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letters to the editor Send your letters to: gail.cohen@thomsonreuters.com Are you happy now? • 2010 corporate counsel sur vey • Talking digi tal November/December 2010 The answer is simple $7.00 GREENER PASTURES THERE'S A SHORTAGE OF YOUNG LAWYERS IN SMALL AND RURAL COMMUNITIES, DESPITE THE LURE OF A LUCRATIVE AND FULFILLING CAREER. With respect to your November/December 2010 feature article discussing "Greener pastures," surely there is a very simple answer as to why young lawyers flock or try to flock to large corporate commercial downtown firms. It is: follow the money. Like beginning doctors, they need to pay off huge student loans. Commentators in the same issue who believe lawyers should work pro bono and pay the costs of legal aid might also consider how they could conduct them- selves if they had a debt load of $50,000 or even $80,000 on graduation at a stage in their lives when they are starting families and trying to buy homes. By all means raise tuition in law schools, but don't be surprised when gradu- ates make the choices that should have been entirely predictable. PRISCILLA H. HEALY Toronto CL_Nov_10.indd 1 10/27/10 4:23:57 PM welcomes letters to the editor but reserves the right to edit for space, taste, and libel considerations. Please include your full contact information. A 'tough' life Comments from canadianlawyermag.com Tough life. But my partners and I I practise in a small city by the sea, and I still remember the gradual dawning envy of my slightly super- cilious colleagues from Montreal, when they left their corporate towers for a visit many years ago. "Here is my office" (elegant, Victorian, air- conditioned and with windows that open, parking right behind); "here is my apartment" (balcony on the water, heated underground parking, two blocks from the office, $850 per month); "here is my boat" (moored at the yacht club under my balcony); "there is the courthouse" (two blocks in the other direction); . . . "and now let's run down the coast a few miles for a lobster supper" (fresh that day, $19.95). And if you put up your hand at a meeting you can be law society council member, CBA treasurer, teach sessionally at the university, chair any committee you like, get national trips on someone else's dime, make real contributions to your community and the profession. are in our 50s and 60s and we can't find a young lawyer to take over, after having many start and move to government or bigger firms. The problem is that we can't pay a big, secure starting salary and the work is hard, varied, and demanding — though plentiful and dependable. Any junior has to work hard, take risks and "eat what she kills" . . . and the reality of this sort of prac- tice is a challenge. And the lure of the bigger firms and bigger cities is very strong. Thanks for your article! — excerpt from an online comment from AQUITAINE A great way to go through life The statistics about happiness in the legal profession are meaningless without comparisons to other lines of work. As John Stuart Mill observed, 6 JAN UARY 2011 www. CANADIAN Lawye rmag.com the surest way to find out whether someone is unhappy is to ask them if they are happy. They are then likely to downplay the positive aspects of their lives and exaggerate the nega- tive. For example, if you ask someone if they are making enough money, the answer will likely be "no" even if, on any objective scale, the person has a comfortable living or better. Practising law is a great way to go through life. Jokes aside, the pub- lic do respect lawyers highly, and you can make a positive difference in the lives of countless people over a career. You do not have to be out in the sleet or humidity (construction workers). You do not have to put your fingers God knows where and be sneezed on by God knows what (doctors and nurses). You do not have to deal with brown or grey water (plumbers). You do not have to descend hundreds of metres underground (miners). Lawyers should not complain about their lot in life, but if they are truly unhappy, their law degrees can take them to any number of alternate careers. Lawyers who are struggling financially may wish to consider practising in an area where there are not gaggles of competitors within a few city blocks because, if lawyers apply themselves where they are needed, they are virtually certain to make a better than average living. — online comment from BRADLEY WRIGHT PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT # 40766500 C anadian L a wy er R ve: ember/Dec "Gr eener N o " N A o r e y pastur es," 2010 ember R ve: ember/Dec ou happ y no 2010 ember w?" L E G A L E T H I C S BY PHILIP SLAYTON Are you happy now? T Job satisfaction could help fend off the 'dark side.' here's a general belief that a lot of lawyers don't enjoy what they do. Their work makes them unhappy. The empirical evidence tends to support this suspicion. In a recent American Bar Association survey, for example, only 55 per cent of lawyers who responded said they were satisfied with their job. In a 1998 study of Michigan lawyers, 60 per cent said they would not become lawyers if they could start their careers over. It is reported that half of all law- yers don't want their children to follow in their footsteps. There are a number of surveys like this, particularly in the United States, all showing much of the same results. What's this sad information got to do with professional ethics? I think that work happiness and work ethics are connected in at least two ways. First, the unhappy lawyer, just like any other unhappy person, is more likely to aban- don his or her moral compass. Personal misery encourages a devil-may-care, to- hell-with-it attitude. It is fertile ground for rule breaking. Nothing seems to matter very much, including what you do, or don't do. Second, the lawyer with strong values, who lives by them, is much more likely to be happy than his or her rudderless counterpart. Such a lawyer is content within themself and considers their life and work to have value. This gives peace. Happiness, of course, is complex, inef- 18 N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 0 w w w. C A N A D I A N L awy e rma g . c om CL_Nov_10.indd 18 10/27/10 4:28:42 PM fable even. It is subjective; one person's meat is another's poison. It may be transi- tory, and depends partly on circumstanc- es that can easily and quickly change. Happiness (or lack of it) can be driven by embedded personality and body chemis- try. It is often said that the sort of person attracted to legal practice may well have been prone to unhappiness in the first place. Law didn't make the person unhap- py; he or she was unhappy to begin with; his or her embedded pessimistic and combative nature may have been what attracted the person to legal practice. The idea of happiness is elusive alright, but that doesn't mean it's not worth grappling with. It's central to our existence. Nancy Levit and Douglas PASCAL ELIE