Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School

by Richard D. Kahlenberg

In 1986, 70 percent of the first-year class of Harvard Law School wanted to pursue careers in public-interest law. Ten years later, the same percentage of this class was pursuing careers in private corporate firms. How is it that these students began their careers interested in using law as a vehicle for social change, but ended up in those very law firms most resistant to change? How are law students able to reconcile liberal politics with careers in corporate law?

Richard D. Kahlenberg's Broken Contract serves to warn prospective law students on the transformation that happens during the second and third years. His memoir explores the intense competitiveness and insidious pressure leading to jobs that are lucrative, prestigious, and challenging–but ultimately unsatisfying.

Though Broken Contract doesn't seek to convince every law student to go into public service, Kahlenberg means to challenge and restructure our social institutions to make it easier to follow our impulses toward good instead of toward the goods.

Genres: Law, Nonfiction, Education

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Mon · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5

Interesting read and thoroughly enjoyed him making fun of the town of Ridgewood, NJ

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an enjoyable and timely read!

My brother suggested this book to me after meeting Kahlenberg's daughter at school. He was telling her about the need to convince his older brother, me, to avoid the corporate law path and stick to both his and my ideals of using a legal education for the public interest. She suggested to him that I take a look at 'Broken Contracts,' her father's memoir about his battle with the seemingly inextricable pull of big salaries, prestigious positions and corporate comfort that confront law students at every turn.

Kahlenberg denies trying to persuade or lure anyone into public service, but rather puts his experience forth to show the struggle that many law students face, and to assure them that they are not, or will not be, alone. From his first day of class to accepting his firth post-grad job, Kahlenberg does just that.

Condensing three years of legal education down to a readable 200 or so pages would be no easy feat. Nevertheless, 'Broken Contracts' is interesting, exciting and relevant the whole way through. Kahlenberg invites readers into each of his classes and, more importantly, into the numerous job fairs, lectures, presentations and club meetings that guide his, and many other law students' career decisions.

The issues that Kahlenberg faces are clearly trying and understandably confusing. How can a law professor who has never worked outside of a firm or academia preach the values of public service? How come the majority of law students speak of obtaining a legal education for use in the public sphere yet only three years later, almost all of them have committed to serving the interest of the corporate elites, taking a fat paycheck in exchange for meaningful work?

'Broken Contract' is a wonderfully honest picture of what to expect at law school and a primmer for the challenges that a student will face, not necessarily in the classroom but in the back of one's own mind!

[Stanton Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author's perspective was skewed, he seemed to have given up at a certain point.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned that very little has changed at HLS in terms of the pull of corporate law. OPIA has great people doing great work, but it is insufficient for HLS. I learned about the pull of corporate law: 1) the money; 2) the simplicity of doing OCI instead of something else; 3) the security of definitely having a job, of following the flow because that path is set up to be followed.

I learned a lot about what I am currently experiencing and seeing, both in me and in other law students. I learned about the inherent self-contradiction and hypocrisy that comes from being a socialist-minded liberal elite at HLS. I learned about how it is counter-productive to argue about the hypocrisy that inevitably occurs in each of us, about how the most ardent and loud judgmental liberals will not pursue the path they espouse in their lives. I learned that it is important to accept being judged but to try not to let it get to you because you should be happy pursuing the route that you think is right and want to pursue.

I also learned, though, that another path does exist and can be followed successfully.

[SallyStenger]

This book is something of a successor to One-L, written about ten years later (1989). It is also about Harvard Law School. It covers all three years. As one of the reviewers commented, it spends a lot of time discussing his job search his second and third years. At this time apparently he got a lot of attention from private firms and not as much from public interest, which is what he wanted. He finally settled for a position paying $35,000 from Senator Robb. He makes it sound like there are a lot of jobs available - I wonder how the Harvard grads are doing today. His politics are slighlty left-wing. A sub-theme has to do with his becoming more conservative at Harvard. He describes himself as becoming more of a populist.

[John Bruning · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really nice complement to Scott Turow's "One L", and a must-read for anyone considering law school or interested in the legal profession/system. "Broken Contract" chronicles legal education where Turow leaves off, looking at how the law students who enter law school intending to practice in public interest law end up in corporate law. Kahlenberg, incidentally, is one of the few who (just barely) escapes the corporate pull, to chart another course--which, admittedly, isn't public service--and it's fascinating to see how the process and decision-making plays out.

[Pete Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting insights into why students drift from public interest work during their time at law school, written by someone who experienced it themselves. Read it in concert with One L and High Citadel.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

read it in college before going to law school. believe all good-hearted law students should read it.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never read One L, but this was pretty eye-opening