young lawyers move on

8/14/2019 Young Lawyers Move On

1/4


2/4

[FOR YOUNG AND ASPIRING LAWYERS] [Pick the date]

has indeed been remarkable for the past eight centuries. Since the time law

practitioners in 13th century England were granted the right and privilege of

appearing before the courts to the exclusion of all other advocates, the profession

has endeavored to adhere faithfully to its duty of upholding the law and living

greatly in it.

The lawyers then, by dint of their sacred trust, were considered a political

aristocracy, a class by themselves, a superior breed of learned and dedicated

individuals. They helped shape and formulate norms of behavior which by constant

application gradually developed into an effective mechanism for social regulation,

interaction and discipline. Lawyers were then held with much respect and reverence

so that into their hands was committed humanitys final deliverance from inequity

and oppression.

Over the years however, mans primal admiration if not reverence for the legal

profession gradually waned. A tectonic shift in the public perception of lawyers has

developed, and it is not a coveted image to behold! Time was when law, medicine

and theology formed the classic triad of learned discipline, each ministering to a

basic concern of manjustice, life and death. But one wonders now if law is still a

part of that triumvirate of ancient professions. For it seems to be the fashion these

days not only to ascribe to the law profession, rightly or wrongly, the grievous sins

of falsehood, greed and justice, but even to assail and undermine its worth.

Desidirius Erasmus once said that lawyers were the most learned species of

profoundly ignorant men! And an epitaph on which was written, Here lies a lawyer

and an honest man, elicited the wry observation that times must indeed be hard

for two persons to be buried in the same grave! The implication of these, sadly

enough, is that there has been a virtual abandonment by lawyers of the noble

tenets of their profession that endowed them, in the first place, with moral

ascendancy and suasion over their fellowmen.

My friends, we have to commit ourselves to pursue our calling in the great tradition

of those who came before us with utmost rationality, honesty, integrity and

dedication. In this light, I urge you to help set the tone from hereon for the new

practice of law and be active participants in the lofty endeavor. Redirect its course

and raise it up to the glamour, the elegance, the enchantment of the legal

profession.

h a n n a m a p a n d iPage 4


3/4


I have trepidations when I talk about enchantment in the disenchanted society. But,

given your youth, your vitality, the fire in your belly in the words of Holmes, and

your fresh, untrammeled and uncorrupted vision of the future, you can transform

this inert knowledge, as it is in your power to do, into a kinetic, living law and helpreinvent the law profession into a potent defender of truth and authentic purveyor

of justice.

But, you must first reconstruct yourselves by deconstructing your lives. Reject and

discard what is wrong, wicked and false. Center instead on what is central and

essential to man. For the overall effect of a life well lived, according to Thomas

Moore, is a transformation in culture, a deep reorientation away from the imperial

heroics of progress and futurism towards an appreciation of a rich past and the

renaissance of an old wisdom.

It is therefore imperative for the profession to distance itself from the seducing

influence of passing wealth, fame and glory, and return to the immoral virtues of

Truth, Justice, Integrity and Love. For these are matters of the mind and spirit with

which the practice of law is essentially intertwined. Therefore, resolve not to be part

of the transgressions inflicted by men upon men; resolve not to cause the afflictions

that infest society and the law profession; develop among yourselves a uniform

sense of outrage for what is false and what is unjust, a sense of unity and

coherence in the practice of law by focusing not only on your own self but also onsociety, on man and his fundamental rights.

If you center your goal and happiness only on obtaining a bachelors degree in Law,

and even passing the most difficult Bar examinations, your life may simply end

there, for you derive your identity and the meaning of your existence only from a

law diploma and a certificate that you pass the Bar. Pathetic and tragic indeed that

this early you should cease to exist! You must refuse to die; you must refuse to give

in; you must refuse to give up. You must rage and rebel against narrow and self-

seeking concerns. Widen your vision instead and expand your goals outwardfromself to family to community to country and ultimately to all menlike concentric

circles from the ripples of a stone cast into a lake.

Young lawyers, make a good and meaningful start, then move on and share in the

unfolding of the Divine Plan for the whole mankind. For it is only in sharing with



4/4


others your spirit, your hear, your mind, your soulby giving strength to the weak,

voice to those who have none, and hope to the hopelessthat you will find genuine

meaning and substance in the law profession. Then you will knowtruly know

what it takes to be an authentic lawyer. And when you do, you will become

The impossible possible Philosophers man,

The man who has the time to think enough,

The central man, the human globe, responsive as a mirror of a voice, the man of

glass

Who in a million diamonds sums us up.


young lawyers move on

Documents