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IsabellaMoralesFirstEssay 1 - 20 Feb 2025 - Main.IsabellaMorales
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The Tensions of Public Interest Lawyering
-- By IsabellaMorales - 20 Feb 2025
Introduction
I decided that I wanted to be a lawyer when I was in middle school. After watching my dad, a criminal defense attorney, do the job for my entire life, I was of the opinion that lawyering was the path I needed to take to advance the values of compassion, justice, and equality that had been instilled in me. Today, as I finally sit in law school classes and pursue that goal, I am much less certain about the role that lawyering is capable of playing in advancing those values. Nonetheless, perhaps due to naive optimism or perhaps because there is really something here, I have chosen to continue down this path, to deal with the tensions, and to try to make lawyering fit into my vision for the future.
The First Tension: The Contradictions of the Legal System
The first tension that I have encountered between my values and lawyering is that the legal system is not one which is necessarily built to uphold my values. Despite being advertised as a system of “justice,” the law is not actually geared towards achieving that goal. Instead, it is geared towards preserving societal norms, some of which may be just, but many of which, especially in a nation built on white supremacy, are anything but.
Lawyers, though, by virtue of engaging with such law, must work within that system. How, then, will I reconcile my role in an unjust system in order to squeeze out a little bit of justice for my clients with my own personal moral values?
I don't have a straightforward answer, but there are a few things that give me comfort. First, being a lawyer is only one piece of my life. I can choose to engage in other forms of resistance outside of my advocacy for my clients. This work can transcend the boundaries of the legal system. Second, there are ways to use the law which don't support the system as it currently exists. This isn't necessarily a firm boundary drawn around particular areas of legal practice, as even the most "public interest" oriented areas of law have their contradictions (which I will address below), but it is a starting point.
The Second Tension: Navigating Legal Education
The Third Tension: Choosing a Particular Path Within the Law
Closing Thoughts
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