{"id":8465,"date":"2007-11-09T14:11:07","date_gmt":"2007-11-09T19:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/11\/09\/great-lawyers-pessimist-or-bi-pale"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:38","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:38","slug":"great-lawyers-pessimist-or-bi-palettal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/11\/09\/great-lawyers-pessimist-or-bi-palettal\/","title":{"rendered":"great lawyers: pessimist or bi-palettal?"},"content":{"rendered":"

M<\/em><\/strong>y favorite lawyer-haijin, Roberta Beary [“see “roberta beary’s gems<\/a>, ” Oct. 9, 2007], sent me an email this morning with the subject “you picked the right profession!” Inside was a copy of “Except in One Career, Our Brains Seem Built for Optimism<\/a>,” from today’s Wall Street Journal Online (November 9, 2007). I had recently mentioned to Roberta that — given how often I am intrigued by posting at Language Log<\/a><\/em> — I perhaps should have studied linguistics, rather than the law. However, last night, I sent her a link to this LL<\/em> piece<\/a>, and wondered whether I could possibly deal with all the b.s. that one also finds in that discipline.<\/p>\n

\n

mid-argument
\nthe senior partner
\nhas a senior minute<\/p>\n

………………………………………….. by dagosan<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The WSJ<\/em> article tells us that “Yet, in the palette of human temperament,<\/u> a rose-colored view of the future is the dominant hue, regardless of culture or nationality. Psychologists puzzle over this basic bias for the bright side.” It drew Roberta’s attention, and made her think of her fellow Sicilian curmudgeon, because the “One Career” referred to in the headline is law. Thus, we’re told:<\/p>\n

All in all, [Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania] said, optimists tend to do better in life than their talents alone might suggest.
\n
\nExcept lawyers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Surveying law students at the University of Virginia, he found that pessimists got better grades, were more likely to make law review and, upon graduation, received better job offers. There was no scientific reason. “In law,” he said, “pessimism is considered prudence.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My immediate reaction was to remind myself of all the studies that showed how pessimists were far more accurate in their predictions than optimists. Thus, as for the legal profession, I told myself:<\/p>\n

\n

Of course the best lawyers are pessimists, you cannot be good at issue-spotting –much less be a useful advisor — unless you can imagine bad things happening.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At that point, however, my “but on the other hand” personality kicked in, and reminded me:<\/p>\n

\n

To be truly good at issue-spotting and at giving excellent advice (as a good consigliere<\/a> must to survive), you need to be able to envision both good and bad outcomes, and all those in between.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Then, I recalled my first bit of public self-analysis (at my high school graduation in 1967), where I confessed to being a “pessimistic optimist” and “loving cynic” — willing to love my country enough to tear things down and rebuild when necessary. (prior post<\/a>) I have no doubt that having both tendencies (besides driving myself and my loved ones nuts) helped to make me a successful legal adviser in many positions over the years — and often got me to stay up late looking for more supporting precedent the night before a brief was due.<\/p>\n

So, maybe pessimism does equal prudence and helps a lawyer (or law student) succeed. But, it seems to me that the full- or bi-palettal<\/em> lawyer should be even more successful — if <\/em>he or she remembers to take that little pill every day.<\/p>\n

\n

twilight
\nthe words of his letter
\ndarker and darker<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

heatwave \"sunglassesG\"
\nwaiting for him to tell me
\nwhat i already know<\/p>\n

\n

talking divorce
\nhe pours his coffee
\nthen mine<\/p>\n

first snow
\nat every window
\na child’s face<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"beary\" <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.. by Roberta Beary<\/a>
\n\u201cheatwave\u201d & \u201ctalking divorce\u201d – The Unworn Necklace<\/em><\/a> (2007)
\n\u201ctwilight\u201d – Woodnotes<\/em> #29; A New Resonance 2<\/em><\/p>\n

casual Friday
\nthe senior partner
\nunbuttons his vest<\/p>\n

\n

mid-argument –
\nopposing counsel crosses
\nher legs<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

………………………………………….. by dagosan<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I must<\/em> be an optimist<\/strong>. I actually believe the great new service from CatalogChoice.org<\/a> might work (and improve my life, while saving lots of trees and transportation costs). Here’s how they describe themselves:<\/p>\n

\n

“Catalog Choice is a free service that lets you decline paper catalgos you no longer wish to receive. Reduce the amount of unsolicited mail in your mailbox, while helping to preserve the environment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You can bet that, as soon as I can possibly find a moment of spare time, I shall head over to CatalogChoice and click away all that pesky junk mail. [also see the TreeHugger<\/a> weblog]<\/p>\n

\n

[art by AA<\/a>] Further proof<\/strong><\/em> of rosy-colored attitude: I even checked out the newest edition of Roadrunner Haiku Journal<\/em><\/a> today (November 2007, Vol. VII, 4). There are still far too many psyku<\/a> and other forms of “tell-ems” for my taste, but here are a pair of interesting new poems from two of our f\/k\/a <\/em>Honored Guests:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

bird me catch me<\/p>\n

……………………………….John Stevenson<\/p>\n

after
\nthe boiling point
\na robin’s song<\/p>\n

………………………………. by Laryalee Fraser<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My favorite lawyer-haijin, Roberta Beary [“see “roberta beary’s gems, ” Oct. 9, 2007], sent me an email this morning with the subject “you picked the right profession!” Inside was a copy of “Except in One Career, Our Brains Seem Built for Optimism,” from today’s Wall Street Journal Online (November 9, 2007). I had recently mentioned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[555,1414],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu","category-qs-quickies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-2cx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12415,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8465\/revisions\/12415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}