Book Review: Lawyers and the Promotion of Justice

Abstract

This is the fifth of a series of monographs sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation dealing with certain established or emerging professions in the United States. Earlier publications in the series have concerned social work, engineering, nursing, and medical care. The "philosophy and method of procedure" of these studies have been to view the professions "primarily in relation to their effectiveness in meeting public needs," and thereafter with respect to their success in satisfying professional and group interests. The author is thus well-experienced in analyzing occupations and has a judicious and fair-minded approach to her subject. The result is, as indeed its sponsorship promised, an objective and readable account of our profes- sion seen through the eyes of an unusually well-informed layman. In general, the information here contained should not be news to a lawyer who has made any attempt to keep abreast of developments in the law. It is, however, an excellent summary for the lay reader. And while the author is restrained--certainly too much so to make her book exciting reading--in forming and presenting her own judgments, nevertheless the showing here made of what the lawyers are doing, and perhaps even more of what they are not doing, deserves serious thought, and perhaps some disturbing reflections, on the-part of both those within and those without the profession.