ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on legal philosophy to consider the effects on character and instinct of the experience of being part of the legal profession. It is important to acknowledge that lawyers come in all types. There are some commonalities to the educational and professional experiences of the successful lawyers who become judges, especially federal judges and most especially justices of the Supreme Court. These commonalities tend to create certain inclinations no matter what the underlying personality type might be. To hope that lawyers who have been highly successful in their legal education and practice will restrain themselves in the use of power is, well, whistling in a gale. At its best and highest levels, both legal education and the practice of law involve the imposition of order on complex factual disputes and the marshalling of rational arguments. Precise and systematic attention to facts is a point of pride to jurists, as it is to high quality attorneys.
