A study a couple months ago indicated that medical students are socially segregated from each other.

The reasons included:

• High workloads
• school located outside the main campus
• High numbers of contact hours, outside the university

This seems to indicate that contact, inside the university, would alleviate the problem.  They should learn a lesson from law students and quickly discover otherwise.

The drawbacks of this supposed isolation included:

• Being a member of a cohesive in-group can increase an individuals feelings of self-worth and lead to perceived superiority over, and prejudice and discrimination towards, members of out-groups
• It lessens integration with clients, who come from a broad section of society
• They usually have to work with other professionals
• Communication is an important skill for dealing with members of the out-group

The sense of superiority in law often leads to a self-selection of dealing with certain members of society, which is probably why pro bono goes the wayside far too quickly.

The CBC reported recently that we should improve medical students’ learning environment by providing sleep breaks.  Well, law firms already encountered and overcome that hurdle.

As for working with others and communication, well, all of that is overrated by too many law firms.

Remember this?

Experienced lawyers work with clients. Young lawyers work with paper. You like working with paper, right?