What are the causes of the lawyer distress problem? What role does legal education play in producing unhappy law students and lawyers? What can we do to make things better? Students enter law school with goals of helping others, improving peoples’ lives, and making the world a better place. By the time they graduate, however, other considerations have supplanted students’ pro-social inclinations. Their aspirations succumb to more extrinsic values, such as prestige and money, and they struggle with heavy debt loads and legal education’s dehumanizing effects on their psyches. Despite the prestige associated with being an attorney, the profession is not ranked in the top ten for job satisfaction or happiness. In fact, one recent study revealed that a majority of practitioners would not recommend law to a young person. This powerful session will weave presentations by leading researchers in this burgeoning field and demonstrations of ways doctrinal, clinical, legal writing, and academic support professors and student services professionals are addressing or trying to address these concerns.
Business Meeting of Section on Balance in Legal Education at Program Conclusion.