| Summary: | This book explores what some consider to be a three-part crisis in the legal profession. Despite the many perks of being a lawyer--among them intellectual challenge, social status, and high salaries--job dissatisfaction, poor mental health, and substance abuse are surprisingly common among lawyers. In addition, the public arguably has less respect for attorneys than for any other professional group. Finally, there seems to be a crisis of professionalism among lawyers, as borne out by frequent complaints of incivility, combative litigation, and ethically questionable conduct. In this book, the author provides a comprehensive review of the behavioral literature on lawyer personality and argues that the personality characteristics of those attracted to the law help explain the tripartite crisis. Furthermore, she shows that law school tends to intensify the personality characteristics making up the typical "lawyer profile." She asserts that, while some of the traditional lawyer personality traits serve both lawyers and their clients well, it is time to consider change both in some of the lawyer traits and in law practice, perhaps toward a new model of "comprehensive lawyering" that is more humanistic and satisfying. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).
|
|---|