"He's more machine now than man..."
Its sad when the only thing you feel like doing when not studying for law school is bitching about law school. I find I'm not the only one though. I'll try to keep my bitching to a minimum here.
Its now week 4, and we are almost half way to our final exams. That alone is pretty scary, but what makes things more interesting is the fact that those final exams are our grade, our entire grade.
Meaning: you fail the exams, you go home. Thats it.
Now that I've been in my new environment for a few weeks, I can start to make some observations. For one, I have begun to lose most of my basic faith in humanity. You should read some of the cases we have to read, and the completely stupid reasons people sue each other, or the ways that some people just totally screw other people. The legal profession is a service profession, the significance of which is that you have access to people's lives in some of their darker moments. You are either their champion or their hired gun, depending on which side hired you. This being the nature of the beast, I can see myself already becoming more jaded.
Jaded. Nobody ever wants to admit it but everyone gets there to a certain extent at some point in their life. For most people, its a survical mechanism, or just a way of coping with disapointment. I think to be a lawyer you have to be jaded, or you won't make it. If you aren't, then you won't be able to live with yourself if your client is one of the bad guys, or on the other hand if your client is one of the good guys and you happen to lose. No matter what your best intentions are, at some point you will probably end up in a situation where morally you have to look at yourself in the mirror and say "I let somebody down..."
Its a tough job, but its necessary. The whole point of our justice system is that each side gets advocacy, in order to avoid judicial tyranny. But what is an attorney's moral obligation? Is it to try to make the outcome conform to your own personal morality? Is it an obligation to a higher concept of justice? Or, is it a professional obligation to the person who is paying you to do your job? I tend to think the obligation lands on the side of professionalism in this case. Thats the logical and sensible answer at least. That still doesn't make it any easier when your gut is telling you something is wrong, however. And so you either let guilt destroy you or you keep steeling youself up...
Sorry to be such a downer, but its been that kind of a day. Plus, I just found out that Six Flags is closing down Astroworld in October.
The world as I knew it is falling apart before my eyes...
Close is out.
Its now week 4, and we are almost half way to our final exams. That alone is pretty scary, but what makes things more interesting is the fact that those final exams are our grade, our entire grade.
Meaning: you fail the exams, you go home. Thats it.
Now that I've been in my new environment for a few weeks, I can start to make some observations. For one, I have begun to lose most of my basic faith in humanity. You should read some of the cases we have to read, and the completely stupid reasons people sue each other, or the ways that some people just totally screw other people. The legal profession is a service profession, the significance of which is that you have access to people's lives in some of their darker moments. You are either their champion or their hired gun, depending on which side hired you. This being the nature of the beast, I can see myself already becoming more jaded.
Jaded. Nobody ever wants to admit it but everyone gets there to a certain extent at some point in their life. For most people, its a survical mechanism, or just a way of coping with disapointment. I think to be a lawyer you have to be jaded, or you won't make it. If you aren't, then you won't be able to live with yourself if your client is one of the bad guys, or on the other hand if your client is one of the good guys and you happen to lose. No matter what your best intentions are, at some point you will probably end up in a situation where morally you have to look at yourself in the mirror and say "I let somebody down..."
Its a tough job, but its necessary. The whole point of our justice system is that each side gets advocacy, in order to avoid judicial tyranny. But what is an attorney's moral obligation? Is it to try to make the outcome conform to your own personal morality? Is it an obligation to a higher concept of justice? Or, is it a professional obligation to the person who is paying you to do your job? I tend to think the obligation lands on the side of professionalism in this case. Thats the logical and sensible answer at least. That still doesn't make it any easier when your gut is telling you something is wrong, however. And so you either let guilt destroy you or you keep steeling youself up...
Sorry to be such a downer, but its been that kind of a day. Plus, I just found out that Six Flags is closing down Astroworld in October.
The world as I knew it is falling apart before my eyes...
Close is out.