Traditionally, a lawyer is considered to be pessimistic and cynical. According to the popular explanation, this is due to the characteristics of the profession - its representatives must bear in mind the worst outcome of the matter and neglect the feelings of others for the sake of success, therefore pessimists and cynics are naturally easier in the profession. But it is not so.
Dan Bowling, managing director of Positive Workplace Solutions, a senior lecturer at Duke Law School and a freelance researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, together with renowned psychologist Martin Seligman from the same university, has been investigating the well-being of lawyers for years. Until recently, Bowling, like most, considered lawyers to be mostly unhappy: in 2010, an interview was published on the Careerist website, in which he even claimed that depression helps a lawyer to succeed. But if you looking for a job like a layer now, enhance your resume using legal job resume examples https://legaljobsearcher.com/resume-examples.
But now, after analyzing the results of an interview and a survey of more than a thousand lawyers and law students, he came to unexpected conclusions regarding the psychological portrait of the “average lawyer”. Upon closer inspection, the lawyers turned out to be completely normal people, at least for the most part. Maybe more resilient, which is to be expected, given the aggressive and rapidly changing environment in which they work.
Based on his work in recent years, Dan Bowling has formulated and refuted the six most popular myths about lawyers and the legal industry.
The first myth: lawyers are unhappy people. This is not so, for the most part, lawyers are quite happy with their life. A sense of well-being in the broad sense of the word is distributed among lawyers without noticeable deviations from the statistical picture in other professions. Moreover, novice law students on average feel more prosperous than the average American. Which is logical, given at least the cost of training.
The second myth: if the lawyer is depressed, this is only his problem. This is not quite so: in the legal industry in America, they are talking more and more about the problem of depression among lawyers experiencing a period of failure. In almost every law school, psychological assistance is now available, while Yale University even offers "therapeutic" dogs for exams. This is not a metaphor, it is about the placental mammals of the order of the carnivorous canine family, which many of us keep at home. But while there are not enough special courses of psychological stability, such as those that are increasingly used in the American army.
Myth three: students who are prone to caution and expect the worst receive better grades. The idea of a direct connection between a pessimistic outlook on the world and prudence, on the one hand, and good grades from freshmen at law schools, on the other hand, was considered almost universally accepted. However, a study of character strengths by Bowling and Peggy Kerry from the University of Pennsylvania at two law schools (out of the top 50) did not reveal a statistical relationship between the presence of these personality traits and good grades.
Myth four: lawyer = cynic. It turned out that lawyers are more likely to be skeptics, and not to a greater extent than other well-educated people of other professions. Focus groups conducted in various regions, both in rural areas and in large cities, showed that lawyers consider critical thinking their strength, which is not at all equivalent to cynicism. Other Americans with higher education also value themselves.
Myth five: successful female lawyers are characterized by reduced emotionality and even heartlessness. Meanwhile, women lawyers themselves most likely attribute their success to their humanity. In a study last year by a group of particularly successful female lawyers by Patricia Snyder of the University of Pennsylvania, it became apparent that their ability to emotionally perceive, “read” people, and even empathy was an obvious element of their success.
Myth six, the last: emotional intelligence - the ability to understand and predict the emotional reactions of others - is generally estimated undeservedly highly. In fact, emotional intelligence becomes more important for a lawyer, the further he progresses in his career. Lawyers have a higher intelligence coefficient than the average person, but often they lack the ability to respond not only to the question being addressed, but also to the client. Recently, the situation has changed: more and more law firms, at least in America, have begun to take care of establishing not only purely professional, but also emotional relationships with clients - this helps to attract and then retain them.
Dan Bowling, managing director of Positive Workplace Solutions, a senior lecturer at Duke Law School and a freelance researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, together with renowned psychologist Martin Seligman from the same university, has been investigating the well-being of lawyers for years. Until recently, Bowling, like most, considered lawyers to be mostly unhappy: in 2010, an interview was published on the Careerist website, in which he even claimed that depression helps a lawyer to succeed. But if you looking for a job like a layer now, enhance your resume using legal job resume examples https://legaljobsearcher.com/resume-examples.
But now, after analyzing the results of an interview and a survey of more than a thousand lawyers and law students, he came to unexpected conclusions regarding the psychological portrait of the “average lawyer”. Upon closer inspection, the lawyers turned out to be completely normal people, at least for the most part. Maybe more resilient, which is to be expected, given the aggressive and rapidly changing environment in which they work.
Based on his work in recent years, Dan Bowling has formulated and refuted the six most popular myths about lawyers and the legal industry.
The first myth: lawyers are unhappy people. This is not so, for the most part, lawyers are quite happy with their life. A sense of well-being in the broad sense of the word is distributed among lawyers without noticeable deviations from the statistical picture in other professions. Moreover, novice law students on average feel more prosperous than the average American. Which is logical, given at least the cost of training.
The second myth: if the lawyer is depressed, this is only his problem. This is not quite so: in the legal industry in America, they are talking more and more about the problem of depression among lawyers experiencing a period of failure. In almost every law school, psychological assistance is now available, while Yale University even offers "therapeutic" dogs for exams. This is not a metaphor, it is about the placental mammals of the order of the carnivorous canine family, which many of us keep at home. But while there are not enough special courses of psychological stability, such as those that are increasingly used in the American army.
Myth three: students who are prone to caution and expect the worst receive better grades. The idea of a direct connection between a pessimistic outlook on the world and prudence, on the one hand, and good grades from freshmen at law schools, on the other hand, was considered almost universally accepted. However, a study of character strengths by Bowling and Peggy Kerry from the University of Pennsylvania at two law schools (out of the top 50) did not reveal a statistical relationship between the presence of these personality traits and good grades.
Myth four: lawyer = cynic. It turned out that lawyers are more likely to be skeptics, and not to a greater extent than other well-educated people of other professions. Focus groups conducted in various regions, both in rural areas and in large cities, showed that lawyers consider critical thinking their strength, which is not at all equivalent to cynicism. Other Americans with higher education also value themselves.
Myth five: successful female lawyers are characterized by reduced emotionality and even heartlessness. Meanwhile, women lawyers themselves most likely attribute their success to their humanity. In a study last year by a group of particularly successful female lawyers by Patricia Snyder of the University of Pennsylvania, it became apparent that their ability to emotionally perceive, “read” people, and even empathy was an obvious element of their success.
Myth six, the last: emotional intelligence - the ability to understand and predict the emotional reactions of others - is generally estimated undeservedly highly. In fact, emotional intelligence becomes more important for a lawyer, the further he progresses in his career. Lawyers have a higher intelligence coefficient than the average person, but often they lack the ability to respond not only to the question being addressed, but also to the client. Recently, the situation has changed: more and more law firms, at least in America, have begun to take care of establishing not only purely professional, but also emotional relationships with clients - this helps to attract and then retain them.
