(FINANCIAL TIMES) - It will take about three minutes to read this column. Whether it's worth three minutes depends on me, of course. I will do my best. But it also depends on you, on your attitude to time and, perhaps, on your profession.

Twenty years ago, professor of law and theology M. Cathleen Kaveny began an article with the observation that "many lawyers are very unhappy, particularly lawyers who work in big firms. They may be rich, and getting even richer, but they are also miserable, or so they say".