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I empathize with you. The things you have mentioned are so freaking true. Like you and many others out there, I am a victim of false propaganda which was perpetrated in the name of premier law schools. I am a practicing lawyer with almost 2 years of experience now. My experience with work has been as bad as yours. Neither have I justified the huge investments that my parents made during law school, nor I can explain to people that my work has larger meaning or purpose, because in reality it isn't even close to it. Quite contrary to that, I frequently encountered instances where I had to compromise on my ethical and moral compass. I saw my seniors enjoying the luxuries of attending conferences and planning trips & visiting foreign countries, while I was stuck in the office doing their clerical work and receiving the 'to-do' list on regular basis. You encounter how the practitioners, the established ones, are finesse in handling the court clerks or staff in registry departments of courts/tribunal. They are bribed. To pass necessary information, to get some essential work done, to refer cases and so on. You witness how advocates play a double game with litigants, trying to enrich themselves from both ends of the parties involved. And then the corruption happens in silent mode.
While you may decide at one point of your career to go independent and bring in ethical and merit oriented work ethic yourselves, but in essence you may not be able to do so, even after leaving the law firm/chamber that you were working in. Because the scent of immorality and depravity is all-over. It is ubiquitous. And then it is guaranteed: You cannot survive the ordeal, let alone sail through the professional hurdles, without adopting to their mechanisms and 'code of success.'
Be it corporate workspace or litigation, if you are one with futuristic outlook with reasonable moral standards and believe in hard work & integrity, then you will certainly not survive this profession. You may survive for some days/months/years, but eventually you will be compelled by your inner being to dump all of this, and start over in a different space.