Levit Nancy - The happy lawyer: making a good life in the law

The Happy Lawyer

NANCY LEVIT & DOUGLAS O. LINDER

Making a Good Life in the Law

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Levit, Nancy.
The happy lawyer : making a good life in the law / Nancy Levit and Douglas O. Linder.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-539232-6
1. Practice of lawUnited StatesPsychological aspects.
2. LawyersJob satisfactionUnited States. I. Linder, Douglas O., 1951
II. Title.
KF300.L485 2010
340.02373dc22 2009047527

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

For Tim, Dylan, and Aaron
NEL

For Cheryl, Kari, and Ann
DOL

The logic of the rebel is to want to serve justice so as not to add to the injustice of the human condition, to insist on plain language so as not to increase the universal falsehood, and to wager, in spite of human misery, for happiness.

Albert Camus

WE LIVE IN A NATION FOUNDED BY LAWYERS. THIRTY-four of the fifty-five men who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft our Constitution were lawyers, including the documents principal architect, James Madison. Lawyer Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence (with the help of John Adams, another lawyer).

Among the inalienable rights Jefferson listed in his famous document of 1776, along with the rights to life and to liberty, was the right to the pursuit of Happiness. Happiness is not a word you expect to find in a formal document drafted and debated by sober eighteenth-century politicians. But there it is on parchment, one of the three most important rights of a free people.

Of course, Jefferson couldnt promise we would find happiness, only that we had a right to pursue it. And pursue it we have, and still dowith ever more intensitytoday. A quick Google search or perusal of the self-help section at your local bookstore will reveal the depth of our current interest in happiness. A whole movement in modern psychology called positive psychology has sprung up to help improve our odds of finding a greater measure of happiness.

For all our efforts, Americans are no happier today than we were a half century agoand, by most measures, were less happy. Were richer than ever before, have more leisure time, and are awash in happiness literature, but we still cannot seem to get more satisfaction.

For lawyers, the picture is even bleaker. Many lawyers, as many as 70 percent in one poll, say they would not choose a legal career if they had to do it all over again. Students at Stanford Law School, dissatisfied with the nature of large firm practice, have launched a movement to change the way law is practiced.

It is an exaggeration, however, to describe law as a profession in crisis. We do not see headlines announcing: Lawyers leaving profession in droves. The number of law school applicants remains consistent, and the number of law schools is increasing. Despite the odd story of a lawyer leaving practice to start a vineyard or become a hot air balloonist, most in the practice say they intend to stick it out. Moreover, many say they are at least reasonably happy, even while admitting theyd like to be more so.

The story of the emotional state of American lawyers today is complicated and nuanced. Lawyers are smart people; they expect complications and appreciate nuance. If lawyers are not as happy as theyd like to be, there are many possible explanations for that. People generally dont become lawyers because they wake up one day and say, By God, I love the law! They might become lawyers because as college seniors they simply wanted to keep their options open and law school seemed a better place to do that than, say, dental school. Moreover, it might well be that the sort of person best suited to the practice of law is more likely to have a personality type somewhat prone to unhappiness. In law, unlike in many other fields, it often helps to be an anxious, pessimistic person who worries about all the things that can go wrong if, for example, a contract isnt written just so. If lawyers are slightly unhappier than the typical American, it may be because unhappy people are more likely to become lawyers rather than that the practice of law has made them unhappy.

Sorting out this complex story is one of the goals of this book. But we dont stop there. While recognizing the limits of self-help, we offer a happiness toolbox that we believe can lead to happiness boosts for lawyers who follow our suggestions. There are multiple paths to happiness, and a tool that works well for you might not for the lawyer in the next-door office. We also will offer tips for law firms and law schools that wish to improve levels of satisfaction among their ranks. Along the way, well share stories of both unhappy lawyers and happy lawyers, learning what we can from the insights theyve garnered along their diverse professional trails.

Now seems like the right time for a book about finding satisfaction in a law career. The past couple of decades have produced a torrent of research on happiness from the fields of neuroscience and positive psychology. Some of the research results suggest happiness boosts that are largely to be found outside the office, through activities ranging from playing tennis to meditating to eating chocolate. But many other of these research findings have important implications for the way law is practiced, if happiness really matters to lawyersand it obviously does. Perhaps more critically, such research also contributes to the better design of happiness strategies: we know, for example, that liking and trusting your co-workers contributes more to your long run satisfaction than snagging the corner office or a six-figure bonus.

In addition to the explosion of research on happiness, the practice of law has changed in a way that makes career satisfaction much more relevant to law schools than used to be the case. Law schools that previously told entering students, Look to your left and look to your right; one of the three of you wont be here at the end of the year now realize they have a stake in convincing prospective students that they can best help them achieve that satisfying law career theyre looking forhappy alumni are more likely to be generous and supportive alumni. This generation of students, more than any previous generation, ranks life satisfaction highest among their goals. Schools that can credibly promise a better shot at career happiness are in a better position to recruit the best and brightest students.