Becoming Gentlemen CL

The reviewer "A Customer" must be either anti-feminist or professionally jealous. (I am a law professor myself as Lani Guinier is.) The relevancy of her book , today in 2008, is evidenced by a forthcoming empirical survey study about Chicago-Kent law students by Felice Batlan, et al "Not Our Mothers' Law Students" forthcoming in University of Baltimore Law Forum, Spring 2009. (And no, I am not Professor Batlan either -- but I heard it presented at a conference and found it quite exceptional empirical work -- I am a statistician by training.)

As a lawyer who graduated from a good law school in the 1980's, I found this book to be excellent. The findings resonnated with my own law school experience, which was alienating at best and miserable at worst. I was finally able to make sense of what happened to me in law school and why I found the work so frustrating. I was taught to be competitive and my nature was more compromising. As my experience and that of so many others who have worked in the court system, a lawyer's best skill is negotiation. The vast majority of cases filed in court today are settled. Those skills could be developed in law school more than the aggressive winner takes all approach. I'm glad I read this book. It is not for casual readers, but I would highly recommend it for any women lawyer or women who is even thinking of going to law school.