<p>Deals may be struck during those dinner conversations, but not because of the liberal education topics. Unless the deal makers are fools, the deals are made because they serve the interests of those who are making them, not because they had an entertaining discussion of something unrelated to the issue at hand.</p>
<p>Of course lawyers reputations are important. On the other hand, they can do things that would be considered appalling in most other lines of work, and retain reputations as ethical- by the standards of this profession. Most (nearly all?) of legal practice is routine handling of common situations - essentially by definition. Much of the rest is manipulation, exerting influence, obscuring the facts, delaying until the other party can no longer sustain the fight, etc. </p>
<p>Perhaps someone whose job is generating original legal thought- a law professor for example- may have use for building impressive arguments, but this rarely comes up for people outside that narrow world. Who is going to read this brilliant piece of work? The opposing attorney? I can assure you she will disagree, with whatever you say, if your argument disadvantages her client. Or, if she is better, pick the few points that support her side, and try to discredit the rest. You see, this is her job, this is what she is supposed to do. She is a lawyer. It would make as much sense to complain about her doing this as to pretend that guards and forwards in the NBA are really engaged in something grander and more noble than playing basketball.</p>
<p>Face it, you don’t get a liberal education because it is useful. Engineering is way more useful- who do you want designing your car, or the bridge you are driving it across? You study literature, art, philosophy, and music for their own sake. The debate about who works harder is pointless not because the engineers are wrong about thier longer hours, but because it is irrelevant. No one will hire you to reward you for pulling all-nighters in college. They hire you because they think you will do a worthwhile job for them. Employers do not care whether that job is easy for you, or hard for you. They do not care whether you stayed up all night to get it done, they care whether you got it done. If the job is engineering, then they have to hire an engineer- no one else can do it. If the job is not engineering, or something else that requires strong quantitative skills, then your hard work at MIT will not impress them. If the job requires writing, then they are going to be skeptical that an engineer is able to do it well.</p>