I want a shark.
As I approach the end of my law student career (2L pushing 3L), I’ve found that the instant people find out that I am a law student, they instantly want to spar with me. Not spar in the “let us engage in fisticuffs” sense, but spar with me in the “hey, why are you lawyers morally bankrupt?” and in the “so I heard a lawyer got a pedophile child axe murdering tax cheat off … what do you have to say for yourself?” sense. Of course, I used to try to explain to them that lawyers are required to zealously defend their clients and I also try to pose the question “given what you’ve told me, doesn’t the pedophile child axe murdering tax cheat deserve his or her most basic constitutional rights?”
Of course, those responses are often unpopular and result in broad declarations that I’ve “crossed to the dark side.” I’ve learned quickly that people don’t want the “right” answer so much as they want the “truthy” answer. I don’t mean to wax cynical, but people don’t want to hear a long and complex explanation from a glorified janitor about what rights pedophile child axe murdering tax cheats are guaranteed under the Constitution.
No, my interactions with people as a not-really-a-lawyer has only served to bolster my opinion that the American people, generally speaking, are hypocrites when it comes to lawyers. People tend to think of lawyers as morally bankrupt experts that do nothing but take advantage of the system that they are supposed to serve. To a certain extent, the general perception is true. There are some lawyers out there that take advantage of the situation, but most do not. Most lawyers actually make the system work by doing what they do best: be lawyers. I think my professional responsibility text book stated it best: people tend to think lawyers are too aggressive, but when their own skin is on the line, people would prefer to have a shark. People want the aggressive shark representing their side.
So what was the point of all of this? The point of all of this is that lawyer’s aren’t morally bankrupt. Generally, lawyers only do what their clients tell them to do. To a degree, Lawyers are a reflection of the darker, colder side of America.
I think a lot of people find that unsettling.
