Five Class-Based Rules That Determine Whether or Not You Will Succeed in the Legal Profession

Summary: Success in the legal profession is not determined by skill alone. There are also socio-economic and class-based barriers that must be overcome.


One of the largest distinctions-and markers of success for attorneys and all people-is related to how the person thinks about life and work. These differences, in large part, are class based and often have more to do with the expectations the person brings to the "game" of law than they have to do with the person's abilities and what they think is possible.

Throughout my career I have been very upset by mistakes that very intelligent attorneys make who may, quite simply, be making decisions that are the result of their upbringing and environment.

It is very common, for example, for me to see members of various ethnic groups raised in poverty (but that perhaps have attended great schools) drop out of the practice of law when they have the abilities, but not the thought processes, to make them successful.

It is common, as well, to see people from small towns have serious problems. You do not, for example, see many children of farmers at places like Yale or Stanford Law School.


The point is that there are massive socio-economic and class-based barriers that people must overcome to enter the legal profession and remain in it. These barriers also constitute a series of fundamental "rules" that attorneys need to follow to both succeed and rise in the legal profession.

See the following articles for more information:

Your Beliefs about Yourself Are Controlling Your Destiny

Change Your Beliefs, Change Your Life

The Quality of Your Life and Career is the Result of Your Habits

Recently I went to two high school graduation parties, and the differences could not have been starker. One was in the home of a rich child of famous parents in Malibu, California, and the other was in a small town in rural Ohio. As I thought about these two graduations I realized that the thought processes that make one attorney successful and another unsuccessful were on display and being played out right before my eyes.

The first party I went to was in Malibu at the home of one of the children of a world-famous talent agent. This party was in abeautiful15,000+ square foot home that looked as if it could be a college. As part of the party, students were selling various pieces of artwork they had made in art classes at the school throughout the school year.

The art did not seem to be anything special at all; however, I was nothing short of astonished at how much money the students were seeking for their pieces of artwork, including vases, paintings, sculptures and other amateur art. Many of the art pieces were priced above $5,000.There were very few pieces of artwork that were below $500 (one of the $500 pieces of "art" was a matchbox car with some wires sticking out of the window for artistic effect).I spent some time looking at all of this art and could not believe that the children had such high opinions of their work.

The parents of the children were not particularly nice. They were well dressed and for the most part they stood around in small groups and avoided other small groups. I went up to speak with a few of the adults. Some were annoyed that a stranger was speaking to them and walked away. In the few conversations I did have, it took less than 5 minutes for people to ask me (1) what I did for a living ("How prestigious is your profession?") and (2) where I lived and on what street ("How expensive is your home?") and (3) where my kids go to school ("Do you have the money to send your kids to private school?").One doctor took less than two minutes to tell me he had gone to Phillips Andover School.

Parents of graduating children were also very quick to tell me what their child was doing if it was prestigious-"Our son is going to Duke next year"-but if it was not as prestigious they would launch into a long explanation about WHY their child was going to a less prestigious school-"He is only going there because they have a very good biology program and he wants to be a doctor. He can graduate from there in three years with the AP credits he already has and start medical school sooner!"

The food was served by men and women in white tuxedos. The hors d'oeuvres were presented to me with French names I did not understand. There were model-like women wandering around with silver trays filled with champagne flutes. There was a group of women playing classical tunes on a harp, violins and cellos. Meanwhile, there were a bunch of new graduates politely walking around speaking with the adults.

What stuck out to me about these kids-all from privileged environments-was the high opinion they all seemed to have of themselves and their work. They were setting the bar extremely high and doing well. Many of the kids were going to great schools, such as Princeton, Stanford and CalTech, and were headed for very promising lives by all appearances. I have never heard of a high school student selling a piece of art for $5000.

"How did you come up with the prices for these pieces?" I asked a woman who was wandering around selling the art and making me feel very underdressed in my blue blazer, khakis and tie.

"The artists set them," she said.

"You mean the students," I said jokingly. She gave me a bit of a nasty look and walked away.

At some point I had to use the restroom and walked down a hall and opened a door to what I thought was a bathroom. It was a bedroom with a restroom. As I was walking into the restroom an 18 year old child whose room I apparently had entered sat up in a bed, said "What the hell!", stood up, stumbled around the room, bumped into a wall and then collapsed on back on the bed. He was dressed for the event but so drunk/drugged up that he apparently was out of it.

"Can I use your bathroom?" I asked him.

"I don't care!" he said and threw a pillow over his head.

I walked in the bathroom and saw something I could not believe. The boy's bathroom sink (which was quite large) was made entirely of glass and was an aquarium. I had never seen anything like it in my life. There were all sorts of fish swimming around. Here is a picture of what it looked like:

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Five Class-Based Rules That Determine Whether or Not You Will Succeed in the Legal Profession