Eric Grigg

I have been asked a few times why it is I decided to first apply and then accept an offer at a law school at all – regardless of which one. Why everyone is so surprised, I do not know (one would think I were not argumentative or obsessed with rules), but the gist of their reaction is:

What Are You Crazy?

What people have against law school in particular, I do not know, but their objections in general seem to be as follows: you are in it just for the money (and, by extension, not some nobler goal of knowledge for knowledge’s sake); you are abandoning your undergrad discipline (and, therefore, have wasted your time); and/or you are naive if you think you can change anything through the legal process (as if academia has a stranglehold on the change racket).

These objections, whatever their own merits, do require a response and whatever shape that takes it will require an idea of why I (or you) actually want to study law. It is best to dispense with the obvious first: if you are just in it for the money, you are probably joining the wrong profession. Law (I am told) is not the golden ticket it, allegedly, once was. While perhaps no profession is a sure bet today, there are certainly more certain choices around (medicine comes to mind). That said, there certainly is money to be made through the practice of law, just not as much or as quickly as non-lawyers seem to think. Similarly, as a certain Mr. Furlong has said, wanting to ware a suit and tie everyday is not reason enough.

Maybe Not Entirely…

If it is not for the money, or the fashion, then there must be another reason. To some extent, what has personally drawn me towards the study of law, and what sets it apart from the political theory I studied in my undergrad, is its incoherent practical nature. The practice of law is about solving real problems for real people – it goes without saying that political theory cannot make the same claim. Similarly, while theory obviously shapes practice, it will be much easier to appreciate the effect of my actions on the world around me as a practitioner than as a theorist. This is not argue that the skills I developed through my study of political theory will go unused in law school. Theory is all about argument: analyzing your opponent’s, critiquing it, responding to criticisms of your own, and eventually developing a unique, coherent approach to a particular problem.

It may be a truism or a cliché, but a system of law, of whatever shape, is the mark of civilization in the sense that it is a systematized process of peaceful conflict resolution. Whether in criminal or civil matters, the law is (meant to be) a known set of rules by which fairness and security are restored. Now, it would be hopelessly blind to say that this is actually how things work, but it would be similarly blind to suppose that because a system is imperfect that it should be pursued. While I hold no pretensions of single-handedly changing the legal profession or its public perception, I do like to think that if more people who went to law school were of an idealist persuasion then the legal profession might live up to its noble aspirations.

Perhaps its because my mother is a civil servant or that I come from a ‘comfortable’ family, but I have always felt a certain level of noblesse oblige. This is not to suggest, of course, that I am in any way ‘noble,’ but rather to to recognize that privilege entails responsibility. I have been fortunate in the hand life has dealt me and I feel an obligation to repay that fortune through service. Then question, then, is how best to provide this service? For me at least, law appears to be the answer. It takes only a cursory glance at the state of the legal profession to know that there is always a demand for legal services among government, non-profits, and even the defence bar. Furthermore, even if I do not end up practising in any of those fields, there will always be opportunities to volunteer my services in the community at large (like at the Northwest London Resource Centre).

Conclusion

When it comes down to it, I want to study law because I feel it will best allow me to ‘be the change in the world‘ that I would like to see. This is because law is, first and foremost, about service and because law is about rules (something I am very comfortable with). I have always felt that if more people played by the rules, then many of the problems we face today would simply not exist. To this end, I envisage my legal career as either helping those who might not otherwise get the most of the system, that is, who might not get what is rightfully theirs or holding those to account who have broken those rules and sought to possess what was not theirs to have.

Having laid out why I find the law an attractive subject and, quite possibly, a fulfilling profession, I would be interested to hear from others. Whoever you are, what it is about the law that draws you most to it?