3 - The Lawyering Culture

Summary

The intense socialization of law school is where students are introduced to the pressures that dehumanize the lawyering culture. The law school environment, featuring extreme competition, isolation, and alienation, undermines well-being and can transform students into dispirited zombies. Rather than inspiring positive emotions and the formation of new and robust relationships, the intense workload and stressful learning environment promote negative emotions and deterioration of relationships, when students are forced to compete with each other for the few high grades at the top of the grade curve. Engagement and meaning are thwarted by the mandatory grade curve and the frustration and learned helplessness it generates. The culture of legal practice is not an improvement, with overwork and chronic stress as its key features. Much like the grade curve that drives the competitive learning environment at law schools, the billable hour drives the tradition of overwork in legal practice. Stress intensifies, meaning and purpose are lost, social support deteriorates, and negative emotions take over. International Bar Association research indicates there is a global crisis in lawyer well-being.