For the Sake of Argument: A Life in the Law is a first-person career memoir   It is anecdotal, frequently amusing, and at times candid to the point of rudeness.  But while it's hardly a paeon to the profession as practiced today in America, it's also not angry or cynical.  Just open-eyed.
 
Many young people start law school idealistically only to learn that the profession has its own plans for them.  For instance, many who plan vaguely to ""do environmental law"" discover upon graduation that most jobs in environmental law involve working for polluters –  who, after all, are the ones who need guidance through the regulatory maze.  Is it a sell-out to take the job?  Or does the job provide more practical protection for the environment than any number of protest marches?  Or both?
 
Joel Jacobsen relates his experiences in becoming and being an attorney in a time when many attorneys think about giving up law and moving into doing something else. He describes the struggles, the changes in the partner system, the judiciary, and the legal profession as a whole.