Reviving Ideals in the Legal Profession WALTER BENNETT the university of chicago press / chicago & london Walter BennettisalawyerandwriterlivinginChapelHill,N.C.He isaformerdirectoroftheIntergenerationalLegalEthicsProgramat theUniversityofNorthCarolinaLawSchoolandhasservedasatrial courtjudgeandtriallawyerinCharlotte,N.C.Hehaspublishedinthe areasoflegalethics,juvenilelaw,humanrights,andconstitutionallaw. TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Chicago60637 TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Ltd.,London ©2001byTheUniversityofChicago Allrightsreserved.Published2001 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN(cloth):0-226-04255-3 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Bennett,Walter,1943– Thelawyer’smyth:revivingidealsinthelegalprofession/WalterBennett. p. cm. Includesindex. ISBN0-226-04255-3(cloth:alk.paper) 1.Lawyers—UnitedStates. 2.Practiceoflaw—UnitedStates. I.Title. KF297.B4 2001 340'.023'73—dc21 2001002127 (cid:1)(cid:1)Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimum requirementsoftheAmericanNationalStandardfor InformationSciences—PermanenceofPaperforPrinted LibraryMaterials,ANSIZ39.48-1992. Thisbookisdedicatedtoalllawyerswhocareabouttheirprofession. CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 TheProfessionalWound 9 2 TheDarkLandscapeoftheProfession:TheLegalAcademy andtheLossofIdeals 13 3 TheProfessionandtheLossofProfessionalMythology 28 4 TheMythologicalFunctionoftheLostIdeals 51 5 TheNegativeArchetypeinProfessionalMythology 60 6 ProfessionalMythologyandtheLossofCommunity 73 7 WhytheProfessionShouldBeSaved 86 8 APrefacetoNewIdeals:ComingtoTermswiththeHistorical MasculinityoftheProfession 93 9 RealizingtheFeminineinLawyers’Work: ConceivingaNewIdealofPower 105 10 BeginningtheLawyer’sInnerJourney:NewModelsandHeros 113 11 SomethingGreaterthanOneself:EnvisioningaNewNewIdeal, UnderstandingLawyers’Faith 124 12 PursuingtheLawyers’Faith:ReconveningtheCampfire, CreatingStorytellingModelsforaBroaderIdealofJustice 155 vii viii Contents 13 TheRolesofLawSchoolsandthe BarinConceivingaNewProfession 169 Reflections 191 AppendixA:AModelMentoringProgramforYoungLawyers 195 AppendixB:AModelMentoringProgramforLawStudents 203 AttachmentA:DutiesofStatewideMentoringCoordinator 211 Notes 213 Index 235 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book is about the journey of the individual lawyer and the legal profession toward a new vision of professionalism. I could not have written it without the help of many teachers—strong, wise people who cherishthefellowshipoftheprofessionaljourneyandwhohavelentme and many others a helping hand along the way. The names of some of those people—and their words—appear in the pages of this book. I will mention here but a small sampling of the people who have contributed directlytotheideasinthepagestofollow. CreditshouldbeginwithJudithWegner,formerdeanoftheUNCLaw School, who understood that the search for professionalism is really a searchforone’swholenessasahumanbeing.Shewastheinspirationfor muchofmyworkinlegaleducation,andsheprovidedthevision,insight, and financial support—partially through a grant from the E. M. Keck Foundation—for the UNC Law School Intergenerational Legal Ethics Program. That program included both the Law School Oral History ProjectandtheLawSchoolMentoringProgram,whichfigureprominently in the ideas and solutions I attempt to develop. She also initiated two powerfulvision-questretreatsforlawyersandlawstudents,conductedin theNorthCarolinamountainsbypsychologistPatWebsterwiththeable help of her husband, attorney Bill Thorp. Those retreats—for the first time, to my knowledge—employed the Parcival myth as a metaphor for thelawyer’slifejourney,anditwasPatWebster’sskillfuluseofthatmyth which inspired my own use of it as a metaphor for the lawyer’s journey inthiswork. Ialsoowedeepgratitudetotheattorneysandlawstudentswhopartic- ipatedinthoseretreatsandintheUNCLawSchoolOralHistoryProject andtheMentoringProgram.Theyrenewedmyfaithintheprofession,in ix