyerLife: Finding a Life and a Higher Calling in the Practice of Law, ABA Publishing, 2003)

Ann L. Iijima, Lessons Learned: Legal Education and Law Student Dysfunction, 48 J. Legal Educ. 524, 524-38 (1998)
This article provides an incisive analysis of causes of law student distress, and offers practical solutions that can be implemented within any law school setting. The author’s organization is clarifying: she identifies problems arising form the breakdown of both interpersonal relationships (student-teacher, student-peer, and student –“outsider”), and intrapersonal connectedness (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual). The article discusses the intra- and interpersonal effects of learning to think “like a lawyer”, suggests particular concerns for female students and concludes with a brief description of the Collaborative Legal Studies Program implemented at one law school;. The overview and practical suggestions here are helpful and concise.

S. Janoff, The Influence of Legal Education on Moral Reasoning, 76 Minn. L.R. 193 (1991)
The author summarizes research on styles of moral reasoning in law students, observing that traditional legal education imposes a ‘rights’ thinking orientation. She suggests, and then supports with research, that this narrow focus excludes considerations of care for others, and argues that law schools need to broaden the teaching agenda to permit and encourage a fusion of both rights and care in the moral thinking of lawyers-in-training. The article provides a review of law students showing loss of care-oriented reasoning in the first year of law school; the discussion includes the negative implications for these students and the legal profession.

George W. Kaufman, THE LAWYER’S GUIDE TO BALANCING LIFE AND WORK: TAKING THE STRESS OUT OF SUCCESS (1999).
This book invites lawyer-readers to recollect why law was chosen as a career in the first place, to clarify their personal and professional values, to evaluate whether their real-life choices and experiences are consistent with those values, to connect or reconnect with feelings and emotions in reflecting on the pathway to happiness, and then to develop an “action plan” to make whatever adjustments or changes may be in order.

Steven Keeva, TRANSFORMING PRACTICES: FINDING JOY AND SATISFACTION IN THE LEGAL LIFE (1999)
This book is a treasure trove of insights and anecdotes for those struggling to find balance and fulfillment in the contemporary practice of law. The author’s survey of “transforming practices” is broad, ranging from simple stress reduction exercises to spiritual practices (e.g., meditation and the practice of “mindfulness”) designed to integrate a lawyer’s inner and outer lives.

L. Krieger, What We’re Not Telling Law Students – and Lawyers –That They Really Need to Know: Some Thoughts - In – Action Toward Revitalizing the Profession From Its Roots, 13 J.L. & Health 1, 1-48 (1998-99)
The author proposes and discusses ten fundamental principles that law students and lawyers “really need to know”, but are not told in law schools, including: that their success actually does not depend on a high class rank or law review position; that their aspirations for achievement are useless if they are not happy; that they cannot have good lives if they do not heed their conscience, ideals, and personal values; that their personal attributes are more important than their skills; that the outcome of their cases is not determinative of their life quality; and that appearances – the outer trappings of a “good life” – are often deceiving. The author then provides perspectives from humanistic psychology and addiction theory to explain, in a unified way, the emotional distress, dissatisfaction, and addiction issues common in the profession and in law schools.

L. Krieger, Institutional Denial about the Dark Side of Law School, and Fresh Empirical Guidance for Constructively breaking the Silence, 52 J. Legal Educ. 112-129 (2002)
This article has a dual focus. It first addresses the lack of institutional attention to law student and lawyer distress in the face of continuing books, articles, and research demonstrating the seriousness of those problems, and then suggests empirically-based solutions available to teachers, students, and institutions. The article is specific in pointing out the irrational ways that law faculty minimize or otherwise avoid attending to these problems (“it’s just as bad in medical school”; “we’re not trained psychologists”, etc.). It then describes the substantial research of the past 20 years, showing that external motivations and values such as those common in law schools and law firms (money, status, influence, pleasing/impressing others) will produce distress and frustration with work and life, whereas internal motivations and values (self acceptance/growth, close relationships with others, helping and building community) build life and career satisfaction. The article identifies failed paradigms within legal education which continue to undermine the well being of law school students, and hence ultimately the profession, by encouraging unhealthy values and motivation. The article also surveys research on the human needs for authenticity, autonomy, relatedness, competency, and self-esteem, and discusses how these needs are also undermined by legal education. The author then demonstrates how this scientific framework can be used to determine positive changes in law schools, and further recommends specific changes which any faculty member can begin to implement.

Anthony T. Kronman, THE LOST LAWYER: FAILING IDEALS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION (1993)
The author reminisces about a time when “lawyer-statesmen” moved freely from successful practice to equally effective public service, and when law was considered a noble choice for the best and the brightest. He encourages law students to forego the biggest money and opt for practice with smaller firms and/or in smaller towns or cities.

He expresses an opinion that law schools “now encourage a kind of scholarly work remote from – even hostile to – the concerns of practicing lawyers.” An important book, historically and philosophically.

Sol M. Linowitz, THE BETRAYED PROFESSION: LAWYERING AT THE END OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (1994)
This book is a clarion call to regard law once again as a form of public service. It provides rich historical detail, particularly from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The author disdains the “bottom line” approach to law as a business and believes that is largely why law is today an “unhappy profession”. He urges lawyers to live balanced lives like earlier generations, drawing on the accumulated wisdom that results form broad and varied life experiences to provide valuable advice to clients. Linowitz affirms the traditional role of the lawyer as a counselor – one who advises not only whether certain conduct is legal and permissible, but whether it is wise and just – encouraging lawyers to ”just say no” to clients who do not care about the latter.

Barbara McCann, Joan Russo, and G. Andrew H. Benjamin, Hostility, Social Support, and Perceptions of Work, 2 J. Occupational Health Psychol. 175, 175-185 (1997)
Valuable and reliable repeated measures of collegiality, time pressure, and job dissatisfaction were completed during several testings of practicing lawyers before, during and after work deadlines. After controlling for age and gender, the researchers found that high levels of hostility were related to lower supportive collegiality at work. Low perceived social support was related to greater job dissatisfaction. Neither hostility nor social support was associated with perceptions of time pressure at work

N.C. Bar Association, Final Report of the Quality of Life Survey of North Carolina Attorneys (1991)
This extensive study of 2, 570 of North Carolina’s 11, 810 lawyers in 1990 shows rates of job dissatisfaction (18%, with 7% neutral) and mental distress consistent with those of the ABA Young Lawyer Division 1990 State of the profession Study. It is believed to be the most thorough study of any state bar. It establishes a baseline for further studies, including the 2002-03 North Carolina Sate of the Profession Survey, which reveals some positive trends since 1990. This 1991 report is particularly valuable for Noel Dunivant’s elegant causal model of lawyer sense of well-being and quality of life, which revealed among other things that lawyers’ sense of well-being declined (slightly) as they made more money.

James R.P. Ogloff, David R. Lyons, Kevin S. Douglas & V. Gordon Rose, More Than “Learning to Think Like a Lawyer”: The Empirical Research of Legal Education, 3 Creighton L. Rev. 73, 73-243 (2000)
This is a long article which seeks to review and organize all previous research on legal education. The research is divided into five major areas (law students, the law school, learning outside of law school, life after law school, and costs of law school), and covers a very broad range of topics relating to pre-law selection to post-graduate effects. This is a recommended article for anyone wondering what, if any, empirical data exists for his/her area of particular interest. The authors conclude with a summary critique of most of the studies and surveys, and encourage more sequentially planned, theory-driven research utilizing established methods and statistical analysis.

Deborah L. Rhode, IN THE INTERESTS OF JUSTICE: REFORMING THE LEGAL PROFESSION (2000)
Knowing her subject well, Professor Rhode leads the reader on an historical tour of lawyers in the western tradition which stretches from ancient Greece and Rome through pre-Revolutionary War England to the present. Rhode acknowledges that the legal profession has been responsible for much that is good in the American democratic tradition, but is highly critical of what the contemporary practice of law has become for many: long hours in the service of “profit-driven pyramids”, unrestrained materialism (where “desires beget desires” but “do not yield enduring satisfactions”), and psychological distress which studies show begin in law school. This is a provocative, well-researched book which is worth reading.

Roger. E. Schecter, Changing Law Schools to Make Less Nasty Lawyers, 10 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 367 (1999)
The author, Professor of Law at George Washington University, begins by reviewing polls showing that “the public does not think well of us”, as he quaintly puts it, then proceeds to address three “crises” in the contemporary practice of law: (1) the litigation crisis: (2) the civility crisis; and (3) the public service crisis. This is an engaging article that goes beyond hand-wringing to propose practical and potentially effective remedies. The author’s recommendations range from those made elsewhere to an entirely revamped law school curriculum. Professor Schecter proposes firs t year courses on Dispute Resolution and Professionalism, and in addition to the traditional Moot Court program, a “Counseling Competition”. A commendable first step toward an important goal: bringing law schools and faculty into the dialogue on problems facing the contemporary profession.

Patrick J. Schiltz, On Being a Happy, Healthy, and Ethical Member of an Unhappy, Unhealthy , and Unethical Profession, 52 Vand. L. Rev. 871 (1999)
An 80-page, highly polemical article in which complexity and nuance are relegated to footnotes (which are broad and extensive), but nevertheless and excellent brief for several key propositions: (1) lawyers re literally making themselves emotionally and physically sick, primarily by working unconscionably long hours; (2) most lawyers, particularly those in large firms, are regularly cutting ethical corners to improve or maintain the bottom line; and (3) to have a chance at personal and professional happiness, lawyers should avoid large law firms or “ firms that act like large law firms”. An article that invariably generates lively discussion, balance is provided by seven responses (three essentially critical of Schiltz’ article and four largely supportive) and in professor Schiltz’ somewhat more restrained reply, all published in the same issue of the Vanderbilt Law Review.

K. Sheldon & L. Krieger, Does Legal Education Have Undermining Effects on Law Students? Evaluating Changes in Values, Motivation, and Well-Being, Behavioral Sciences and Law, Winter 2004
This is a longitudinal study of the changes experienced by new students at two diverse law schools. The study breaks new ground by measuring proposed mediating/causal factors (personal values, and motivation for goals) to explain the large declines in student mental health found in previous studies and confirmed here. The study concludes that law school doe have undermining effects, based on measured decreases in well-being, life satisfaction, positive affect, internal motivation and intrinsic values in the first year of school. All effects were highly significant. The findings provide empirical support for the thesis that the external, rewards-oriented values embedded in most law schools and firms are responsible for the decline in health, well-being, and professionalism among lawyers.

SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR LAWYERS, (2000) Idaho Lawyer Assistance Program, Idaho State Bar and Idaho Law Foundation, Inc.

 What Can You Do With a Law Degree?, Arron, Deborah, Niche Press

The Lawyers Career Change Handbook, Greenberg, Hind

Fifty Legal Careers for Non-Lawyers, Furi-Perry, Ursula, ABA  www.ababooks.org

Careers in Law, McGraw-Hill, Munneke, Gary A.,  www.book.mcgraw-hill.com

Should You Really Be A Lawyer?  The Guide to Smart Career Choices Before, During and After Law School, Deborah Schneider, J.D., and Gary Belsky,  Decision Books

Taking Care of Yourself: What to Do Before You Reach Professional Paralysis Harper, Barbara, Washington State Bar Association, Lawyers’ Assistance Program

The Soul of the Law: Understanding Lawyers and the Law, Sells, Benjamin, Element Books Inc. 1994

Protecting Your Personal Relationships,  Standish McCleary, American Bar Association: GPSOLO “Bumps in the Road” Vol. 18 Number 5 July/August 2001

Lawyers at Mid-Career: A Longitudinal Study of Job and Life Satisfaction Monahan, John and Swanson, Jeffrey,

Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies that Work, Mark A. Robertson and James A. Calloway, 3rd Edition, ABA Law Practice Management Section
This book is a critical tool for every lawyer who depends on billing for their services and wants to be proactive in resolving the inevitable challenges that arise in this area.

‘Setting Healthy Boundaries’ offers employees support to improve their work, health and other aspects of their lives.
 

The Power of Positive Confrontations: The Skills You Need to Know to Handle Conflicts at Work, at Home and in Life, Barbara Pachter and Susan Magee, Amazon

Perfect Phrases for Dealing With Difficult Situations at Work: Hundreds of Ready –to-Use Phrases for Coming Out on Top Even in the Toughest Office Conditions. Susan F. Benjamin, Amazon

Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and In Life, One Conversation at a Time, Susan Scott, Berkely Trade

High Conflict People in Legal Disputes, Bill Eddy, Amazon

Guinn, Ann M. -Minding Your Own Business, The Solo and Small Firm Lawyer’s Guide to a Profitable Practice, GPSolo books
Minding Your Own Business approaches the challenges with the philosophy that solo and small firm practitioners are first, business managers, and second, attorneys.

Learn to master the key elements of running a small firm:

• Management of financial elements to ensure payment from clients
• Implementation of various marketing strategies to bring in new clients
• Anticipation of clients' needs to ensure they are well served and satisfied

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