What Do You Think of Lawyers?

What do you think of lawyers? It sounds like a funny question. The automatic response I'd expect when asking that question is: corruption. They're mind-sucking, money-grubbing monsters who would lick your shoe or sell their own baby for a little jingle-change. However, that is not what I actually think about lawyers. I don't buy the ideology that a lawyer is just a mind-scuking monster with no compassion. That's a little cruel; it's also generalized, and about as bizarre as the idea that all art students are liberal-hippy-junkies and anti-government. It's nonsense, and I don't like generalizations. I also don't understand the negative connotions behind something that was intended to be inherently positive. In fact, once upon a time, it was positive to be a lawyer, to have any affiliation with the law.

Law is a gray thing. It's dirty, almost disgusting at times, and it's an industry that tests your morale and sense of self. If you don't bend yourself, then you're likely not going to succeed. If you're the sort of person who must be faithful, 100%, then you're likely not going to succeed in law - and this can be described as a crying shame, though not an absolute truth. I do believe there are genuine lawyers. I do believe there are individuals who go into law for the sole purpose of protecting the individual rights and well-beings of their clients, or their countries. I believe that in the same way that I believe not all lobbyists are vile individuals willing to bribe their way in. There's always the exception to something - the good, and the bad. Law, in its raw political context, has the ugly going on, but, no, I don't hate lawyers, nor do I believe they're out for my soul. Even if I was sued out the wazoo, I still probably wouldn't hate lawyers - for exactly the reason I stated: there are the genuine, however invisible, and I will admire their noble actions or sticktoitiveness (which isn't a word, but you understand the point!). It takes a lot of gall to decide to do what they do. You're stepping on glass shards for a living, and while it's profitable, it's certainly a gamble on your reputation that swings one way or another.

The better question here is: what do you think of negative lawyers or profitable ones who would do anything, even lie, to win a case? To those lawyers, I say tar and feathers, though only in a metaphorical context. There is a line that may be drawn there: if the judicial branch of our government is there to protect us with genuine justice, then why would it be applicable for a lie to be cast on the record to win a case? Or even a half truth? The hidden information, the clever slogans, and the senseless bribary. To the lawyers who bend on that? I hold little respect. It's backwards - and that is where I draw a disagreement with the questionable ethics of some lawyers. I really only have one case that makes me quirk a brow. Need I say more than: "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit?".

In that respect, you could simply say that I have a mixed opinion on lawyers. Judge a man by the content of his character and his cause. I think very little of the occupation in whole. They're a part of the judicial branch. There. That's what I think in more simple language. They're just another player on the judicial stage.