Law in Contemporary Society

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SkylarPolanskyFirstPaper 8 - 20 Jun 2012 - Main.SkylarPolansky
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 Too many times at Skadden I listened to associates speak listlessly of illusions they had of doing good with their license. Too many times throughout this first year of law school I listened to classmates who came to school with the intention of helping people now say “I’ll work at a firm and do pro bono work.” Big firm pro bono work will not satisfy their urge to help, but rather quash whatever vision they had of pro bono and replace it with feelings of guilt, emptiness and a split unconscious.

As currently practiced pro bono is a misnomer. It is not for the good of the people; it is for the reputation of the firm and the mollification of the collective conscious of the attorneys doing the work. But the mollification doesn’t work and the public image of firms is broken. “All concepts that cannot be defined in terms of the elements of actual experience are meaningless." (Cohen, 826). Instead of the parade of hours by which pro bono is currently measured, it would be better, more functional, to redesign pro bono so that it places more emphasis on the duty lawyers owe the public, the good lawyers are able to do and the emotional experience obtained from doing that good. Conscripting law students takes them beyond the Ayn Rand self interest they learned in high school, and teaches them (and potentially instills an interest in) the obligation to society inherent in their license. \ No newline at end of file

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>		Professor Moglen - As I see it the main flaw in this paper is the lack of personal story, coupled with too much emphasis on a solution which is only discussed on a surface level. If you agree then I could modify the paper accordingly, by starting with the personal story that sparked this thought process for me, and wrapping up with a brief discussion of my proposed solution. I left this draft here so as to address what I believed were the main points of your previous critique: I needed to point out more interesting things about what is wrong with pro bono, offer a more detailed solution, and address potential counterarguments.

Revision 8r8 - 20 Jun 2012 - 22:20:34 - SkylarPolansky
Revision 7r7 - 30 May 2012 - 22:13:09 - SkylarPolansky
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