Thank you for posting this article, Joseph. I agree with you that these are problems that we are aware of but have difficulty internalizing (or unwillingness to internalize).

One passage that stood out to me was: "Law students and young lawyers have to stop seeing workaholism as "a badge of honor." 285 They have to stop talking with admiration about lawyers who bill 2500 hours per year. Attorneys whose lives are consumed with work--who devote endless hours to making themselves and their clients wealthy, at the expense of just about everything else in their lives--are not heroes. And that is true whether the lawyers are workaholic because they truly enjoy their work or because they crave wealth or because they are terribly insecure. At best, these attorneys are people with questionable priorities. At worst, they are immoral. There are certainly better lawyers after which to pattern your professional life."

This reminded me of the following excerpt from a Vault Guide interview with a law firm partner:

"What advice would you give future lawyers worried about balancing work and outside commitments?

Forget about this notion of balance. Throw yourself into your professional career with all of your heart, mind, and soul. I have people who tell me, “I don’t want to live like you live. I want a life!” And I think to myself, what is a life? I’ve got the most interesting life anybody could have. Sometimes I even ask them what they want to do, and they say, “I want to go take a walk in the woods.” And I tell them, “Who the hell wants to go walk in the woods?” I can’t imagine I would ever knowingly choose to go walk in the woods when I’ve got so many interesting things to do in the office.

That doesn't mean I didn’t realize early on that it was important to attend my children’s swimming meets and school plays and their birthday parties. But hopefully the lesson I taught my kids was not that I loved to go camping with them on the week- ends, but that I was totally engaged with what I did with my life. I never went camping with my father; I don’t even remember ever going to a baseball game with my father. But my father was totally, completely engaged in his professional life, and that image was very much ingrained." Vault Guide Q&A with Law Firm Leaders.

My initial reaction when I first read this interview was, "Is this a joke?" But I did catch myself for a moment considering this absolute dedication to work as an admirable approach to life. When I read it again, I felt really bad for the guy. Maybe he actually believes what he's saying and maybe he is happy, but I hope that I never have to resort to such desperate justification for my life choices.

I agree with Lizzie's comment that "rather than helping ease our insecurities as aspiring lawyers...law school heightens them to a level that makes us doubt our talents." I think that the proliferation of incomprehensible transcendental nonsense that we're expected to read and (pretend to) understand every day, combined with the constant lack of constructive feedback and lack of collaboration (as Skylar highlighted), leaves many of us feeling lost and defeated on a regular basis.

-- MichelleLuo - 11 Feb 2012