The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the Law [Hardcover]

Nancy Levit (Author), Douglas O. Linder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 22, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0195392329 | ISBN-13: 978-0195392326 | Edition: First Edition

You get good grades in college, pay a small fortune to put yourself through law school, study hard to pass the bar exam, and finally land a high-paying job in a prestigious firm. You're happy, right? Not really. Oh, it beats laying asphalt, but after all your hard work, you expected more from your job. What gives?

The Happy Lawyer examines the causes of dissatisfaction among lawyers, and then charts possible paths to happier and more fulfilling careers in law. Eschewing a one-size-fits-all approach, it shows how maximizing our chances for achieving happiness depends on understanding our own personality types, values, strengths, and interests.

Covering everything from brain chemistry and the science of happiness to the workings of the modern law firm, Nancy Levit and Doug Linder provide invaluable insights for both aspiring and working lawyers. For law students, they offer surprising suggestions for selecting a law school that maximizes your long-term happiness prospects. For those about to embark on a legal career, they tell you what happiness research says about which potential jobs hold the most promise. For working lawyers, they offer a handy toolbox--a set of easily understandable steps--that can boost career happiness. Finally, for firm managers, they offer a range of approaches for remaking a firm into a more satisfying workplace.

Read this book and you will know whether you are more likely to be a happy lawyer at age 30 or age 60, why you can tell a lot about a firm from looking at its walls and windows, whether a 10 percent raise or a new office with a view does more for your happiness, and whether the happiness prospects are better in large or small firms.

No book can guarantee a happier career, but for lawyers of all ages and stripes, The Happy Lawyer may give you your best shot.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It's a book that anyone who is--or was--or wants to be--a lawyer (or anyone who knows a lawyer) should read...I'm recommending it to all of my students, and to my friends practicing law, and even to my husband, who prides himself on NOT being a lawyer. --ConcurringOpinions.com

"Well researched, positive, and clearly written, this is an important book for the bar. Essential for lawyers and law students." --Library Journal

"The citing of a poll of American attorneys, in which seven out of ten said that they would choose other careers if they were starting out, might suggest that the law is best avoided. But for those in the profession, solutions are to be found-and they're in The Happy Lawyer. Best to buy it for anyone you think may need it."--The Times

"Solid researchers, the authors provide countless statistics about the state of [lawyers'] happiness and prospects for finding it in the future...With a generation of younger lawyers changing jobs at high rates and the high cost of the turnover, law firms would do well to consider the clearly identifiable factors set forth in this book...How important is it to be happy? If you are curious about the answer or about how to increase the happiness in your life or that of your firm, The Happy Lawyer is a worthwhile read."--The Nebraska Lawyer

"Although law is one of the nation's best paid and most influential occupations, only about half of lawyers report being satisfied with their work. In this insightful and engaging book, Nancy Levit and Douglas Linder explain why. They comprehensively review the growing research on happiness to provide crucial insights about how lawyers can improve the quality of their professional lives. This book should be a required text for every law student, every law firm leader, and every practitioner who wants to find greater fulfillment in a legal career."---Deborah Rhode, Director, Stanford Center on the Legal Profession and author of The Beauty Bias

"In this important, insightful book, Nancy Levit and Douglas Linder have successfully unpacked the mystery of why so many lawyers seem to be living lives of silent desperation. In doing so, they offer many and varied paths to lawyer happiness. The Happy Lawyer's thoughtful analysis and practical prescriptions are a must-read for every lawyer, as well as for anyone considering attending law school."--Greg Castanias, Partner, Jones Day

"This superb work in an invaluable guide for a profession that, sadly, suffers from chronic unhappiness and lack of fulfillment. Like Harold Kushner's Living a Life that Matters and the Dalai Lama's The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, this work offers clear, practical advice that can truly transform a person's life and career."--Robert Klonoff, Dean and Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School

"This new book will become essential reading for law professors advising their students on career paths in this new economy." --Paul M. Secunda, Associate Professor of Law,
Marquette Univ. Law School

About the Author

Nancy Levit, the Curators' and Edward D. Ellison Professor of Law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, is the author of The Gender Line: Men, Women, and the Law.

Douglas O. Linder is the Elmer N. Powell Peer Professor of Law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; First Edition edition (July 22, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195392329
• ISBN-13: 978-0195392326
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1 x 8.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > Law > Legal Education > Legal Profession

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Anyone Considering Law School, In Law School, or Already Practicing Law June 21, 2010

By Tort Prof

Format:Hardcover

As a lawyer and long-time law professor, I've known far too many lawyers and law students suffering from unhappiness and even depression about their career choice. Law professors Nancy Levit and Douglas Linder have come to the rescue with an excellent, eye-opening book about lawyer happiness, jammed with creative ideas, backed by rock-solid research, for helping lawyers map a path toward greater happiness. It turns out that a lot of research has been done about happiness. Levit and Linder assemble it expertly in a highly readable, thought-provoking package. Many of the research findings are surprising. Did you know that graduates of fourth-tier law schools report the highest degree of happiness? That contrary to people's beliefs, income has only a small correlation to happiness? That the older lawyers get, the happier they become with their jobs and careers? Everyone considering law school should read this book before making their final decision. Everyone already in law school should read this book in plotting their career course. Everyone who is already a lawyer should read it to take stock of their careers with a view toward improving their lives. This is an important book.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars better for law students than practicing lawyers August 16, 2010

By Carol C. VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

As a practicing lawyer, I found this book interesting but a little disconnected. I could never quite tell who the target audience was. The beginning of the book is full of statistical information and information about brain chemistry -- the effects of dopamine, seratonin and oxytocin on happiness,nothing specific to the legal field. Then, the book shifts focus and is directed at law students or prospective law students -- how to choose a law school, the importance of peer groups and faculty, how grads from fourth tier schools are often happier than grads from top schools. Then, parts of the book seem to be directed at practicing lawyers and law firm management.

Although the authors criticize law schools' bias toward large firm placement, the authors, too, seem to focus disproportionately on life in the larger law firms, while encouraging lawyers to follow their passions and choose wisely.

Overall, this is a quick, interesting read, full of data and statistics. I think it would be more useful for a law student or prospective law student than a practicing lawyer.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy Lawyer August 8, 2010

By Trial Judge

Format:Hardcover

I was a happy lawyer. However, I stumbled onto many of the tips and advice found in this well-researched and revealing book. How nice it would have been to have it available as I was preparing for a career or in the early days as a young lawyer. Unfortunately, many new lawyers are not as lucky as I. This book will eliminate the stumbling for those in law school and many more in the spring of their careers.

A great read and essential for those thinkng about a career in law or those who find themselves disenchanted in their present circumstance.