Private Career-Building and Public Benefits: Reflections on “Doing Well by Doing Good”

Abstract

David Wilkins is engaged in a wonderfully interesting and valuable project. His is a fascinating story, one very well told and with a wealth of lessons, some inspiring and others rather grim, for lawyers in present-day practice. The great strength of this work derives from Professor Wilkins's welcome departure from the genre of most writing about the legal profession that takes the form of armchair speculation. Like my co-commentator Bryant Garth, Professor Wilkins has ventured out into the real world and has talked to lawyers-many of them-and obviously has convinced them to trust him enough to tell him the unsparing and sometimes bitter truths about their lives and work. He is a sensitive and careful observer and a skillful narrator.