Bad Lawyer

A Memoir of Law and Disorder

By: Anna Dorn

Narrated by: Alex McKenna

Law school was never Anna Dorn's dream. It was a profession pushed on her by her parents, teachers, society...whatever. It's not the worst thing that can happen to a person; as Dorn says, law school was pretty "cushy" and mostly entailed wearing leggings every day to her classes at Berkeley and playing beer pong with her friends at night. The hardest part was imagining what it would be like to actually be a lawyer one day. But then she'd think of Glenn Close on Damages and Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde and hope for the best.

After graduation, however, Dorn realized that there was nothing sexy about being a lawyer. Between the unflattering suits, sucking up to old men, and spending her days sequestered in a soul-sucking cubicle, Dorn quickly learned that being a lawyer wasn't everything Hollywood made it out to be. Oh, and she sucked at it. Not because she wasn't smart enough but because she couldn't get herself to care enough to play by the rules.

Bad Lawyer is more than just a memoir of Dorn's experiences as a less-than-stellar lawyer; it's about the less-than-stellar legal reality that exists for all of us in this country, hidden just out of sight. It's about prosecutors lying and filing inane briefs that lack any semblance of logic or reason; it's about defense attorneys sworn to secrecy - until the drinks come out and the stories start flying; and it's about judges who drink in their chambers, sexually harass the younger clerks, and shop on eBay instead of listening to homicide testimony. More than anything, this book aims to counteract the fetishization of the law as a universe based entirely on logic and reason. Exposing everything from law school to law in the media, and drawing on Dorn's personal experiences as well as her journalistic research, Bad Lawyer ultimately provides us with a fresh perspective on our justice system and the people in it, and gives young lawyers advice going forward into the 21st century.

©2021 Anna Dorn (P)2021 Hachette Books

Critic reviews

“A must-read for anyone considering law school.” (Kirkus)

Three part experience

This book is a three part experience. The first third is coated with dry, bluntness and the author’s childhood and general view of the world of law. Saying it’s hilarious, is an understatement. It’s funny because it’s so true. The second third is heavy on legal terms and cases. As someone who has spent their career in the legal field, I found it interesting at times but off course from her overall personal story. The last third is thick with emotion, seemingly written around COVID lockdown and the months that followed. Pondering this, I may have read it differently had I read it in paper instead of listening to the audible version. In short, my interest was present and thriving up until the halfway point. From there, it dove into a legal and emotional analysis.

Great style of writing, but too little substance

I listened to this audio book in one long drive. While her style of writing pulls you in, you’re never sure what you’re being pulled into. Is it a behind the scenes look at law? A tell all about cases she was involved in? A rumination on feminism? An ode to her love of Kardashians and weed? Strangely it’s all of these and more. Perhaps, however, that is the problem. It tries to do too much all at once. You only get a rough approximation of what some of the people she interacts with are like so it’s hard to care. The cases jumble together and everything feels vaguely rushed. Overall has potential but doesn’t quite live up to it.

Loved it.

Honest, funny and self aware. Reassures me that my choice not to pursue law school was a sound one for exactly the reasons Dorn describes. Really appreciated the quick explanations of legal jargon, just like Elle Woods would expect.

Real Talk

Straight Forward Experience and love her outlook on life. Coffee, write, and couch potato and wine…… this is you new bff gal.

I get it

As a public interest attorney that tripped and fell into law, I was interested in the new perspective...or maybe a familiar one....so I picked up the audiobook since I typically opt for audio format when reading a memoir that is also read by the author. I think with my background, I found myself nodding a lot. she's my age and her experience mirrors a lot of my work so it wasn't shocking. I could guess that some of the legal jargon might put some off, but I think overall she didn't overdo it too much. I think her analysis makes the substantive and procedural part of law pretty accessible in general. I thought the book meandered a bit too much when she delved into her sexual identity phase but I suppose it was formative and she felt it necessary to highlight as a development of her identity and character....however I'm not sure she quite hit the mark in terms of connecting it to her overall theme.
I think she could have developed a couple of the client relationships a bit more for those not already acquainted with the legal field, however I understand this is a fine line because of privileges that may have been breached if she expanded so I think I can overlook that missed opportunity as a practical reality. The biggest critique I have is that the ending kind of just felt abrupt. I don't know that I got a big final message from it, but it may have been her intent I suppose.
I liked the casual style and the biting sarcasm that wasn't overdone. It's hard to hit the right balance on that kind of time, but I think she did well for a first book. It was refreshingly candid and I appreciate that she didn't cast herself as a savior or an absolute authority on gender or race issues. She highlighted them without making it about herself, which is appreciated and added a surprisingly level of credibility to a book ironically titled Bad Lawyer. It's too bad the field forces people like her out because they are the few of us that help safeguard against the monotony of sociopathic attorneys that feed off the inequities and injustices inherent in a system created by humans whereby many prey off the misfortunes of others.
In conclusion, I think it was worth a read and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book for a book club. There's lots of discussion points to make for a lively debate.

Yuck. Save your credits

Yuck. The title misleads and the story sadly disappoints. A good point is that it fails early on in the book so you don't have to go too far in.

Terrible. Miss this one

The author seems to be hell bent on making her seem as unlikeable as possible. She’s vapid, self serving, lazy and egotistical. All her problems seem to stem from her own self hatred and spews her issues onto you in book form. Her life is so hard for being so privlaged apparently.