Pleas of frustration: Lawyers questioning, abandoning their profession

Boston Globe ^ | 8/18/2003 | Ralph Ranalli

[rface]

Jean Terranova wasn't the only lawyer in Massachusetts this year feeling deep dissatisfaction with her choice of profession. In fact, she wasn't even the only soon-to-be-ex-lawyer in her class at chef school.

A death penalty appeals specialist from Framingham, Terranova, 38, said she was fed up with increasingly strict laws to limit appeals, inflexible sentencing guidelines, and funding shortages that prevented her from hiring the necessary experts.

[Bluntpoint]

Am I the only one who finds this statement unsettling? I thought that's what court is supposed to do.....uphold the law.

Don't confuse the morass of bureaucratic court and procedural rules with "justice" or the "law."

[martin_fierro]

is it true you are turning pastry chef....? ; )

I tried baking donuts, but my cop clientele kept hitting me up for free legal advice. 3:)~

[martin_fierro]

(not to mention free donuts)

[KevinB]

"Not a bad way to make a living" indicates that you are clueless, if not heartless.

Better for one to remain quiet and have people assume that he's an idiot than to open his mouth and remove all doubt.

[Phaedrus]

Better for one to remain quiet and have people assume that he's an idiot than to open his mouth and remove all doubt.

You are a lawyer, I presume, practicing "family law".

[Bluntpoint]

Family law attorneys are like building contractors who pray for tornados.

[szweig]

There are, very simply, entirely too many lawyers in this country. Maybe this is a sign that the situation is righting itself (hope***hope***hope)

[bigeasy_70118]

I have been solo practice for five years. I started out of law school and am light years ahead of where my friends with big firm jobs are. There are problems with the law, for sure but I love representing real people and making a difference in their lives.

[mountaineer]

Too many lawyers today, too many pastry chefs tomorrow?

[Bluntpoint]

I live in a rural area. Our phonebook, white and yellow pages combined, is about 3/4 of an inch thick.

The front and back of the book is attorney advertising. The largest section of the yellow pages is attorneys.

[Porterville]

End times...

[Bluntpoint]

Wait till you stop taking Zoloft. Then reality will set in.

[Consort]

We have a bad legal system masquerading as a System of Justice.

[Seydlitz]

Like it or not, attorneys are the means by which we exercise our legal rights. No one likes divorce, but we've all seen too many cases where a full-time mom gets dumped with multiple kids and no means of suport. How can she care for her kids on her own? She needs an attorney to exercise her rights.

Worse still are cases of domestic abuse. Battered spouses more than anyone need the help of an attorney.

Your dislike of lawyers has blinded you to the fact that they do sometimes help those in need.

[Alouette]

And there's such a shortage of lawyers.

Now we will have Indian lawyers coming in on H1B visas. Then law firms will begin outsourcing to India.

[Bluntpoint]

Lawyers own the courts today. The road blocks against the public acting as their own counsel have been set up by lawyers.

The foremost reason that an honest person needs an attorney is because there is a dishonest or at least amoral attorney who already started his meter.

[Phaedrus]

Like it or not, attorneys are the means by which we exercise our legal rights. No one likes divorce, but we've all seen too many cases where a full-time mom gets dumped with multiple kids and no means of suport.

Right, counsellor, you're all white knights. Well Nonsense, counsellor -- 2/3 of all divorces are initiated by the woman for reasons such as "I just don't love him any more ... yadda yadda". Your "profession" exacerbates the problems associated with divorce and it's about money, winning and games, not truth or justice. You have a conflict of interest, counsellor.

Your dislike of lawyers has blinded you to the fact that they do sometimes help those in need.

You have no clue who I am but you can "take it to the bank" that I am anything but blind. I tell the truth. Lawyers don't. That's the difference.

[Mercat]

'"Family law" is not about families, it's about divorce and the destruction of families. Lawyers are parasites on the process and make it far lengthier, more expensive and more painful, especially if significant assets are involved. "Not a bad way to make a living" indicates that you are clueless, if not heartless.'

Gosh, don't hold back on how you feel. I guess emergency room doctors are at fault for the gun shot wounds which show up and that ontologists are to blame for cancer.

Every case, I try to talk the client into reconciling and sometimes I succeed. Most of my clients are the ones who want to stay in the marriage and its my job to get them through the process with as little damage to themselves and the kids as possible.

A lot of my cases are post divorce... parents who have not had meaningful access to their kids for years.

Should I just walk away from all those cases? Will you then support my family of six?

Mary Ellen

[Seydlitz]

I'm not a lawyer. I have a law degree, but never practiced a day in my life. The closest I have come to that was some volunteer work in the prisons when I was a student. Indeed, my own experiences have taught me to despise the profession more than most. That said, lawyers do serve a valid and essential purpose in the maintenance of our legal rights.

If you are correct, and 2/3s of divorces are initiated by women for the sole reason that they do not love their husbands, then the problem is with our culture, not our legal system.

[Bluntpoint]

Doctors can't force a patient into the OR when they need no surgury.

A lawyer can file suit or make the most frivilous defense costing the innocent thousands of dollars and all sorts of anquish with no punishment for doing so.