The Ideal Lawyer: Is it a Realistic Goal for Future Lawyers of America?

“When you think of the ideal lawyer, whom do you think of?” This was the question that 5 panelists, comprised of lawyers, authors, professors, and former state Supreme Court justices sought to answer at a program held by the American Bar Association. The program was called, “The American Lawyer Ideal: from John Adams to Atticus Finch to …” and was put on as a part of the Leon Jaworski Public Program Series at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Thanks to Leah’s boss at AFJ, we attended the event together after a long day of work.

The panelists were incredibly interesting and came from a variety of backgrounds in the legal field. All had different “ideal lawyers” in their heads. President Lincoln, Thurgood Marshall, John Adams, Abigail Adams, Atticus Finch, and Sandra Day O’Connor were all mentioned and discussed, idealized for the way they sought through adversity, their strong legal minds, and their integrity as attorneys. The panelists discussed many other attorneys, both contemporary and historical that were not as well known. Overwhelmingly, these attorneys were ones who worked as public defenders, in legal aid, or in relative obscurity until they “made it big” when they argued in front of the Supreme Court.

There were so many thoughts that were popping into my head while I was listening to the panelists. One was who I would say is my “lawyer ideal.” First I thought, Justice Antonin Scalia. I feel like I have a particular connection to Justice Scalia, first for the fact that he is an Italian-American like myself. Second, his way of being brutally honest with the way he views the law and not being afraid to say it is also extremely admirable to me. Then I thought, Sandra Day O’Connor. I’ve always enjoyed reading her Supreme Court opinions because of the way she reasons. I feel as though I will be more like her when I’m on the bench because I believe she sees the merits of both sides of an argument and weighs them thoughtfully in a way that brings law to the forefront, rather than person opinion (it’s good to have lofty ambitions, right?).

However, I had a hard time listening to the panelists at the same time I enjoyed their discussion. Every panelist had graduated from an Ivy League law school, and many of the “lawyer ideals” that were discussed were also Ivy League educated. I couldn’t help but wonder: what about your average, everyday lawyer? What about the lawyer that couldn’t afford an Ivy League education or didn’t have the right credentials that would admit him or her to such a school? As a student that may not be able to get in to one of these schools, this fact bothered me. Perhaps this is my “quarter life crisis” speaking. With law school applications looming in the near future, I could feel myself stressing out.

The other thought that I couldn’t get out of my head was the fact that all of these lawyers were not lawyers in big law firms or in corporations. They were public defenders and attorneys working with legal aid and non-profit organizations. These lawyers are some of the worst paid lawyers in the business. What struck me is that the discussion left out an entire class of lawyers that many aspiring attorneys long to be. Apparently I wasn’t the only one thinking of this, because a lawyer in the audience asked a question that dealt with this subject to the panelists. It is a tough reality for me to try and grapple with: I would love to work in the public sector, or as a public defender or legal aid, but I’m going to have tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars in debt for law school, in addition to undergraduate loans.

While the discussion left me with some heavy questions about the “logistics” of my future legal education, I still felt inspired and remembered why I wanted to be a lawyer in the first place. President-elect of the American Bar Association, Stephen N. Zack, put it best. He described his own experience in growing up in Cuba. He remembers how the old Cuban Constitution was extremely similar to that of the United States and how so quickly the liberties it described was taken away in the communist revolution. He reminded us that if there are not lawyers defending these liberties how quickly they could be taken away. Lawyers and judges are the defenders of liberty, and the champions of justice. This is why I want to be a lawyer.