The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the LawYou get good grades in college, pay a small fortune to put yourself through law school, study hard to pass the bar exam, and finally land a high-paying job in a prestigious firm. You're happy, right? Not really. Oh, it beats laying asphalt, but after all your hard work, you expected more from your job. What gives? The Happy Lawyer examines the causes of dissatisfaction among lawyers, and then charts possible paths to happier and more fulfilling careers in law. Eschewing a one-size-fits-all approach, it shows how maximizing our chances for achieving happiness depends on understanding our own personality types, values, strengths, and interests. Covering everything from brain chemistry and the science of happiness to the workings of the modern law firm, Nancy Levit and Doug Linder provide invaluable insights for both aspiring and working lawyers. For law students, they offer surprising suggestions for selecting a law school that maximizes your long-term happiness prospects. For those about to embark on a legal career, they tell you what happiness research says about which potential jobs hold the most promise. For working lawyers, they offer a handy toolbox--a set of easily understandable steps--that can boost career happiness. Finally, for firm managers, they offer a range of approaches for remaking a firm into a more satisfying workplace. Read this book and you will know whether you are more likely to be a happy lawyer at age 30 or age 60, why you can tell a lot about a firm from looking at its walls and windows, whether a 10 percent raise or a new office with a view does more for your happiness, and whether the happiness prospects are better in large or small firms. No book can guarantee a happier career, but for lawyers of all ages and stripes, The Happy Lawyer may give you your best shot. |
Contents
1 | |
A Primer | 18 |
CHAPTER 3 What Makes Lawyers Happy and Unhappy | 49 |
CHAPTER 4 The Happiness Toolbox | 78 |
The Law School Years | 112 |
CHAPTER 6 What Law Firms Can Do to Make Lawyers Happier | 160 |
Other editions - View all
The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the Law Nancy Levit,Douglas O. Linder No preview available - 2010 |
The Happy Lawyer:Making a Good Life in the Law: Making a Good Life in the Law Nancy Levit,Douglas O. Linder No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
American Bar Association asked attorneys become better billable hours bono brain career satisfaction chapter choices clients colleagues compensation course Daniel Gilbert dopamine Eduardo Punset emotional employees Evolutionary Psychology expectations feedback feel firm’s flow experiences friends goals going graduates happier happiness levels happy lawyers hedonic treadmill income increase interest job satisfaction large firm last visited law firms law school law students lawyer happiness legal career less levels of happiness litigation lives Lyubomirsky Martin E.P. Seligman Martin Seligman mentoring National ness offer oxytocin partners percent of lawyers piness pleasure positive practice law practice of law pro bono professional professors Punset rates relationships response satisfying career Seligman sense set points social supra note survey tend there’s things tion trust U.S. Supreme Court unhappy values What’s women work-life balance workers workplace yers