The other day, the Charleston School of Law was kind enough to invite me to speak to its student body as part of its Professionalism lecture series. My theme was, of course, professionalism in the law. But in the context of why we practice law. If you’re interested, have a look:
P.S. – If you want to skip the dean’s kind introduction, just go to the 5-minute mark.
The word “professionalism” has been horribly abused to include vapid, as well as offensive, trends in lawyering. It’s meaning has been reduced to near pointlessness.
Your talk, in contrast, goes to the core of what it means to be a lawyer, an important and worthwhile notion that needs to be drilled into the heads of law students. To characterize it as mere “of course, professionalism,” doesn’t do justice to such a valuable talk.
Thank you. I’d love for the word to recapture its real, beautiful meaning. But maybe that’s hoping for too much. Resisting the dilution of language is like holding off a tsunami with a teaspoon.
Thank you for posting this. I am truly inspired. I think the right reason comes to some of us slower than others, but I agree that there is one right reason. I thought I just wanted a long road of intellectual challenges (like you say, me, me, me), but that changed somewhat in law school and changed more after searching for what I was missing and what I loved in big firm life – the opportunity to help someone in a world of trouble. Big firms have this great pro bono tradition, but if that’s all you truly love, you may feel frustrated with big firm life, as I was. Great talk – thank you for sharing it.
Thank you, Noah. Big firm life can be awesome, don’t get me wrong, but too many of my friends did it out of “what can it do for me,” with the results one would expect. I’m glad you’re inspired — your comment totally made my day.
Do you plan on growing back the beard?
Perhaps. My wife liked it. But I’m going clean-shaven again for the time being. Gotta change things up every now and then, right?