Here's a fanastic entry by David Luban at Balkinization applying a Marxist analysis to the structure of the big law firms. It's not a very hopeful picture, as the final analysis seems to be that the problems in the firms that lead to the horror stories and burnout and high turnover are systemic, inherently part of the way law firms work (and survive in the marketplace).

As someone who's looking at the big law firm world as one possible career outcome (at least in the short term), it's certainly not a happy thought, that no matter how hard I look, how much I scour the cities, I'm not going to be able to find a big firm (with all the perks that come with working in a big firm) that's a pleasant place to work.