I've been thinking a lot about my career lately, as one does at the end of each year (no, not the financial year!), so Legal Eagle's recent postings on the issue have been particularly poignant according to my poignometer.
I was in a meeting recently with a non-government organisation which I assist in running. We had a proposal brought to us to jointly run a music festival. Unfortunately, it had more holes than my best painting jeans, and a short time frame in which to plug them. The people in question were certainly well-intentioned and reasonably thorough, but I saw a number of risks. I put on my best lawyer hat and pointed out the lack of planning approval, contract drafting and provisions for insurance and security. I saw liability everywhere.
We made the right decision - to postpone the idea - but I felt like a pariah afterwards. Everyone wanted to join in and create goodwill, but I could only see the "what-ifs". For a long time afterwards I struggled with my reaction. Am I too risk-averse? What is my role here? Why do I sound so negative? Did I do the right thing?
It didn't help that the person putting the idea forward was a close friend.
The experience tapped into a whole lot of other concerns about my career choice. What is worthy about what I do? I don't save lives, I don't facilitate good and amicable dispute resolution, I don't help people feel better about themselves, and I'm not solving the hunger crisis in the world. Why do I do this? I didn't need the weight of others' perceptions of lawyers to reinforce that I felt like a bottom-feeder.
Lawyers, when practising, are dedicated pessimists - it's their job. But this can feel less than worthy, especially for those of us who feel the pain of the world heavily at times.
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1 comments:
Poor Cherryripe. But look at it this way; you might have saved a person from being injured because of poor planning. Unfortunately, sometimes the world needs people to sit back and say "Hey, guys, I don't know if this will work." That's actually a good thing.
When I used to work in a Court, I'd see so many situations and think, Why didn't someone stop this from happening? Why didn't someone say anything? Therefore, you should be proud of yourself for injecting logic into the discussion and making everyone think about their actions.
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