The Destruction of Young Lawyers: Beyond One L.

• Position: Book Review

The Destruction of Young Lawyers: Beyond One L By Douglas Litowitz

Litowitz has jarringly captured the abysmal world of young attorneys in this study of first-hand accounts, and hard data on the satisfaction of practicing and rising attorneys. The Destruction of Young Lawyers details the struggles encountered by those entering the legal profession through a systematic deconstruction of the process of indoctrinating young minds to the modern way of the law.

Litowitz opens his book with an alarming account of the pervasive depression among blossoming attorneys. Citing study after study, Litowitz backs up the bad news that "the legal profession makes young people unhappy, anxious, depressed, and desperate." He attributes this dismal conclusion first to the law schools which torture their students by pitting one against another. Because of this, the relationship between professors and students, and the tedium of the case method of teaching, Litowitz boldly claims that "nobody comes out of law school feeling better about themselves, although many come out much worse--caustic, paranoid, and overly competitive."

Moreover, Litowitz points out, after enduring three agonizing years of law school, students are released into a hostile job market where they will be lucky to find any legal job and therefore rarely attempt to find one that actually suits their interests (presuming they are still able to identify interests beyond socioeconomic ones). This leads students to seek the highest paying jobs rather than the most rewarding which only compounds their burgeoning depression.

Next Litowitz takes on the bar exam, arguing that it "is a charade that should be abolished or radically reformed." Instead of preventing incompetent law school graduates from becoming incompetent lawyers, it merely weeds out those potentially good lawyers who are less savvy at test-taking. This, however...