In keeping with Valentine's Day, Mark Jaroslaw is posting three blog entries at Lawyer Avenue. The first is by Fiona Travis, PhD, author of the book Should You Marry a Lawyer?: A Couple's Guide to Balancing Work, Love & Ambition. Excerpt from the post:
In recent years, some of America’s most popular TV programs and films depicted lawyers winning in court but losing in love. A distortion of reality, or do lawyers really have problems building and sustaining relationships? Regrettably, the image is accurate.
It’s not that lawyers lack relationship-building skills. But, overworked, overburdened and squeezed by time – and now, the worst downturn in two decades – lawyers do exhibit communication and intimacy breakdowns peculiar to their education, their professional training and work environment.
More to the point, the same traits that bring lawyers success in the workplace also interfere
It’s not that lawyers lack relationship-building skills. But, overworked, overburdened and squeezed by time – and now, the worst downturn in two decades – lawyers do exhibit communication and intimacy breakdowns peculiar to their education, their professional training and work environment.
More to the point, the same traits that bring lawyers success in the workplace also interfere
with their achieving meaningful, intimate relationships in the home. And the profession works a special hardship on women lawyers. According to an ABA study, a third of all women lawyers have never married as compared to eight percent of male lawyers, and nearly half of the women lawyers report being unmarried, compared to 15 percent of the men. Furthermore, compared to female physicians and college professors, women lawyers are less likely to be married, have children, remarry after divorce and are significantly more likely to become divorced.
Click to read the rest of Marry a Lawyer? Proceed With Caution.
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