Letters to a Young Lawyer (Art of Mentoring) Reviews
Letters to a Young Lawyer (Art of Mentoring)
As defender of both the righteous and the questionable, Alan Dershowitz has become perhaps the most famous and outspoken attorney in the land. Whether or not they agree with his legal tactics, most people would agree that he possesses a powerful and profound sense of justice. In this meditation on his profession, Dershowitz writes about life, law, and the opportunities that young lawyers have to do good and do well at the same time.We live in an age of growing dissatisfaction with law as a caree
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Find Your Strong Moral Core!,
Caution: This book contains some strong language that will offend some. I found it no worse than what is said on television talk shows every day, if you can read lips.
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I highly recommend this book to all those who are thinking of going to law school, are attending law school, or are planning their legal careers. Professor Dershowitz (whose student I have been) tells it like it is about the many flaws in the legal system, the ways that law and personal morality come into conflict, and the flagrant abuses of power that occur.
His purpose is to prepare you for what is coming, so that you can make a good decision about where practicing or teaching law fits the balance of professional challenge and personal integrity that makes sense to and for you.
He also warns against those who give advice, noting that most describe how you can become like them . . . or repeat all of their mistakes because they have never learned from those experiences.
Law is “ethically ambiguous terrain.” Then, section by section, he describes those moral ambiguities, especially as they occur in the criminal justice system. Although not everyone will agree with his advice, you will certainly see the terrain clearly. Perhaps the most interesting argument is that “the truly moral person . . . does the right thing without . . . reward or . . . punishment.” In making this case, he moves to a notion of morality that is beyond religious ethics.
I could see myself again traveling down the road of disillusionment that Professor Dershowitz describes. First, we find a legal hero. What we don’t realize is that this hero also has human flaws of which we will not approve. When we find out about those flaws, our sense of the idealism of the law is diminished. Then, we experience the rude shock of realizing that the process of law is about disposing of disputes, rather than creating “blind justice.” Your job as a lawyer is to go to the ethical limits on behalf of your client, even if you hate the client and her or his cause. Can such a “hired gun” emerge with honor? Professor Dershowitz argues “yes” but indicates that one’s personal conscious will often be left bruised in the process. If you don’t want to deal with that, many areas of the law aren’t for you. He tells you which ones to avoid. He also tells you to find out what’s coming, rather than to whine about it when it arrives. I agree wholeheartedly with that advice.
I wish I had had this book to read as a young law student. I certainly intend to give it as a gift to young people who are thinking about or are beginning their legal studies or careers. Pay particular attention to the advice to balance what you are good at doing with what feels good to you.
What should a profession provide in the way of satisfactions, opportunities, rewards, and challenges?
Seek to be the professional whom you would like to hire for yourself!
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|Intelligent, candid and surprising – a book for our times,
For some reason this book caught my eye — perhaps because I find Alan disarmingly candid on TV. I like people who are intelligent that can get straight to the heart of an issue — Alan is one of those all too rare people. This book is a surprisingly caustic look at the American lawyers and their weaknesses and criminal and unethical behavior — bravo! The book also provides some insight in to the weaknesses of the American legal system. This book was written before the Enron and Worldcom crisis we now find American in. I read yesterday that seven ImClone executives and a lawyer were off-loading ImClone stock a few weeks before the final government turn-down of their new ill-researched supposed-wonder drug — this book will help you understand how the lawyer managed to be part of this shameful affair. Yes this book would be a wonderful present for a young law student — I would go as far as to say a “must read”.
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|Not for everyone,
Although some parts of this book contain useful advice, I am somewhat disappointed in it. First, Dershowitz too often uses this book as a sound board to express his political views about topics such as.. defense lawyers, judges, politics, etc. He comes off sounding arrogant and wastes the time of a reader who, like me, was looking for practical advice and lessons based upon his vast experience as an attorney, rather than his defense of his personal views of politics, law, and life in general. Second, this book is largely geared towards criminal law. I understand that this is what Dershowitz has spent his career practicing, but far too many chapters only apply to those who are interested in pursuing careers in criminal law. The book would be more aptly titled “Letters To A Young Criminal Lawyer.” That is why I believe this book is not appropriate for everyone. There must be books written by well-known attorneys that dispense far better advice than this one.
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