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< | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | | | Why the Law?: The Tensions of Public Interest Lawyering | | | The first tension that I have encountered between the law and what I hope to achieve through it is that the legal system is not one which is necessarily built to uphold my values. Despite being advertised as a system of “justice,” the law is not actually geared towards achieving that goal. Instead, it is geared towards preserving societal norms, some of which may be just, but many of which, especially in a nation built on white supremacy, are anything but. | |
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< | Lawyers, though, by virtue of engaging with such law, must work within that system. For instance, I am interested in working in public defense. However, I know that sometimes the best thing for my clients will not be the best thing for the system as a whole. Plea deals, for example, encourage defendants to accept their guilt to avoid rolling the dice with the harsh punitive consequences that might otherwise result. These are often the best option for clients. However, every time a plea deal is accepted, it reinforces that that is how the criminal legal system should work. How, then, should I reconcile my role in this unjust system with my own personal moral values? | >
> | Lawyers, though, by virtue of engaging with such law, must work within that system. For instance, I am interested in working in public defense. However, I know that sometimes the best thing for my clients will not be the best thing for the system as a whole. Plea deals, for example, encourage defendants to accept their guilt to avoid rolling the dice with the harsh punitive consequences that might otherwise result. These are often the best option for clients. However, every time a plea deal is accepted, it reinforces that that is how the criminal legal system should work.
Why is the system not working if guilty people plead guilty? Would the system be working better if it tried every case, having in mind that the resources required would be far beyond those that the taxpayers could or would bear? Is settlement of any civil action also a sign of injustice, or is it only all criminal litigation that should be resolved in the most complex and expensive possible way? Who would actually benefit from such a social commitment to trial, other than trial counsel?
How, then, should I reconcile my role in this unjust system with my own personal moral values? | | | I don’t have a straightforward answer, but there are a few things that give me comfort. First, being a lawyer is only one piece of my life. I can choose to engage in other forms of activism and resistance outside of my advocacy for my clients. This work can transcend the boundaries of the legal system. At the same time, through my work in the legal field, I can do my best to help individuals escape particular injustices. This isn’t a perfectly satisfactory answer, for it is one in which I presume that the larger systems of injustice will remain standing. Nonetheless, I think that, for now at least, that presumption is necessary, and I should do what I can to minimize the negative impacts of such a system. | | | In sum, I am not the optimistic 12-year old I once was who declared she wanted to be a lawyer. I think, though, that I am better equipped to do this job the more I understand the complexities it raises. I hope that I can continue to uncover solutions, even those that are not fully satisfactory, during my time in this class, throughout law school, and throughout my career. | |
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I think we can make the draft stronger if we give it more to conclude than that you aren't 12 anymore. I think the asking of hard questions would displace some of the relatively easy rhetoric, which—as I tried to show above—we can surely do. The "big picture" turns out to mean fretting about educations other than your own, but it is yours that should be our primary concern now. Let's see if by leaving both childhood and the big picture to take care of themselves for a bit we can't contribute more powerfully to your particular professional development.
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