The coolest thing about being a lawyer is the ability to walk into privileged space. It’s why every immigrant parent wants their child to be a lawyer, why TV shows perennially propagate legal dramas, why politicians hate lawyers and are lawyers, why in the Godfather the biggest flex is having a lawyer-consigliere, and why there are, for lawyers, only two kinds of people: lawyers and non-lawyers.
Most tangibly, a lawyer enters a courthouse by skipping security, a place guarded by metal detectors, police, jails, and judges. Then, upon entering a courtroom, only the lawyer has the presumptive right to pass the bar and approach counsel’s table. How about the non-lawyers, those plebeians? They must sit back in the pews and worship Your Worship. They cannot be trusted; they must be searched and vetted before entering the church of law; they must be beckoned before they can approach the bar. Not so, the lawyer, we apostles of justice. To us come the spoils of decades of study and work in the form of privileged space.
And privileged space is not merely physical. It is a social space that operates within and against great power. What happens when a police officer pulls you over on the road and makes demands? Should you volunteer information that can hurt you? What consequences await you? The lawyer invokes rights, existing in the same space of power.
And what of our daily relations and the squabbles we enter? A neighbour cuts down your tree; a business associate refuses to pay; a contractor fails to complete the job; a threat is uttered, I’ll sue you! The options lay before the lawyer as clearly as the chef sees a mise en place: a friendly conversation, an unfriendly conversation, a demand letter, a claim, a mediation, a settlement, a trial. While the non-lawyer peers into each option with increasing haziness, the lawyer sees each clearly and approaches not with trepidation, but with the mindfulness of a horologist, picking up so many pieces of a well-trod puzzle.
And what of modern bureaucracy? The rebates, the insurance claims, the ski waivers, the kids’ waivers, the passport applications, the visa applications, the car accident reporting forms, the divorce forms, the licensing applications, the two-hour holds? They are the lawyer’s bread-and-butter. Allow me to take that sheaf of complexity and separate facts from fluff. For it is the lawyer’s character, trained through years of red-lined documents to review and revise, to patiently plod through the drudgery.
And what of the boardroom, that bastion of corporate power? For a typical employee it could take years, decades, if ever, to reach the invitation. Not so the lawyer, who is not only welcome, but invited, whose opinion is critical to the functioning of the business. To these boardrooms the lawyer is endemic, as comfortable as a dog sleeping in its favourite blanket.
So if the question is asked, do you want your children to become lawyers? Do you recommend becoming a lawyer? The answer depends on a simpler reply. Do you wish to enter privileged space?
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