Too Many Lawyers

The topic of "too many lawyers" is timely. The future make up and performance of the legal profession is in contest. What do we mean by "too many"? Is there a surplus of lawyers and what sort of lawyers are and will be needed? How best can we discern this? This book, is composed of scholarly articles presented at the Onati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Spain), by some of the best researchers in the field, aims to answer these questions. This collection, with an introduction by Prof. Richard L. Abel, addresses methodological, normative and policy questions regarding the number of lawyers in particular countries and worldwide, while connecting this phenomenon to political, social, economic, historical, cultural and comparative contexts. This makes this book a source of interest to lawyers, law students, academic and policy makers as well as the discerning public. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the Legal Profession.

A noble profession is facing its defining moment. From law schools to the prestigious firms that represent the pinnacle of a legal career, a crisis is unfolding. News headlines tell part of the story—the growing oversupply of new lawyers, widespread career dissatisfaction, and spectacular implosions of pre-eminent law firms. Yet eager hordes of bright young people continue to step over each other as they seek jobs with high rates of depression, life-consuming hours, and little assurance of financial stability. The Great Recession has only worsened these trends, but correction is possible and, now, imperative. In The Lawyer Bubble, Steven J. Harper reveals how a culture of short-term thinking has blinded some of the nation’s finest minds to the long-run implications of their actions. Law school deans have ceded independent judgment to flawed U.S. News & World Report rankings criteria in the quest to maximize immediate results. Senior partners in the nation’s large law firms have focused on current profits to enhance American Lawyer rankings and individual wealth at great cost to their institutions. Yet, wiser decisions—being honest about the legal job market, revisiting the financial incentives currently driving bad behavior, eliminating the billable hour model, and more—can take the profession to a better place. A devastating indictment of the greed, shortsightedness, and dishonesty that now permeate the legal profession, this insider account is essential reading for anyone who wants to know how things went so wrong and how the profession can right itself once again.

If you've ever been involved in a petty squabble and found yourself before the courts you might want to read this astonishing story. A dispute over $115, with a nudge from the legal system, took on a life of its own and over ten years involved every court in the country including the High Court of Australia.Tired of pedestrian legal advice and ballooning costs, reluctant hero, Alan Manly, a self-acknowledged manic obsessive compulsive former postman, former television repairman and would-be entrepreneur with a ninth grade education, sacked his lawyers and took on the system.In this thrilling account he finds himself accused, sued, defamed, assaulted - stumbling over shams, sexual predators and suicide, unemployed and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy - his life virtually a smoking ruin. In this David and Goliath rematch he exposes the legal system that so easily crushes the innocent. Sometimes hilarious, even ridiculous, but a true Australian story.

Written by Harvard-trained ex-law firm partner Liz Brown, Life After Law: Finding Work You Love with the J.D. You Have provides specific, realistic, and honest advice on alternative careers for lawyers. Unlike generic career guides, Life After Law shows lawyers how to reframe their legal experience to their competitive advantage, no matter how long they have been in or out of practice, to find work they truly love. Brown herself moved from a high-powered partnership into an alternative career and draws from this experience, as well as that of dozens of former practicing attorneys, in the book. She acknowledges that changing careers is hard much harder than it was for most lawyers to get their first legal job after law school but it can ultimately be more fulfilling for many than a life in law. Life After Law offers an alternative framework and valuable analytic tools for potential careers to help launch lawyers into new fields and make them attractive hires for non-legal employers.

By any measure, the law as a profession is in serious trouble. Americans' trust in lawyers is at a low, and many members of the profession wish they had chosen a different path. Law schools, with their endlessly rising tuitions, are churning out too many graduates for the jobs available. Yet despite the glut of lawyers, the United States ranks 67th (tied with Uganda) of 97 countries in access to justice and affordability of legal services. The upper echelons of the legal establishment remain heavily white and male. Most problematic of all, the professional organizations that could help remedy these concerns instead jealously protect their prerogatives, stifling necessary innovation and failing to hold practitioners accountable. Deborah Rhode's The Trouble with Lawyers is a comprehensive account of the challenges facing the American bar. She examines how the problems have affected (and originated within) law schools, firms, and governance institutions like bar associations; the impact on the justice system and access to lawyers for the poor; and the profession's underlying difficulties with diversity. She uncovers the structural problems, from the tyranny of law school rankings and billable hours to the lack of accountability and innovation built into legal governance-all of which do a disservice to lawyers, their clients, and the public. The Trouble with Lawyers is a clear call to fix a profession that has gone badly off the rails, and a source of innovative responses.

Can lawyers really be happy? Research the world over is showing us that lawyers are unhappy in very large numbers. Here in Australia, current research suggests that one in three lawyers will experience depression at some stage during their careers. For anyone practising in law or considering it in their future, this statistic is both overwhelming and so very sad. Happy Lawyer, Happy Life is the book for people on the law path who want to live the happiest life they can, at the same time enjoying all that brought them to their law career in the first place. Written by Australian lawyer Clarissa Rayward, Happy Lawyer, Happy Life will give you the tools you need to make the best of your career in the law and, perhaps more importantly, find happiness in your life. Clarissa's own experience of managing unhappiness in her career is combined with the knowledge and wisdom of many other happy lawyers to create this practical guide - a must-read for anyone considering or navigating a career in the law.

"Doug Linder and Nancy Levit combine evidence from the latest social science research with numerous engaging accounts of able attorneys at work to explain just what makes a good lawyer -- courage, empathy, integrity, realism, a strong sense of justice, clarity of purpose, and an ability to transcend emotionalism"--