A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

WARNING -- ACTUAL 'JOURNALISM' ON THIS BLOG: It's odd -- maybe not, given the circles in which we run -- as to how many friends in common Kermit Roosevelt and I have. His appellate co-clerk was a classmate of mine in Law School (a man whose Trivia Bowl skills rival Ken Jennings'), one of his high school friends was at Dechert when I was there, and we certainly know some people at Penn Law in common -- but none of this has anything to do with why I've previously said (as have many of you) that his debut novel, In The Shadow Of The Law, is a summer must-read (well, after this one, of course) for its meticulous, gripping depiction of modern law firm culture.

He was kind enough to answer a few questions via email about the novel, and on how he thinks lawyers and law firms can make themselves a little more humane:

What led you to attend law school in the first place? Did you have any sense as to what you were going to do with a J.D.?

I went to law school because I didn't have any other plans. I was thinking about philosophy grad school, but my parents talked me out of it (very hard to get a teaching job; if you do get one, still very isolating; if you don't get one, you're an overeducated cab driver). I was hoping to get a novel published around the time I started law school, and I had dreams that that would let me drop out triumphantly, but it didn't happen.

Was Morgan Siler [the DC law firm in the novel] intended to be an exaggeration in any way, or does it pretty much match your experience with (and understanding of) how major defense firms operate?

It probably got exaggerated at moments because I was having fun with it, but it was intended to be realistic. Most of the descriptions are very much true to life--I had my experiences to go on, and the experiences of friends, and I did some research about the evolution of the big firms for the historical aspects of it.

A number of readers see former Supreme Court clerk Walker Eliot as a stand-in for you in the book, but I know you don't believe he's a hero in any way. Explain why.

He's not a hero because he lacks a moral sense. He has an idea of duty and fidelity to the law, but it's purely intellectual and aesthetic--it's about the law as an abstraction, rather than an instrument of justice, and it has no room for people. That's a view that I can slide into sometimes -- it's something people used to criticize my briefs for when I was litigating -- but it's not one that I endorse. Walker's worldview is supposed to be revealed as an impoverished one, which is also in part why he's such a sucker for gadgets and fancy shoes. Because he's not supposed to be an admirable character, I thought it would be safe to let him have some biographical overlap with me without people thinking he was a stand-in.

Other than "read my book", what should law schools being telling their students to prepare them for the choices they will have to make? And what, exactly, should real-life Marks and Katjas be doing with their lives?

I would like to see law school career services offices giving more emphasis to non-firm jobs. Law firm recruiting dwarfs everything else, and that's unfortunate. For the people who to go to big firms, my aim is not to say that they've made a mistake and will be miserable and should leave -- I think that is true of some people who end up in firms, but on the other hand there are plenty of people who will thrive. I would just implore them to try to maintain an independent moral judgment about what they're doing, and to do some pro bono work. Big-firm pro bono is one of the great things about our legal culture -- it's the deployment of incredible resources on behalf of people who otherwise would be getting nothing. So I'm not trying to be entirely negative about big firms.

Are there ways for lawyers to reverse the "it's all about the business" trends you chronicle in the novel? Are there, at least, small steps towards a more humane or dignified practice that large corporate firms can take?

That's probably more for the partners than the associates. I would think that it's possible for firms to compete on the basis of humanity as well as salary. Surveys of associates keep finding that they'd give up some money to get more of their lives back. Whether a firm could in fact have lower salaries and reduced hours and still both get good associates and not have the hours creep up on a de facto basis I don't know. Putting a real emphasis on pro bono is certainly one thing that could be done. Another is trying to create a less industrialized culture, which you can do even in big firms by having smaller practice groups.

So, what do you do when you're not doing law?

Between the teaching and the academic research and the novel writing, I haven't had all that much free time lately. I love to read, and I try to make some time for that every day. I read all sorts of fiction. I also buy nonfiction books that I feel I should read, but they tend to stack up beside my bed. I also play a lot of squash. I'm the faculty mentor for the undergraduate squash teams at Penn, and I play with them when I get the chance.

You can purchase In the Shadow of the Law via this link.