cover image The Betrayed Profession: Lawyering at the End of the Twentieth Century

The Betrayed Profession: Lawyering at the End of the Twentieth Century

Martin Mayer, Sol M. Linowitz. Scribner Book Company, $25 (273pp) ISBN 978-0-684-19416-5

Profoundly perturbed by what he considers the degeneration of the legal profession that has accompanied its growth and specialization in the last 50 years, Linowitz, a Washington, D.C., attorney who has served three administrations, forcefully pleads for reform. He denounces huge law firms where ``rainmakers''--partners whose clients are responsible for the highest revenues--are given special status; he decries lawyers whose principal goals are to protect and increase corporate gains. With Mayer ( The Lawyers ), Linowitz charges that the legal profession is abandoning its duty to defend the Constitution and Bill of Rights in order to practice law as a business, which threatens the liberties of all. In a positive summation, Linowitz advocates specific means by which judges, lawyers and society can help to restore integrity and public trust to the profession. (May)