I have written about this subject before. And as you will see, I have changed my mind along the way.

Passion for what interests you can be a very motivating factor. But it does not apply to everything that is important in your life. For years, I thought that passion for the law or for a particular practice within the law was a necessary goal for professional success. I wrote about it and lectured about it scores of times. And then one day I stopped doing that.

That day I realized that passion for your work is not necessary for you to be successful in your work. It coincided with the time when society became so confrontational in so many venues, including the professions. Stresses like confrontation have a way of chilling passion. However, dialing down the expectation from passion to interest does not mean that you do not enjoy your work. It means that you are realistic about your professional expectations.

Today I reserve passion for my personal life and I am disappointed a lot less often in my working life. My personal life involves the things I love and the people I love. My personal life is also where I find the joy that fuels my passion to continue to seek more joy. It is where I am joyful just looking at my children’s and grandchildren’s faces, joyful about my relationships with other loved ones and friends, joyful about my opportunities to have so many different experiences and to learn so many things that make life not just endurable but extraordinarily wonderful.

I discuss this in my book, New Lawyer Launch: The Handbook for Young Lawyers (Full Court Press, 2023) where I distinguish passion for your work from work satisfaction. We need professional satisfaction for our work and the benefits it confers, like compensation, health insurance and social standing, but we can stop short about being passionate about those things. Passion is an investment, and it is easy to set yourself up for disappointment if you overplay the importance of passion about your law practice. Think twice before you take that leap.

Last weekend I was having dinner with a dear friend. She and I met more than twenty years ago in a leadership training program, and I have enjoyed her friendship so much over the years. She had a very successful career in the law, which culminated in her position as general counsel at a large international energy exchange. I never fully understood what she did in that job, but I knew she did it very well.

My friend retired last year, and my conversation with her last weekend was about that decision. She said it was simple. She had done work for years that was extremely interesting to her, and she had become an expert on discrete areas of the law. That was energizing to her, and she was confident that her expertise was very important to her client. However, that experience was followed by the necessity to become equally as conversant in another area of the law for which she had no interest. She knew right then and there that it was time to leave. She did not want her future experiences to sully the memory of her past when her work held great interest and enjoyment for her. Not passion. Interest and enjoyment.

I know that many of you do not have the option of retiring. You are far too young for that. But you do have the option of assuring that you have adequate interest in the jobs you do so that working is not just a chore. The law is a very multifaceted profession. If you value your enjoyment enough you should be able to find a kind of law or discipline within the law that interests you. The kind that does not include doing the job just to get promoted or doing the job just to prove yourself better at it than others or doing the job just for the rush of recognition, control and power. Those things alone rarely lead to professional satisfaction. However, assuring interest in your work can achieve some of the same results and avoid burn out, unhealthy competition and disappointment.

It is simple. Be interested in what you do professionally or do something else. Just don’t get hung up on the passion. Save that for your personal life. And don’t be afraid of change. You need to welcome change as part of the process of becoming what you want to be.

I have been a part of the legal profession for more than 45 years, and I was raised by a very successful and ethical lawyer before that. In observing the law profession for all of that time, and I have liked what I saw. But now, I am truly stymied.

Consider these things. Recently I reported on a summer associate’s proclivity for biting colleagues. It was truly unbelievable that any person could be affiliated with the legal profession and think that kind of behavior was acceptable in a law firm — or anywhere else for that matter. Prior to that I wrote about law firms cooperating with executive branch mandates which those very firms typically would have deplored. And this week I am reading about a convicted felon, a robber of multiple banks to be specific, who, after serving his prison time, attended and graduated from law school, became an advocate for prison reform (to include an appearance at the Trump White House), was convicted last week of spousal abuse and is being held in confinement until sentencing. That’s a very significant fall from grace. You can read more about it here:
https://abovethelaw.com/2025/07/prominent-georgetown-law-professor-convicted-in-domestic-violence-case.

I must admit to being particularly disappointed and shocked by this last discovery. This twice-convicted felon is a graduate of my law school and served as a professor there before his fatal flaws surfaced again. Georgetown Law, where I was both a student and a teaching fellow, where I was molded by the beliefs of the Jesuits, and where I lectured on more than one occasion about the challenges for women lawyers, is a special place for me. This should not have happened to sully its reputation.

So, what does all this say about the profession of law? These kinds of absurd things did not used to happen, and it makes me wonder whether the legal profession is on a slippery downward slope. I hope not, but I am bothered by what has happened to our judgment as lawyers and to our ethical considerations and our ability to weigh facts against smoke and mirrors. I am bothered by what is happening to our legal institutions, some of which have cooperated with baseless executive branch mandates to the detriment of their students and their alumni. I am bothered about what is happening to our highest court in cases involving established law when blind eyes are turned to sacred protections clearly written in the Constitution.

If what I see is truly happening, something has to be done to make a difference and right this sinking ship. And it has to be done by us, the members of this profession who have not forgotten the axioms underlying the profession that once were held sacred. We must have the courage to deny convenience and the pleasure of saving our own skins and choose the right thing to do. The right thing to do has not gone out of style. It has just gotten lost in the shuffle, and it must be discovered once again.

I am reminded of Shakespeare’s character Dick the Butcher and his famous words in promoting a coup against King Henry, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” If things continue to decline in the profession of law, that might no longer be necessary. How tragic would that be?

So you probably think I am kidding about biting. Not so. As reported by Above the Law and other sources, a summer associate at Sidley in NYC recently lost her position for biting colleagues. Not once, not twice, but a series of bites. It seems totally unbelievable, but, alas, it is the most recent in toxic law firm behaviors.

Although other bad behaviors may pale by comparison to the bitathon at Sidley, those other behaviors are worth mentioning because toxic behaviors are, unfortunately, far too familiar at many firms. The combination of stress, time constraints and competition is rife for bad behaviors. A lot is expected by supervisors, by clients, and by other outside controllers, and it can lead to unfortunate outcomes in terms of personal behaviors. Belittling and other rudeness, bullying, name-calling, gossiping, spreading rumors, refusal to collaborate and other forms of disrespect are easy to spot and need to be dealt with before they get out of control.

It is just another thing for law firm leaders to address, but address it they must. Because if left unaddressed, toxic behaviors can negatively affect morale. And low morale can lead to low retention.

Toxic behaviors are not limited to junior lawyers. Toxic behaviors by senior lawyers include narcissism, micromanagement, blame-shifting and passive-aggressive attitudes. Addressing bad behaviors by top-performing partners is particularly dicey, but it must be done because too many people will suffer if it is allowed to continue. That means that law firm leaders need to police their own ranks.

Addressing toxic behaviors is part of assuring healthy work environments and cultures of wellness. It is always worth the time and attention it requires. Encouraging an environment of approachability is important so that individual lawyers know if they see something to say something. Establishment of impartial processes for fact finding and avoidance of pre-judgment are additional important steps toward protection of the workplace.

All lawyers and support staff are entitled to work environments that bring out the best in them and in others. I think we can agree that biting colleagues definitely does not accomplish those goals. It is one toxic behavior you definitely should avoid.