The lost lawyer: failing ideals of the legal profession

Anthony T. Kronman

Harvard University Press, Mar 15, 1995 - Law - 422 pages

Anthony Kronman describes a spiritual crisis affecting the American legal profession, and attributes it to the collapse of what he calls the ideal of the lawyer-statesman: a set of values that prizes good judgment above technical competence and encourages a public-spirited devotion to the law.

For nearly two centuries, Kronman argues, the aspirations of American lawyers were shaped by their allegiance to a distinctive ideal of professional excellence. In the last generation, however, this ideal has failed, undermining the identity of lawyers as a group and making it unclear to those in the profession what it means for them personally to have chosen a life in the law.

A variety of factors have contributed to the declining prestige of prudence and public-spiritedness within the legal profession. Partly, Kronman asserts, it is the result of the triumph, in legal thought, of a counterideal that denigrates the importance of wisdom and character as professional virtues. Partly, it is due to an array of institutional forces, including the explosive growth of the country's leading law firms and the bureaucratization of our courts. The Lost Lawyer examines each of these developments and illuminates their common tendency to compromise the values from which the ideal of the lawyer-statesman draws strength. It is the most important critique of the American legal profession in some time, and an an enduring restatement of its ideals.

What people are saying

Review: The Lost Lawyer: Failing Ideals of the Legal Profession

User Review  - Greg Chin - Goodreads

Was very influential in my thinking about my profession, and a big reason why I came to practice in Silicon Valley, where lawyers can become consiglieres to their clients and develop practical wisdom.

Contents

• IDEALS: 4
• An Embarrassed Virtue: 11
• Practical Wisdom and Political Fraternity: 53
• The Good Lawyer: 109
• REALITIES: 163
• Law Schools: 165
• Law Firms: 271
• Courts: 315
• Honesty and Hope: 353
• Notes: 383

About the author

Anthony T. Kronman is Dean of the Law School, Yale University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The lost lawyer: failing ideals of the legal profession; The Lost Lawyer: Failing Ideals of the Legal Profession, Anthony T. Kronman
• Author: Anthony T. Kronman
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1995
• ISBN: 0674539273, 9780674539273
• Length: 422 pages
• Subjects: Law / Ethics & Professional Responsibility; Law / General; Law / Legal Profession; Political Science / General