Law V. Life: What Lawyers Are Afraid to Say About the Legal Profession [Hardcover]

Walt Bachman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bachman's book is not one of these sickeningly-sweet remembrances where all client problems are blamed on the lawyer's lack of noble purpose. Clients, too, are unmasked for their contribution to legal stress." -- Lawyers Weekly USA, August 14, 1995

"Clear-sighted, humanistic evaluation of the way lawyers have allowed the profession to evolve and what it is doing to their lives. Engrossingly written: it may not change anything, but it does ring bells." -- National Law Journal, August 7, 1995

"[A] wonderfully pungent commentary on the inner workings of our contemporary legal system. Through it all, Bachman is decidedly unafraid to say precisely what he is thinking. To wit: "Law is the only learned profession in which one is ethically obliged to hurt people"; "The more able and experienced a lawyer, the greater the chance that he or she will achieve a miscarriage of justice"; and "Aspiring lawyers raised in psychologically healthy families face more obstacles in law and their careers than those raised in dysfunctional families." Such observations, when isolated for the purpose of illustration, may sound cynical or severe, but Bachman's capacity for insight resides in the empathy he brings to attorneys who are forced to deal with moral and ethical dilemmas on a daily basis." -- DC Bar Report, June/July, 1995

Product Details

• Hardcover: 140 pages
• Publisher: Four Directions Pr; 1st edition (February 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962765988
• ISBN-13: 978-0962765988
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #806,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The whole truth in less than 200 pages, April 15, 1999

By 

Timothy Mulligan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Law V. Life: What Lawyers Are Afraid to Say About the Legal Profession (Hardcover)

This is a dead-on description of law practice today. I can't speak too highly of this book. It disillusions would-be lawyers and validates the second thoughts of practicing attorneys. All this in a well-written, mercifully concise format.

I practiced litigation in fairly large New Jersey firms for five years. I didn't read this book until I had been out for a year. I wish I could have read it during my transition out of law practice; it would have saved me a lot of self-doubt, anguish and guilt. Now I recommend it to law students, "pre-law" undergrads, and lawyers. I also assigned it to an upper-level undergrad class I taught recently on law and legal studies.

Buy this book. Read it. Then lend it to someone who needs it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Beginning, Elaboration on Author's Analysis Needed, May 15, 2001

By 

I am C, Not X - See all my reviews

This review is from: Law V. Life: What Lawyers Are Afraid to Say About the Legal Profession (Hardcover)

This book is EXCELLENT and the kind of book to buy and KEEP on one's shelf as a law student and lawyer. Fast moving, easily read in one afternoon but material to be digested slowly. The author's vivid, extraordinarily creative analogy of lawyering to a money experiment - only that one short chapter - is well worth the price of this book...and then some. That analogy was well-crafted, like a great trial lawyer would tell. What the author begins here on his sociological analysis is absolutely TOO DAMN GOOD to skim as he did. I was left wanting of more depth to his observation, more thought, more help.

To me, this book did not warrant five stars because I place a higher burden on this author with what he has started here. I feel it is the duty of an author of such intellect and keener, stronger analytical ability than others to take us not further, but deeper, into understanding what this book has the potential to do, what it introduces us to in its 140 pages.

NONETHELESS, this is the kind of book that needs to be written, one which needs to be read BY EVERYONE, NON LAWYERS ALIKE!!!! to better understand ourselves and our present society. Excellent beginning job for Walt Bachman.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be required reading for all aspiring lawyers, January 17, 2005

By 

AcornMan (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Law V. Life: What Lawyers Are Afraid to Say About the Legal Profession (Hardcover)

A seasoned attorney gave me this book when I was in my third year of law school. Eight years later I remain very grateful that I received this gift, because it is the most poignant, blunt, and accurate synopsis of the legal profession I have ever come across. The point of this book is not to deter people from being lawyers or scare the daylights out of them. Rather, it aims to prepare aspiring lawyers for what lies ahead of them in the real world of the law. If you're in law school or thinking about going to law school this book will open your eyes to the practice of law, but even if you're already a practicing attorney there is plenty in here that you'll recognize and appreciate.