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opinions
Training to become a member of a maimed profession
KRUM DOCHEV
Contributor
IT’S NOT JUST THE nature of practising law – the habits and beliefs which
make lawyers miserable are instilled
right here in law school.
3L should be a time of celebration. Most of us have completed at
least 7 years of post-secondary education, sometimes a lot more. We’ve been
assessed and prodded more thoroughly
than even the finest steak. We’ve beaten
the odds again, and again, and again,
and are now on the verge of graduating
with that unmistakable mark of respectability and success – the JD.
Yet, speaking to my 3L peers, the
mood is not one of triumph, but of
exhaustion, cynicism, and even resentment. Those of us who are taking stock
of the la st two years realize that, despite
our own triumphs, law school exacted a
very heavy toll on us, and this hasn’t all
been for the better. It hasn’t been like
a tough workout, where the pain is justif ied by the gain. Some parts of the
experience are more like an injury.
In many ways, us law students are
like the boiling frog, which doesn’t realize the water it’s in is getting hotter.
We spend most of our time in this
environment, and assume it’s normal,
even the parts of it that are pathological. We’re surrounded by people who
work into the late hours of the night,
regularly consume energy drinks, and
can barely remember the last time they
made a meal, and we assume this is
the nature of things. Workaholism is
praised as a sign of dedication, rather
than being seen for the psychologically
corrosive addiction that it is. Slowly
but imperceptibly, we become accustomed to an environment where, in a
casual conversation, people will swap
tips about the different sleeping pills
they’re taking, where gossip about Who
is Working Where is relentless, where
individuals who would be considered
successful by any normal criteria feel
they’re inadequate. Slowly but imperceptibly, natural human empathy turns
into judgment, a healthy sense of competitiveness turns into envy, and outrage at injustice turns into resignation.
I don’t intend to blame anyone in parMonday, November 18, 2013
ticular for this; if anything, I’ve been a
part of this process as much as anyone.
But let’s recognize that it’s fostered a
culture that’s corrosive to happiness,
health, and basic decency. I don’t need
to rehearse the plentiful statistics on
this issue, but law students and lawyers
are a markedly miserable bunch judging
by a few key metrics of well-being. Suff ice it to say that you know you have
a problem when you’re competing for
indicators of psychological distress with
army veterans and cops (i.e. people who
faced the risk of being shot at while
doing their jobs).
Although at Osgoode Hall, there’s
f inally a discussion about mental health
and well-being, not enough is being
done to train lawyers who can f ind joy
in what they do.
A key source of so much law school
misery is the prohibitive tuition, which
is sustained by the illusion that law
school is a ticket to opulence, when in
fact only a small fraction of the profession is rich. This can price people from
any but the top income brackets out of
law school, and it necessitates increas-
ingly crippling debt that limits options
and becomes a constant source of anxiety.
Closely related to the high tuition
is the perception that Bay Street is the
be-all-and-end-all of law school success. In my brief encounter with the
legal profession, I’ve had the privilege
of meeting lawyers who can dispassionately hammer away at a complex
legal issue on a bare desk amidst the
din of a sweltering trial off ice during a
Toronto heat wave, where the air-conditioning isn’t working and the Humidex is through the roof; lawyers who
have worked in Canada’s North in order
to maintain the integrity of the justice
system in an isolated environment; lawyers who work in a f ield where a typical day may involve trying to convince
a tenant with severe mental illness that
keeping a pet raccoon is illegal, and
just not a very good idea to begin with
(rabies, anyone?). None of these lawyers
f it the mould of the glamorous corporate lawyer, but they nevertheless represent the very best of our profession. We
» continued on page 8
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