{"id":4017,"date":"2004-02-24T16:59:23","date_gmt":"2004-02-24T20:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2004\/02\/24\/law-as-daily-passion-not-defa"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:59:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:59:00","slug":"law-as-daily-passion-not-default-profession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2004\/02\/24\/law-as-daily-passion-not-default-profession\/","title":{"rendered":"Law As Daily Passion, Not Default Profession"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Are you in law school or practicing law by default?  Did you rush or stumble toward the legal profession becase it promised wealth, or status, or pleased your parents?<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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\"dice\"  New Jersey Appellate Judge Jose L. Fuentes<\/STRONG> has a message for law students<\/EM>: If law isn’t your passion, get out of law school.  More expansively, Judge Fuentes pleads (emphasis added):<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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To all these unfortunate souls: to the perpetual child, to the risk manager, to the ambitious social climber, to the mindless would-be robo-lawyer, I have but one [piece of] advice: GET OUT! Get out now while you can still leave with your soul intact<\/STRONG>. Do not allow life to catch you from behind, one day when you least expected and are least capable of resisting. <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Get out now and rediscover yourself. Ask the hard questions that you avoided asking when your parents told everyone that their child was going to be a lawyer. Ask, who am I? Not<\/I> what am I going to do?<\/STRONG> [At] no other time in your life are you ever going to be as free as you are right now to make these hard choices and then act upon them. <\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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ethicalEsq <\/EM>adds:  If you haven’t a clue what Judge Fuentes is talking about, or<\/EM> if you think he’s some idealist fool, you need to read his entire op-ed\/speech in New Jersey Law Journal, “<\/EM>Prospective Lawyers: <\/FONT><\/FONT>Get Out Now If You Have No Passion<\/FONT><\/A>” (02-16-2004; free reg. req’d). (Sincere thanks to <\/FONT>Carolyn Elefant<\/FONT><\/A> for finding and sharing this gem)<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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\"podiumSN\"  <\/FONT>If you’re already a lawyer and entered the profession for any of the above reasons, you should read Judge Fuentes’ words, too — because you’re probably already feeling the soul-death he describes, and heading toward zombieEsq status.<\/EM><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Fuentes sees a growing trend toward legal education as a default choice.  But that condition was surely already prominent in the early 70s.  Law school was certainly my<\/EM> choice by default: “Need another degree; don’t like math or science; want to leave my options open, guess I’ll go to law school.”  And, <\/FONT>Elena Kagan<\/FONT><\/A>, who got her law degree a decade after me, confessed –when she became the Dean of Harvard Law last year — that the profession had been a default choice for her, too. <\/FONT><\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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The Judge is right: it takes a continuing passion to “truly be called a lawyer.”  He says that “passion is the single most important attribute of a lawyer<\/STRONG>.”   Just last week, Abraham Lincoln<\/A> was quoted in this<\/A> space saying that “diligence” is the most important attribute of a lawyer.  Fuentes isn’t contradicting Lincoln.  It’s the passion that assures the diligence that Lincoln requires, even when a particular task is dreary or offers little or no financial reward.  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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\"podiumS\"  . .<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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I don’t think that starting from an initial default condition is necessarily a bar to achieving a fulfilling, passionate career in the law.  While Fuentes says don’t choose law if you don’t bring passion, Lincoln said don’t choose law if you can’t be diligent and honest<\/A>.  I think they are both pointing to special qualities that are needed by all “true lawyers,” and which Fuentes capsulizes:  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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