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

254 Pages·2002·1 MB·English

by  Walter Bennett

Reviving Ideals in the Legal Profession
WALTER BENNETT
the university of chicago press / chicago & london
Walter BennettisalawyerandwriterlivinginChapelHill,N.C.He
isaformerdirectoroftheIntergenerationalLegalEthicsProgramat
theUniversityofNorthCarolinaLawSchoolandhasservedasatrial
courtjudgeandtriallawyerinCharlotte,N.C.Hehaspublishedinthe
areasoflegalethics,juvenilelaw,humanrights,andconstitutionallaw.
TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Chicago60637
TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Ltd.,London
©2001byTheUniversityofChicago
Allrightsreserved.Published2001
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN(cloth):0-226-04255-3
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Bennett,Walter,1943–
Thelawyer’smyth:revivingidealsinthelegalprofession/WalterBennett.
p. cm.
Includesindex.
ISBN0-226-04255-3(cloth:alk.paper)
1.Lawyers—UnitedStates. 2.Practiceoflaw—UnitedStates. I.Title.
KF297.B4 2001
340'.023'73—dc21 2001002127
(cid:1)(cid:1)Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimum
requirementsoftheAmericanNationalStandardfor
InformationSciences—PermanenceofPaperforPrinted
LibraryMaterials,ANSIZ39.48-1992.
Thisbookisdedicatedtoalllawyerswhocareabouttheirprofession.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 TheProfessionalWound 9
2 TheDarkLandscapeoftheProfession:TheLegalAcademy
andtheLossofIdeals 13
3 TheProfessionandtheLossofProfessionalMythology 28
4 TheMythologicalFunctionoftheLostIdeals 51
5 TheNegativeArchetypeinProfessionalMythology 60
6 ProfessionalMythologyandtheLossofCommunity 73
7 WhytheProfessionShouldBeSaved 86
8 APrefacetoNewIdeals:ComingtoTermswiththeHistorical
MasculinityoftheProfession 93
9 RealizingtheFeminineinLawyers’Work:
ConceivingaNewIdealofPower 105
10 BeginningtheLawyer’sInnerJourney:NewModelsandHeros 113
11 SomethingGreaterthanOneself:EnvisioningaNewNewIdeal,
UnderstandingLawyers’Faith 124
12 PursuingtheLawyers’Faith:ReconveningtheCampfire,
CreatingStorytellingModelsforaBroaderIdealofJustice 155
vii
viii Contents
13 TheRolesofLawSchoolsandthe
BarinConceivingaNewProfession 169
Reflections 191
AppendixA:AModelMentoringProgramforYoungLawyers 195
AppendixB:AModelMentoringProgramforLawStudents 203
AttachmentA:DutiesofStatewideMentoringCoordinator 211
Notes 213
Index 235
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is about the journey of the individual lawyer and the legal
profession toward a new vision of professionalism. I could not have
written it without the help of many teachers—strong, wise people who
cherishthefellowshipoftheprofessionaljourneyandwhohavelentme
and many others a helping hand along the way. The names of some of
those people—and their words—appear in the pages of this book. I will
mention here but a small sampling of the people who have contributed
directlytotheideasinthepagestofollow.
CreditshouldbeginwithJudithWegner,formerdeanoftheUNCLaw
School, who understood that the search for professionalism is really a
searchforone’swholenessasahumanbeing.Shewastheinspirationfor
muchofmyworkinlegaleducation,andsheprovidedthevision,insight,
and financial support—partially through a grant from the E. M. Keck
Foundation—for the UNC Law School Intergenerational Legal Ethics
Program. That program included both the Law School Oral History
ProjectandtheLawSchoolMentoringProgram,whichfigureprominently
in the ideas and solutions I attempt to develop. She also initiated two
powerfulvision-questretreatsforlawyersandlawstudents,conductedin
theNorthCarolinamountainsbypsychologistPatWebsterwiththeable
help of her husband, attorney Bill Thorp. Those retreats—for the first
time, to my knowledge—employed the Parcival myth as a metaphor for
thelawyer’slifejourney,anditwasPatWebster’sskillfuluseofthatmyth
which inspired my own use of it as a metaphor for the lawyer’s journey
inthiswork.
Ialsoowedeepgratitudetotheattorneysandlawstudentswhopartic-
ipatedinthoseretreatsandintheUNCLawSchoolOralHistoryProject
andtheMentoringProgram.Theyrenewedmyfaithintheprofession,in
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