BAD LAWYER

An irreverent lawyer’s memoir.

“The ‘law’ had been passed down in my family like a hideous heirloom,” writes Dorn, who grew up in Washington, D.C. “My dad was a lawyer. My grandfather was a lawyer. Most of my uncles are lawyers. And it wasn’t just my family—most of the people I grew up with also had families full of lawyers.” Though initially reluctant, the author decided to attend law school, with her grandmother willing to pay the tuition. (Dorn repeatedly admits her privilege.) Given that she wouldn’t be buried under law school debt, she committed to becoming a “good lawyer.” The author candidly and wittily shares the details about her experience becoming a lawyer, beginning with the pressures of law school. “When push came to shove,” she writes, “my favorite thing about being at Berkeley Law was telling people that I was at Berkeley Law. No matter how messy my hair was or how socially bizarre I acted, people assumed I had my shit together.” The day after learning she passed the California bar exam, Dorn expresses mixed feelings: “I woke up feeling relieved but also depressed. I was a lawyer now. I was trapped.” As her career progressed and she witnessed the many flaws in the justice system firsthand, her dedication to helping others wavered. She recounts lawyers using elitist terminology and spending little time and effort writing motions, judges shopping online during testimony and drinking in chambers, the system operating differently when the defendant was wealthy, and a culture that catered to “revolting old men” and maintaining the status quo. Dorn soon became jaded and wanted out, seeking escape in writing (her debut novel, Vagablonde, was well received last year). “I’d started to feel that the system was broken beyond repair, and that continued to depress me,” she writes. In the end, she bucked the system and began following her own laws.

A must-read for anyone considering law school.