New York Lawyer
March 14, 2002

Q:
What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a lawyer?

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A:
I asked a wide variety of people to comment on your question. The initial reaction, uniformly, was laughter -- ranging in nature from delighted to derisive. One said acidly, �You�re held in such high public esteem.�

We can all recite the usual advantages: the flexibility of a legal career, the possibility of making good money, intellectual challenges, smart colleagues and the satisfaction of a good result. The cons are also familiar: long and unpredictable hours, social ignominy, high stress, enduring tasteless lawyers� jokes as well as putting up with aggravating clients and colleagues.

Digging beneath the surface, however, some of the costs and benefits are less predictable. On the plus side, for example, one DC practitioner told me, �The public respect is great, countless lawyer jokes notwithstanding.� Even though lawyers as a group have a negative public image, individual lawyers command respect as educated professionals with a broad body of knowledge and proven achievement, in whatever career they pursue.

Additionally, you can have long-term relationships with clients who turn into friends. �Lawyers often joke cynically that the only thing wrong with being a lawyer is having clients,� comments Eric L. Bernthal, managing partner in the DC office of Latham & Watkins. �I�ve actually found that not to be true -- by and large the relationships that I�ve had with clients over the years have been very gratifying. When you�ve gone to hell and back with somebody, the relationship tends to be deep and sincere, and that can be very gratifying.�

In some areas of the law you can make a difference, fulfilling the idealistic urges that drive many to the law. �Folks who get buildings built or who deal with environmental issues or who argue great constitutional cases -- they leave the world in a better condition than it was before,� said another practitioner. This kind of outcome can provide tremendous professional satisfaction, a feeling of truly accomplishing something and being an agent of change. Even producing under pressure can be rewarding, comments Bruce Kayle, a partner and member of the executive committee at New York�s Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy: �The client called me at 6 at night and needed something by 9 in the morning, and the client got what he or she needed, got it on time, and got a good work product.�

Some find a freedom in the way the management of law firms is structured. �The partnership system is better than corporate employment,� insists a New York intellectual property lawyer, �because once you make it to a certain level, you can�t just be thrown out. There�s more security, a chance to be more entrepreneurial, whereas in a corporation it�s more hierarchical. You are still your own boss, you can function autonomously. That�s the best thing.�

Many lawyers even admit to having a good time. �Some of it is fun,� the same New York lawyer declares. �I�ve had a bunch of fun cases. I enjoy arguing cases and trying cases. There�s an element of theater involved.�

On the flip side, there are lots of specific gripes. Greed, for one. �The greed of lawyers is the worst part,� fumed one practitioner. �All they care about is the bottom line. The clients get short shrift as a result. Every year we divide up among the partners who gets what, and I�m not yet senior enough to get what I want. Certain people are able to take more than they�re entitled to.�

And there�s a seemingly limitless supply of obnoxious lawyers to deal with. �Some of the other people are jerks, a lot of them are,� says a practitioner. He hates what he calls �the nastiness side to it. There�s no reason for people to be quite as obnoxious as they are. There�s also just too many egos, judges as well as other lawyers, who do things because it gratifies whatever needs they have.� Many older lawyers remember earlier times when practice was a lot more civil. Nostalgia can misleading, but one often wonders what personal benefit arrogant lawyers find in abusing others on a regular basis.

Another frustration is that the very way lawyers think and act can be frustratingly inside-the-box. �Law attracts non-creative as well as creative types,� a DC litigator points out, �and the non-creative ones can make work difficult, expensive and tedious. The legal mindset becomes all encompassing, with the result that all relationships and issues get boiled down to rights and remedies, analysis and options. Lawyers can view interactions in terms of results and vindication of positions. They seem to be less in touch with the spiritual, mystical and non-rational.�

And Bernthal of Latham & Watkins says that sometimes lawyers are on the sidelines too much: �I think that there is, over the course of one�s career as a lawyer, sometimes a disappointment that most everything we do is vicarious. Most everything we do is for someone else. While that can be gratifying, I think older lawyers looking back sometimes wonder if it wouldn�t have been exciting and challenging to take on maters for themselves, like running your own business.�

The image thing remains a problem. �Lawyers do have a bad public image,� concedes former New Jersey Governor Brendan T. Byrne, a partner with Roseland�s Carella, Byrne, Bain, Gilfillan, Cecchi, Stewart & Olstein. �I read where this guy was given three wishes by the devil. His third wish was to make all lawyers honest, and the devil says, `I can�t do that or I�d be out of business.��

We can all survive and even enjoy the lawyer jokes. The point that�s hard to escape, however, is the pervasive unhappiness in the profession, documented in many surveys and caused largely by long and unpredictable hours. Reviewing a 2001 American Lawyer magazine survey of associates, it was striking how many said that they would happily trade major dollars to work fewer hours.

Sincerely,
Holly English
Principal Consultant, Values at Work