Publication Date

2005

Journal

Deakin Law Review

Abstract

[According to the authors of this article, the growing unhappiness of lawyers, particularly young lawyers, stems from three causes: (1) Lawyers are selected for their pessimism (or "prudence") and this generalizes to the rest of their lives; (2) Young associates hold jobs that are characterized by high pressure and low decision latitude, exactly the conditions that promote poor health and poor morale; and (3) American law is to some extent a zero-sum game, and negative emotions flow from zero-sum games....

This article has been shared with practitioners as well as academics. It grows out of faculty seminars held at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in the fall of 1999, which included managing partners of several major New York Law firms, and in spring 2001, as well as a meeting of the New York Chapter of the American Bar Foundation in the spring of 2000. The theory ofpositive psychology framed the discussion.]

Volume

10

Issue

1

First Page

49

Last Page

66

Publisher

Deakin University School of Law

Disciplines

Education Law | Law | Law and Society | Legal Education | Legal Profession

Comments

Special Feature: Law and the Pursuit of Happiness: The Next Movement

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