Law as a Profession

A common stereotype, and one that probably deserves some credibility, is that practicing law is a lucrative choice of a profession. There are many lawyers who earn a lot of money. What is more, our culture builds up this image, much like it does the medical profession. Doctors and lawyers - marry one and you are set for life.

The sad fact of the matter is that the legal profession's image takes away from its higher calling: justice. The powerful dollar (or yen, or euro, or whatever) becomes a glittering deterrent for a newly minted attorney in deciding what jobs to consider and which one to take. Paying back student loans, buying fast cars, and living in the ultra-nice areas all entice and enslave the profession. We forget those principles of justice learned in our opening days and months of law school. We set aside those legal ideals of great jurists past in favor of current trends and impressions.

As a profession, we should not focus on money or power. Both are finite and corrupting. Instead, we should focus on what my Con Law professor called the General Level. Every now and then, and more often than we do, we should think about the cases we are presenting before the court and what they mean in the larger scheme. We should think about how we are contributing to precedent, and whether it is in a good or a bad way. We should carry with us always those principles of justice so rooted in our society that they are fundamental ways of thinking - or at least they should be for practicing attorneys. We should not choose the area of law that earns us the most money, but the area of law we would most enjoy practicing in and to which we could contribute the most. That may very well be business torts, but it may also be civil litigation for people in rural areas. It should be our conscious, not our wallet, that guides our practice as individuals and as a profession.