| | Humility and Humanity: The Legal Leverage of the Unimportant
-- MeaganBurrows - 03 May 2012 |
| | The take home point was that we as lawyers are not meant to be the all-important center of attention. I was a little taken aback not to be met with Columbia’s usual ego-boosting spiel. My knee-jerk reaction only spoke to the importance of the humbling reminder. |
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< | Inundated with constant reassurance regarding my future employment prospects, I lost sight of my limited place in a complex web of social interactions. But my relative ‘unimportance’ does not render me powerless. A position outside of the spotlight often presents the best place from which to exercise legal strength.
I believe that by acknowledging our unique roles as facilitators, vessels, and mediators, with knowledge of human weakness and the cracks that fallibility creates in our socialized legal and political institutions, we can begin to think about how to use our licenses to the greatest effect. |
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> | Inundated with constant reassurances regarding my future employment prospects, I lost sight of my limited place in a complex web of social interactions. But my relative ‘unimportance’ does not render me powerless. A position outside of the spotlight often presents the best place from which to exercise legal strength. By acknowledging our unique roles as facilitators, vessels, and mediators - with knowledge of human fallibility and the cracks it creates in our socialized legal and political institutions - we can begin to think about how to use our licenses to the greatest effect. |
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< | Harnessing our power requires remaining humble and cognizant of our rather small place in the grand scheme of history and society. From a position of enlightened perspective, we can draw on the principles of social psychology and our knowledge of systemic barriers to discern the easiest spaces for intervention, and proceed to apply the right amount of pressure. |
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> | Harnessing our power requires remaining humble and cognizant of our rather small place in the grand scheme of history and society. From an enlightened perspective, we can draw on the principles of social psychology to discern the easiest spaces for intervention, and proceed to apply the right amount of pressure. |
| | Beauty and Strength in Humility: Applying Force to the Legal Lever |
| | Standing at the Fulcrum and Looking Forward: A Plan for the Next Two Years |
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< | So what purpose does our prestigious Columbia education serve, if not to prepare us to go out into the world to become “important people” as defined by the administration? |
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> | So what purpose does our prestigious Columbia education serve, if not to prepare us to go out into the world to become “important people”? |
| | While the casebook method may not be very conducive to my professional development, Columbia provides resources through which I may obtain the legal and social knowledge and slight of hand required to become ‘powerfully unimportant.' |
| | Keepin Em' Honest |
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< | I have found Eben’s class, like my HRIP session, useful for keeping me grounded, humble and honest with myself. Class was a guaranteed escape from the inane minutia of the MPC, inscrutable ‘standards’ of judicial review, and archaic property rules, enabling me to look at the law in context – reflecting on both its innate flaws and iridescent beauty; as complex and enigmatic as its human creators. |
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> | I have found Eben’s class, like my HRIP session, useful for keeping me grounded, humble and honest with myself. The class enabled me to look at the law in context – reflecting on both its innate flaws and iridescent beauty; as complex and enigmatic as its human creators. |
| | Because I will no longer have a designated hour and 20 minute slot twice a week during which to gain such perspective, I have asked my friends and family to remind me to take that step back when I find myself momentarily caught in a meatball can on the packing plant assembly line. I have also committed to serving as a reality check for friends who have asked me to do so.
Perhaps, if we work in tandem to remind each other of the importance of retaining humility while achieving our individual goals, the power latent in our mutual ‘unimportance’ will combine to tip the legal lever in our favor, upsetting the balance of the forces that seek to maintain systemic structures of injustice. |
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< | Word Count: 941
You might want to distinguish between lawyers being important people
and lawyers achieving amazing things. One does not have to be the
center of attention in order for an amazing thing to come to pass.
You could make this writing tighter. Look at the second and third
paragraphs for places to divide them, and ways to say everything they
say using fewer words.
Substantively, you have again produced a subtle and effective
synthesis of the material you were given, making it your own. The
idea you are creating is the idea of your practice. It is not
specific enough yet to be buildable. It doesn't need to be. Initial
plans will be sketched out in the next two years. Then you will
begin having a practice, that is, a process of learning, adapting,
exploring that should last a valuable lifetime.
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> | Word Count: 907 |
| | Eben, I wish to continue editing and revising my work. Thanks. |