There’s this great scene in the movie Philadelphia when Joe (played by the hot talented Denzel Washington) asks Andrew (played by the talented Tom Hanks) a simple question:
Joe: What do you love about the law, Andrew?
Andrew: I… many things… uh… uh… What I love the most about the law?
Joe: Yeah.
Andrew: It’s that every now and again - not often, but occasionally - you get to be a part of justice being done. That really is quite a thrill when that happens.
I love that quote. It reminds me of how I used to feel about the law.
Not so much anymore.
I’m not sure when it happened exactly. But I don’t feel the same way anymore.
Part of it is about other lawyers. I used to believe that other lawyers were about justice. But the more of them that I work with, the more that I realize that it isn’t true. It’s about winning, it’s about money, it’s about being somehow better than other people.
But it’s not just about the lawyers. There would be no frivolous lawsuits (like this one) if there were no frivolous plaintiffs. And often, people create their own drama, their own problems and they somehow expect them to be fixed magically. Despite the TV commercials where cheesy lawyers swear that they can make your life better with a quick phone call, life doesn’t always work that way.
That’s why it was particularly hard for me to have a conversation with a client this week about the battle that we can’t win. Without going into specifics, his case quickly went down the tubes after I received some more information - information that the client failed to tell me. He was quietly devastated, you could tell, as he folded up a letter and put it in his pocket. And for a second, I wanted to say, “Wait, maybe there’s something we could do.” But there wasn’t.
Laws are what they are. You can’t avoid following them and figure you’ll just fix it in the end - especially when the end is outside of the “fixable” time frame.
As the client prepared to walk out of the door, I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. And I wished and wished that I could do something to fix it. But it was too late.
And in that moment, I wondered when - if ever - I was going to see justice being done.
Man, this has been a depressing day. One of my associates quit. Not to go to another firm. She just doesn’t want to practice law anymore. And then I read this post. I am hopeful (very hopeful) that I will be able to find something that doesn’t suck every last bit of hope and belief in justice/truth/good out of me. What a sad thing for you to have to go through with your client.
Comment by PT-LawMom — June 26, 2007 @ 10:25 pm
[...] wrote a great post this week on those punch-in-the-stomach moments where the law just seems unjust. I hope that I can [...]
Pingback by PT-LawMom » Losing your passion for the law — June 28, 2007 @ 9:42 am
i believe you will someday… if your attitude is that your role is to serve justice, and you keep the health of the system in perspective, instead of falling into the petty gamesmanship. i think i want to become a lawyer, and i cannot help but feel that the same hollowness awaits me. i’m glad you shared this though, because i needed to know that the high priesthood has the same doubts as the rest of us. thank you; even though it’s bleak, it is real.
Comment by bright — July 1, 2007 @ 3:41 pm
[...] in my law school tee shirt and shorts or all dressed up, whether at the office or at home. It’s tough, this profession. And being on your own? Even tougher. Don’t let anybody tell you [...]
Pingback by My Own Show. « lawmummy — July 6, 2007 @ 9:32 am