Deborah L. Arron (1950–2002)

This book made me both very angry and really depressed. There's a fair bit of "I have all this money and I'm so unfulfilled!" kind of whining going on in here; I have in particular very little patience for those lawyers Arron profiles who profess to be surprised to discover that the legal profession is nothing more than intellectual prostitution.

The book is also, at this point, twenty years old, and though it was updated in 2004 with some additional notes from Arron and appendices by others, it's a fairly dated look at the legal profession, and so its enlightenment value, for anyone whose legal experience has been in any way nontraditional, is minimal.

The weakness of the book is that most of the "evidence" for Arron's assertions is anecdotal, anonymous, and unsubstantiated. It's irritating, and it lends a navel-gazing, whining tone to the whole thing. I'd have preferred solider evidence to convince me that my discontent with the profession isn't merely a problem with me. It's an interesting read, but ultimately not a helpful one, if you're currently considering practicing or not practicing law.… (meer)