In an article in The Atlantic, Doctor Richard Gunderman and lawyer Mark Mutz, say the legal profession is not well and can provide salutary lessons for the medical profession. Pointing out that law schools are suffering a decline in numbers whilst lawyers are increasingly dissatisfied with their lives, the two attribute much of the grief suffered by the demise of the legal profession to the removal of professionalism from the job. According to the Atlantic article, the reliance on metrics - from the growth of rankings to profits per partner - has removed noble aspirations such as justice in the quest for money. Lawyers have moved from professionals to service providers which ‘works to the detriment of lawyers, their clients and society.’
Mere service providers
As a mere service provider, the lawyer’s role is to provide a discrete technical service for a fee which means that there is little meaning and value in the work. The authors say medice lags behind the law by several decades but is now proceeding down the same path and has now developed its own version of PPP. But it is not too late for the restoration of professional integrity, they believe. ‘Many clients, patients, and legal and medical professionals regard the erosion of the professions as the equivalent a tidal wave - deeply regrettable but utterly unstoppable. But this is not so. It is possible to reverse the tide and restore a sense of what it really means to be a professional - to be devoted to the service of others and the ideals of a noble profession. Collaboration can supplant competition, and the best interests of clients and patients can regain their rightful primacy.’ Source: The Atlantic
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