Wylie, having a conversation at a bar:

He’s lead partner on a bankruptcy securities case at a biglaw firm, talking to a former associate

He was drinking wine and espresso at 6 o’clock, and a pitcher of water

The interesting question is not what the law is, or money, but chaos--complexity so intricate no one can fathom it

He describes lawyers as control freaks

His work is stressful and he’s obsessed with his health, which he thinks suffers because of his work

He doesn’t self-identify as cynical, but seems quite cynical

He was at a party with extremely rich people, friend of his wife Jeanne

Another lawyer was there, and asked him where he went to law school, which he took to mean the lawyer wants to tell him he went to Yale

At every dinner party, people want crime stories, so he told his

The other lawyer (“boola boola”) tells his crime story, which involves him wanting federal troops in his neighborhood

The only concern noted was that federal troops might drop property values

He says one of his co-partners in in psycho-analysis but won’t let on who (“Jack”)

He tells him he’s constantly splitting, and he has to be part of things that make him compromise himself morally

But the split is subconscious

And it creates violent tendencies against oneself--manifested in depressive behavior like drinking

Jack then calls the doctor on his attempt at a prognosis--that his being a lawyer is the problem, and the doctor kicks him out

The narrator then left and met some other former associates at a bar

They immediately begin cynically describing other lawyers in vulgar, sexist, racist ways

They discuss the law becoming a service business

And how hiring in-house counsel is a way to stop firms from sucking clients dry

They’re extremely negative, and appear mostly only able to discuss other lawyers

They discuss how Melville’s father in law is shaw, a famous judge who, despite being an abolitionist, returned a fugitive slave -- the relevance to their lives is lost on them