About The Happy Lawyer
Foreword
Are Lawyers
Happy?
Happiness: A Primer
What Makes Lawyers Happy and
Unhappy?
A Happiness Toolbox for
Lawyers
Preparing for a Happy Career:
The Law School Years
Making a Happier Law Firm
Lawyers' Stories
Seeking Happier Ground
Buy
The Happy Lawyer
News & Notes
Reviews
Random
Facts
Links |
"The
part I took in the defense of Captain Preston and the soldiers,
procured me anxiety and obloquy enough. It was, however, one of
the most gallant, generous, manly, and disinterested actions of my
whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my
country."
(President John Adams, reflecting year later about his defense, as a
young lawyer, of British soldiers accused in connection with the Boston
Massacre) |
"I
saw the best minds of my
generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging
themselves through LSATS at dawn looking for job security, angelheaded
hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry
dynamo in the machinery of night and to partner-track slots at Skadden
Arps, whose poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking
in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the
tops of cities contemplating the idea of billing clients in 15-minute
increments for the rest of their lives."
(Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic) |
"Bliss--a
second-by-second joy and gratitude at
the gift of
being alive, conscious--lies on the other side of crushing, crushing
boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can
find
(Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like you've
never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride
these
out, and it's like stepping back from black and white into color.
Like
water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom."
(David Foster Wallace, The Pale King)
|
"It
is practically a
'given' that great success--top grades, high salary,
or a prestigious
job represent the fast track to happiness. This pervasive belief
is false."
(Lawrence Krieger, The Hidden
Sources of Law School Stress) |
"The
vast majority of lawyering is drudgery
work--it's sitting in a library, it's banging out a brief, it's talking
to clients for endless hours."
(Justice Sonya Sotomayor) |
"Enjoy little
things, for one day you may look
back and realize that they were the big things."
(Sonya Lyubomirsky, The How of
Happiness) |
"The law is a
jealous
mistress and requires a
long and constant courtship."
(Justice Joseph Story) |
"The real danger
is not that you will fail to
find a job, but that you will find the wrong one."
(Gary Munneke, Nonlegal Careers for
Lawyers) |
Happiness can be
thought of "as a skill, not fundamentally different
than learning to play the violin or learning to play golf."
(Neuroscientist Richard Davdison)
|
"Happiness
should be
approached sideways, like a
crab."
(John Stuart Mill) |
"It is harder to
maintain a sense of esteem now that your contract work
is being farmed out to low-cost lawyers in Bangalore, and your client
who is splitting up with her spouse can handle it herself with a $31.99
do-it-yourself divorce kit from Office Depot."
(David Lat, Above the Law
blog) |
"How we spend
our days is, of course, how we
spend our lives."
(Author Annie Dillard, The Writing
Life) |
THE
HAPPY
LAWYER |