The Lawyer as an Artist
Nova Law Review, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 573-582, Spring 1990
11 Pages Posted: 18 Apr 2012 Last revised: 22 Apr 2012
Date Written: 1990
Abstract
This article addresses the fundamental differences between the educational experiences of lawyers and artists. In the American legal academy, lawyers are trained to categorize issues and factual disputes into “boxes,” a process that stultifies creativity. By comparison, artists are trained to expand the boundaries of their creative impulses, leading to discoveries and innovations. Dean Abrams suggests that lawyers can benefit from this type of creative exploration and demonstrates how truly great attorneys, like Louis Brandeis, followed artistic tradition in their lawyering work.
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