Why is it so okay in top law schools to have a culture grounded on emotional abuse? Professors are "arbitrary" and demeaning and cruel remarks are dismissed as just another part and parcel of law school life. People emphasise that the same happens in top law firms, allegedly. So what is the point? Become okay with having zero boundaries, and zero self-worth - is this what the top law schools want to prepare you for? Sounds more like abuse than "learning" to me, lol. The culture is also perpetuated with "positive interactions" among students as well. I just do not understand why all of this is so normalized. People unfortunately have considerations such as money for survival, etc. but a lot of the culture is perpetuated by people who do not have such necessities either. It's cool to have zero boundaries and become a non-confrontational people pleaser in these circles. As someone who has zero interest now in a proper law career, all this just makes me sad as an onlooker. No wonder, the substance abuse rates in these circles touch the roof - well what do you expect? I wish law was more human. I wish law school was more human, and I wish law firms were more human. Of course, I am generalizing but the larger trend still remains and I just needed to get this off my chest. Perhaps, one day law circles might become compassionate, human and kind - I am not sure if I will be around to see it F.

Are you me, OP? Felt like I have written this. I'm in the nascent stages of my law career journey and I agree to what you have said here cent percent. People in this profession lack empathy. I'm just a law student and yet I have seen many celebrated professors feel threatened by young scholars who produce good literature just through their own efforts and hardwork. The bit about substance abuse is true too. While interning I saw people smoking/vaping like there's no tomorrow. Rampant alcoholism as well. Sometimes I feel I made a bad decision about studying in law school. This profession attracts worst lot of humans.

Final year NLU student here. Since first year, after getting betrayed by some fake friends and unhappy with the toxic atmosphere, I have just shut myself out socially. I lock myself in my room and study, watch movies and play games online. Physically, I only do individual sports like running and cycling. I speak with classmates only during classes, or just general hostel chit-chat. Nothing more. Thankfully, we live in an age where we can video chat with our old friends from school and childhood, which is what I do. I have also made some new friends from non-law colleges, who I met during fests etc.

this is quite true. the number of people ive met from my field who i can trust are very few, literally 2-3 and it's not like my circle is particularly small. everyone looks at everyone else like a means to an end and substance just becomes another tool to get what you want. i came to law because i wanted to learn about humans and meet more of them and im only been able to do that 2-3 times.

but, not to say there are 0 corners and circles where things don't make sense. it's a shitshow but in between all this you do get to see a lot of good as well. you also see a lot of people pushed to their limits and still doing good things. i like to look at this world like an experiment; as if someone's trying to study what humans would do if pushed in a dog eat dog world and im always surprised how despite such pressures, there's still space for a little bit of human in there.

Another problem is the political toxicity in law schools (from all sides). People are blacklisted and cancelled by those classmates who disagree with their political views. This adds to depression and isolation. I blame social media for this. Social media has radicalised Gen Z politically (both RW and LW) and made them intolerant.