Terri
08-18-2003, 10:30 PM
Pleas of frustration
By Ralph Ranalli,
Globe Staff,
8/18/2003
Jean Terranova wasn't the only lawyer in Massachusetts this year feeling deep dissatisfaction with her choice of profession. In fact, she wasn't even the only soon-to-be-ex-lawyer in her class at chef school.
A death penalty appeals specialist from Framingham, Terranova, 38, said she was fed up with increasingly strict laws to limit appeals, inflexible sentencing guidelines, and funding shortages that prevented her from hiring the necessary experts.
"The courts had become so robotic," said Terranova, who plans to become a private chef once she wraps up her case involving a death-row inmate in Texas. "Nobody cared about justice anymore; it was just about applying rules. I got very frustrated with that. I always liked to cook." One of two lawyers in her cooking class, Terranova is among a steadily rising number of attorneys questioning whether to stay in a field that no longer offers what they once considered key draws: a chance to help clients and the ability to choose interesting cases over lucrative ones.
More (http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2003/08/18/pleas_of_frustration )
By Ralph Ranalli,
Globe Staff,
8/18/2003
Jean Terranova wasn't the only lawyer in Massachusetts this year feeling deep dissatisfaction with her choice of profession. In fact, she wasn't even the only soon-to-be-ex-lawyer in her class at chef school.
A death penalty appeals specialist from Framingham, Terranova, 38, said she was fed up with increasingly strict laws to limit appeals, inflexible sentencing guidelines, and funding shortages that prevented her from hiring the necessary experts.
"The courts had become so robotic," said Terranova, who plans to become a private chef once she wraps up her case involving a death-row inmate in Texas. "Nobody cared about justice anymore; it was just about applying rules. I got very frustrated with that. I always liked to cook." One of two lawyers in her cooking class, Terranova is among a steadily rising number of attorneys questioning whether to stay in a field that no longer offers what they once considered key draws: a chance to help clients and the ability to choose interesting cases over lucrative ones.
More (http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2003/08/18/pleas_of_frustration )