The Lawyer's Myth : Reviving Ideals in the Legal Profession

Lawyers today are in a moral crisis. The popular perception of the lawyer, both within the legal community and beyond, is no longer the Abe Lincoln of American mythology, but is often a greedy, cynical manipulator of access and power. In __The Lawyer's Myth,__ Walter Bennett goes beyond the caricatures to explore the deeper causes of why lawyers are losing their profession and what it will take to bring it back. Bennett draws on his experience as a lawyer, judge, and law teacher, as well as upon oral histories of lawyers and judges, in his exploration of how and why the legal profession has lost its ennobling mythology. Effectively using examples from history, philosophy, psychology, mythology, and literature, Bennett shows that the loss of professionalism is more than merely the emergence of win-at-all-cost strategies and a scramble for personal wealth. It is something more profound—a loss of professional community and soul. Bennett identifies the old heroic myths of American lawyers and shows how they informed the values of professionalism through the middle of the last century. He shows why, in our more diverse society, those myths are inadequate guides for today's lawyers. And he also discusses the profession's agony over its trickster image and demonstrates how that archetype is not only a psychological reality, but a necessary component of a vibrant professional mythology for lawyers. At the heart of Bennett's eloquently written book is a call to reinvigorate the legal professional community. To do this, lawyers must revive their creative capacities and develop a meaningful, professional mythology—one based on a deeper understanding of professionalism and a broader, more compassionate ideal of justice. Lawyers today are in a moral crisis. The popular perception of the lawyer, both within the legal community and beyond, is no longer the Abe Lincoln of American mythology, but is often a greedy, cynical manipulator of access and power. In The Lawyer's Myth, Walter Bennett goes beyond the caricatures to explore the deeper causes of why lawyers are losing their profession and what it will take to bring it back.Bennett draws on his experience as a lawyer, judge, and law teacher, as well as upon oral histories of lawyers and judges, in his exploration of how and why the legal profession has lost its ennobling mythology. Effectively using examples from history, philosophy, psychology, mythology, and literature, Bennett shows that the loss of professionalism is more than merely the emergence of win-at-all-cost strategies and a scramble for personal wealth. It is something more profound -- a loss of professional community and soul. Bennett identifies the old heroic myths of American lawyers and shows how they informed the values of professionalism through the middle of the last century. He shows why, in our more diverse society, those myths are inadequate guides for today's lawyers. And he also discusses the profession's agony over its trickster image and demonstrates how that archetype is not only a psychological reality, but a necessary component of a vibrant professional mythology for lawyers.At the heart of Bennett's eloquently written book is a call to reinvigorate the legal professional community. To do this, lawyers must revive their creative capacities and develop a meaningful, professional mythology -- one based on a deeper understanding of professionalism and a broader, morecompassionate ideal of justice. CONTENTS......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction......Page 14 1. The Professional Wound......Page 22 2. The Dark Landscape of the Profession: The Legal Academy and the Loss of Ideals......Page 26 3. The Profession and the Loss of Professional Mythology......Page 41 4. The Mythological Function of the Lost Ideals......Page 64 5. The Negative Archetype in Professional Mythology......Page 73 6. Professional Mythology and the Loss of Community......Page 86 7. Why the Profession Should Be Saved......Page 99 8. A Preface to New Ideals: Coming to Terms with the Historical Masculinity of the Profession......Page 106 9. Realizing the Feminine in Lawyers’ Work: Conceiving a New Ideal of Power......Page 118 10. Beginning the Lawyer’s Inner Journey: New Models and Heros......Page 126 11. Something Greater than Oneself: Envisioning a New Ideal, Understanding Lawyers’ Faith......Page 137 12. Pursuing the Lawyers’ Faith: Reconvening the Campfire, Creating Storytelling Models for a Broader Ideal of Justice......Page 168 13. The Roles of Law Schools and the Bar in Conceiving a New Profession......Page 182 Reflections......Page 204 Appendix A: A Model Mentoring Program for Young Lawyers......Page 208 Appendix B: A Model Mentoring Program for Law Students......Page 216 Attachment A: Duties of Statewide Mentoring Coordinator......Page 224 Notes......Page 226 Index......Page 248 To begin our process of self-discovery, let us peer into the dim and timeless pasts of our ancestors as they grope for the answers to the eternal questions: Where do we come from?