Becoming a Lawyer...

Let me start with my favorite lawyer joke: While doctors were using leeches on their patients, lawyers were writing the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

While studying for the bar, it is hard to keep myself motivated. I have a statute of “Lady Justice” sitting by my computer, and yet, sometimes I just want to throw it. I try to motivate myself by using encouragement and admiration for the law. We are a country of laws, where the Rule of Law prevails. We are blessed to have a nation with a strong tradition of following the laws, as many young democracies fail with this requirement, due to the fact that they do not hold their own leaders accountable for violating their country’s laws. But for all those previous lawyers creating our laws, we would not be where we are today. The great Framers of our country, most of them lawyers, had incredible foresight and left us a living Constitution so we could deal with any problems that arise in our great Nation.

I understand why people have animosity towards lawyers, but it is also frustrating. The “ambulance chasing” lawyers do not perform any service to the profession or the community. I, too, get very frustrated with the terrible and misleading lawyer television commercials; I am a firm believer in free speech, but I think one ought to be responsible with it too.

Many individuals dislike their lawyer, but love their family doctor. Why do only lawyers get such a bad reputation? What about those doctors advertising Botox to the college-age community or those doctors promoting unnecessary plastic surgery? Hello Dr. 90210!! There are doctors telling young individuals that if she starts “botoxing now,” she will have fewer wrinkles in the future. I think that is just as bad as those “ambulance chasing” lawyers. There are both good lawyers and doctors as well as bad lawyers and doctors. But why do lawyers get the worst reputation?

I think that lawyers do not get enough credit. Lawyers are highly encouraged through the American Bar Association and their local state Bar to do a certain amount of Pro Bono hours, meaning provide free legal service, and if they can not do that, then to donate money to something like a free legal clinic. The profession strives to help the community by providing free service among other requirements and yet has a very poor reputation.

Hospitals, on the other hand, are not required to give any free service; they happen to give free service when patients cannot pay the bills. Non-profit status is given to charitable organizations because the organizations give back to the community and for that service, receive federal tax exemptions. Most of the hospitals in the country are non-profit. I wrote a paper about non-profit hospitals, which non-profit hospitals are not required to provide any charitable service! The tax code has long since removed any such obligation for the hospitals. Granted, hospitals do write off a lot of losses, but this write-off is after the fact. But maybe, just maybe, if the medical industry was not ran like a business, maybe the prices would come down. Just a thought.

I know. There is a federal law, EMTALA, where hospital emergency rooms can not turn away a patient in the ER and also cannot “patient dump” to a different hospital – obviously for good policy reasons. But this still does not require direct charity.

I have a high level of respect for doctors and the medical profession, but I just wish people had the same level of admiration for lawyers. After all, lawyers and doctors receive equivalent degrees, each a doctorate degree and both are professionals in the community.

-Jennifer