The marketplace may determine who among us will financially prosper. But financial prosperity is not the motivating goal of most satisfied lawyers. For lawyers, there is something beyond the marketplace. It is not just the Supreme Court s rules. But, if we do not understand what that something is, if we do not understand why we have the RPCs, if we do not want to serve our clients far better than the minimal standards laid out in the RPCs, we are unlikely, in the long run, to want to remain lawyers.
Various surveys suggest that many lawyers are dissatisfied with the practice of law.
Some lawyers undoubtedly became lawyers for the wrong reason, or for no reason. They discover that mistake only too late, they believe, ever to do anything about it. They then feel trapped in the law, hating it, hating their clients and fellow lawyers, and become bitter and cynical. Sometimes they became lawyers primarily to prosper financially, not realizing how hard the average lawyer works for very little compensation. Satisfied and fulfilled lawyers usually give willingly, without regret, to their clients, to the profession, and to the public, without worrying about what, if anything, they may receive in return.