Bench & Bar July/August 2025

Style BY DR. ERIC Y. DROGIN

LAWYER WELLBEING

A certain mystique attaches to professional practice and to the individuals who conduct it. Although the imagery associated with this phenomenon is increas ingly recognized as stereotypical (or worse), there’s no denying that it continues to exercise a powerful hold over the popular imagination. No one really wants their lawyer to be an empty suit, but advocates ignore matters of style at our peril. Many years ago, when I toiled in anonymity—okay, some things never change—as a striv ing young assistant professor, my own workplace wardrobe choices typically amounted to statements of adolescent rebellion that doubled as camouflage for budgetary restrictions. What could charitably have been described as “trousers” would today be outed, under even the most cursory of cross examination, as jeans. Instead of the button-down Oxford look, I sported a revolving series of polo shirts, sans insignia. Loafers? Sure. Well, boat shoes. Whenever I took a turn down the wrong hallway and found myself confronting the clinic director, he would place one hand around his throat—not my throat, at least. The message: “no necktie?” This state of affairs persisted for some time; after all, where else were they going to find who bonded so readily with behav iorally challenged teenagers for that little money? The boat shoe was on the other foot, however, when I started

42 july/august 2025