This Article explores the profound disillusionment experienced by summer associates and junior attorneys at major U.S. law firms that have recently capitulated to political pressure from the Trump Administration to avoid pro bono legal work inconsistent with its agenda. Drawing from the exposé published in Above the Law (“Biglaw Doesn’t Give a Damn About Its Young Lawyers,” May 14, 2025), the Article examines how such institutional decisions signal a moral realignment within elite legal practice—one that has left many young attorneys alienated, demoralized, and questioning their place within the profession. We analyze this phenomenon through the psychological lens of grief and propose that psychotherapists have a critical role in helping attorneys process this rupture between professional idealism and institutional reality. Ultimately, we argue that therapeutic interventions must recognize the loss of professional innocence as a legitimate and often traumatic event—one that must be mourned before integration and recalibration can occur.
Introduction
For generations of idealistic law students, BigLaw represented both prestige and possibility. Alongside the financial incentives and elite training, many were drawn by a tacit promise: that their considerable intellectual talents could be put in service of justice. That promise has long been contested, but recent developments—specifically, the reported capitulation of several major law firms to the Trump Administration’s demand to curtail politically inconvenient pro bono work—have exposed a stark divergence between institutional behavior and the ideals many young attorneys hold dear.
In the wake of these revelations, summer associates and junior attorneys find themselves confronting a professional identity crisis. The firms that recruited them with polished diversity statements and glowing rhetoric about impact and purpose now appear aligned with a political agenda that many of these young professionals find morally and ethically untenable. As reported in Above the Law, a growing cohort of young lawyers now view their firms not only as indifferent to social justice, but as actively complicit in its suppression.
This Article seeks to articulate the psychological dimensions of this disillusionment and to argue for the central role that psychotherapy can play in helping attorneys metabolize what is, for many, an existential rupture.
The Capitulation of BigLaw and Its Impact on Young Lawyers
The article published on Above the Law lays bare what many within the profession have long suspected but hesitated to name: that the commitments of BigLaw are overwhelmingly economic, and when push comes to shove, moral commitments are subordinated to market considerations and political expediency.
The particular outrage in 2025 stems from reports that several high-profile firms have either discouraged or outright prohibited attorneys from engaging in pro bono work that could be seen as oppositional to the Trump Administration. Immigration advocacy, reproductive rights litigation, and voting access work—all have reportedly been sidelined under the guise of “strategic neutrality” or “client alignment.” While such justifications may resonate with senior leadership balancing global portfolios, they land with crushing disappointment among the newest members of the profession.
This betrayal is especially acute for summer associates and recent graduates, many of whom chose law precisely to engage in these kinds of advocacy efforts. For them, the dissonance between the profession’s public rhetoric and its private actions is not simply an ethical frustration—it is a foundational injury.
The Psychology of Disillusionment: Grief and the Loss of Professional Innocence
To understand the emotional response of young attorneys to these developments, we turn to the psychology of grief. Though often associated with bereavement, grief also arises when deeply held assumptions or identities are shattered. The loss of a professional ideal—the fantasy that one’s labor could both be prestigious and just—is, for many attorneys, a death of self.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s five-stage model of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—can be usefully applied here:
(1) Denial: Early disillusionment is often met with rationalization. “This is just one decision,” “Not all firms are like this,” or “Things will change once I make partner.”
(2) Anger: As rationalizations fail, many attorneys become enraged—at their firms, at partners who dismiss their concerns, and at themselves for “selling out.”
(3) Bargaining: Some try to reconcile the moral incongruity by doubling down on lateral moves, internal initiatives, or limited pro bono projects.
(4) Depression: When the reality sets in that the firm will not change, despair often follows—leading to burnout, anxiety, and in some cases, substance abuse.
(5) Acceptance: This does not mean resignation. Rather, it involves recalibrating expectations and constructing a new, more grounded professional identity.
Each of these stages presents psychological vulnerabilities. Without intervention, young attorneys may internalize the systemic moral failures of the profession as personal inadequacies or descend into cynicism and emotional numbing.
The Role of Psychotherapy: From Disillusionment to Integration
Psychotherapists working with young attorneys must understand that the betrayal they feel is not just ideological—it is personal, identity-based, and often traumatic. Effective therapeutic interventions should be oriented around several key goals:
(1) Validating the Grief: Therapists should avoid minimizing the magnitude of the client’s disillusionment. Grief over lost ideals is real and deserving of respect.
(2) Naming the Systemic Context: Clients benefit from understanding that their distress is not solely individual, but a predictable response to a profession that incentivizes conformity over conscience.
(3) Differentiating the Self from the System: Many attorneys conflate their worth with the institutions they serve. Therapy can help disentangle personal identity from professional affiliation.
(4) Reclaiming Agency: Clients can explore alternative paths to meaning, whether through lateral moves, internal reforms, or parallel careers in academia, public interest, or entrepreneurship.
(5) Reintegrating Idealism: Rather than eradicating their idealism, young attorneys should be supported in evolving it—learning how to hold moral convictions while operating in imperfect systems.
Therapists who understand legal culture—especially those with prior legal experience—are uniquely positioned to facilitate this process, offering a space where the often-inarticulable pain of professional betrayal can be given voice and meaning.
Conclusion
The legal profession is in a moment of reckoning. The decisions made by some BigLaw firms in response to political pressure have revealed not just a strategic calculus, but a moral vacuum. For the young attorneys and law students who once believed in the law as a vehicle for justice, this betrayal is not just a career obstacle—it is a psychic wound.
But there is a path forward. Through psychotherapy, reflection, and dialogue, young lawyers can grieve what has been lost, confront the limitations of the institutions they serve, and begin to imagine new ways of being in the law. The death of the ideal, painful as it may be, can become the beginning of a more honest, integrated, and ultimately sustainable professional life.
