The Happy Lawyer ─ Making a Good Life in the Law

"Although law is one of the nation's best paid and most influential occupations, only about half of lawyers report being satisfied with their work. In this insightful and engaging book, Nancy Levit and Douglas Linder explain why. They comprehensively review the growing research on happiness to provide crucial insights about how lawyers can improve the quality of their professional lives. This book should be a required text for every law student, every law firm leader, and every practitioner who wants to find greater fulfillment in a legal career."---Deborah Rhode, Director, Stanford Center on the Legal Profession, and author of The Beauty Bias

"In this important, insightful book, Nancy Levit and Douglas Linder have successfully unpacked the mystery of why so many lawyers seem to be living lives of silent desperation. In doing so, they offer many and varied paths to lawyer happiness. The Happy Lawyer's thoughtful analysis and practical prescriptions are a must-read for every lawyer, as well as for anyone considering attending law school." ---Greg Castanias, Partner, Jones Day

"This superb work is an invaluable guide for a profession that, sadly, suffers from chronic unhappiness and lack of fulfillment. Like Harold Kushner's Living a Life That Matters and the Dalai Lama's The Art of Happiness, this work offers clear, practical advice that can truly transform a person's life and career." ---Robert Klonoff, Dean and Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School

You 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 Douglas O. 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 explain 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.

Nancy Levit, the Curators' and Edward D. Ellison Professor of Law at the University of Missouri---Kansas City, is the author of The Gender Line: Men, Women, and the Law.

Douglas O. Linder is the Elmer N. Powell Peer Professor of Law at the University of Missouri---Kansas City.