Abstract

Since 1985, I have divided my professional life between teaching philosophy and practicing law in Northampton, Massachusetts. I am part of two excellent professional communities, the faculty of Smith College and the Hampshire County Bar. Making allowance for the usual sources of adult unhappiness--one gets divorced, has a drug or alcohol or gambling problem, a debilitating disease or injury, a child in jail, etc.-! -, we Northampton lawyers seem generally to be a happy lot. We are public-spirited, appearing disproportionately on the boards of local nonprofit corporations. I know of no local polls on the question but our fellow townspeople appear to hold us in good esteem. We get on well with one another-- perhaps rather better than do my academic colleagues. Our chief source of professional anxiety is attracting remunerative employment in a highly competitive labor market. Still, virtually everyone seems to make at least a passable living and some obviously prosper. Very few of us have burned out and left practice. When we talk shop we often complain about particular judges, our clients and occasionally other lawyers, but never about the value of our profession. We do not often indulge in abstract speculation. (My lawyer friends take no interest at all in my writings on jurisprudence.) But our demeanors do not bespeak inchoate unhappiness with our professional lives. We are evidently pro! ud of what we do.