Lawyer Nation: The Past, Present, and Future of the American Legal Profession

by Ray Brescia

Overview

Explores the critical role that American lawyers have played since the nation’s founding and what the future holds for the profession

The American legal profession faces significant challenges: the changing nature of work in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic; calls for greater racial and gender justice; threats to democracy; the inaccessibility of legal services for the majority of Americans; the risk of obsolescence owing to the emergence of new technologies; and the disaffection many lawyers feel toward their work.

Ambitious in its scope yet straightforward in its approach, Lawyer Nation seeks to address these crises by offering a path forward for the legal profession. Ray Brescia provides concrete ideas for transforming law into a field whose services are accessible, egalitarian, and viable in the long term. Further, he addresses how the profession can improve so that the health of its practitioners is not compromised in the process. If the legal profession does not respond to its crises in an effective way, he argues, the dysfunction and unfairness plaguing the legal world will deepen. This is an unprecedented opportunity for the world of law to reimagine its future in way that honors its highest ideals: preserving the rule of law, protecting individual liberty, and addressing social inequality in all of its forms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479823680
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	02/06/2024
Pages:	312
Sales rank:	512,917
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ray Brescia is the Associate Dean for Research & Intellectual Life and the Hon. Harold R. Tyler Professor in Law & Technology at Albany Law School. He is the author of Lawyer Nation: The Past, Present, and Future of the American Legal Profession and The Future of Change: How Technology Shapes Social Revolutions; and editor of Crisis Lawyering: Effective Legal Advocacy in Emergency Situations; and How Cities Will Save the World: Urban Innovation in the Face of Population Flows, Climate Change, and Economic Inequality.

Editorial Reviews

"The American legal profession is broken, with serious consequences for our democracy and society as well as for the many lawyers who report deep professional dissatisfaction. In his tightly reasoned analysis, Professor Brescia traces the history of the profession’s periodic legitimacy crises and offers sound and practical suggestions for solving the current malaise afflicting the profession. His book is an important one for anyone interested in the health of the legal profession, the well-being of individual lawyers, the rule of law, and the stability of American society."

William D. Araiza

"With Lawyer Nation, Ray Brescia analyzes the worst crisis of confidence that the American legal profession has faced since Watergate and explores how to regain public trust. This timely and engaging book is a must-read for practitioners and academics who are training the next generation of attorneys."

Jennifer Taub

"In these harrowing times, as the nation careens from crisis to crisis, lawyers—for better or worse—are in the thick of the tumult. In this sweeping book, Ray Brescia explains how we got here. In a volume that is both accessible and incisive, Brescia canvasses the historic highs and lows of the American legal profession, while also setting the agenda for a more hopeful future in which lawyers will play a crucial role in scaffolding and upholding the infrastructure of democracy. This is essential reading for lawyers and those who believe in the rule of law."

Melissa Murray

"Americans have long been ruled by lawyers, good and bad, even as that profession has become increasingly alienated from its own work. Unfairness and dysfunction haunt the legal world, as critical legal services have grown tragically inaccessible for those who need it most. In this surprisingly hopeful book, a dedicated public interest scholar and lawyer looks backwards and forward to unpack the historical strands that caused this breakdown, but also map an institutional path whereby our legal profession can better honor its ideals of professionalism, access and inclusion."

Harold Hongju Koh

2024-01-04
A study of how the "cartelization" of the legal field denies most Americans proper "access to justice."

Since colonial days, the legal profession has been proud of “its role in the founding of the republic, the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, and the defense of democracy and the rule of law.” Today, however, the profession faces an “an existential crisis” on which “the American democratic experiment hinges,” writes law professor Brescia, author of How Cities Will Save the World. According to multiple studies, the legal system that helped create what can be called the longest-running democratic republic in modern times is inaccessible to most of its own people: 80% of poor Americans, and 50% of those considered middle-class, cannot afford a lawyer. This is partly due to the fact that the field's “professionalization” has rendered it both exclusive and expensive, shutting out countless potential high-quality lawyers and law schools and resulting in the "cartelization" of the field. Brescia concedes the field has overcome crises before, describing how it transformed “virtually every aspect of law practice” following the implementation of strict pandemic protocols, going virtual to a degree most thought impossible. Virtualization made services cheaper and created much-needed access for low-income clients, who sit in the same “tiny square image” as onscreen judges. However, given recent political upheavals unmistakably enabled by lawyers, Brescia makes a convincing case that the legal profession must take massive strides toward reform now. “A robust professionalism, attuned to the needs and broader values of the American system, empowers the legal profession to fulfill its appropriate role within that system,” he writes. If significant reforms are not implemented in the near future, “democracy itself [is] at risk.” General readers may stumble through some of the legalese, but the author’s arguments are well worth discussion.

A powerful examination of the U.S. legal field.

Kirkus Reviews