Humility and Humanity: The Legal Leverage of the Unimportant

-- MeaganBurrows - 03 May 2012

We Are Unimportant - Therein Lies Our Power

To satisfy the requirements of Columbia’s Human Rights Internship Program (HRIP), I was required to attend a number of training sessions. While some of the material was interesting, the sessions didn’t instill very much in me – other than a strong desire to be anywhere but JG at 6:00 pm on a Friday night.

The Legal Supportive Organizing Work session, however, facilitated by Cathy Albisa from the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESI), was surprisingly refreshing. The take home point was that we, as lawyers, are rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things. To be honest, I was a little taken aback not to be met with Columbia’s usual “you are all special snowflakes who have so much to contribute to the world” spiel. My knee-jerk reaction only spoke to the importance of the humbling reminder. Inundated with the administration’s reassurances that I will eventually be gainfully employed and go on to do “amazing things”, I suppose I lost sight of my limited place in the legal profession as a complex web of social interactions. But I don’t think my relative unimportance renders me powerless. What at first may seem to be an imperfection or failing is in fact a potential source of legal strength. I believe that by acknowledging our special place as facilitators, vessels, and mediators with knowledge of the weaknesses inherent in human nature and the cracks those weaknesses create in our socialized legal and political institutions, we can begin to think about how to use our licenses to the greatest effect. Harnessing our power requires remaining humble and cognizant of our rather small place in history and society, and drawing on the principles of social psychology and our knowledge of systemic barriers to discern the easiest spaces for intervention and apply the right amount of pressure.

Beauty and Strength in Humility: Applying Force to the Legal Lever

As lawyers, we are not always meant to be the center of attention. We can often have the greatest impact from the shadows – biding our time on the sidelines and playing our cards at the right moment. Eben once discussed the influence he exerted as a disembodied voice over the phone. Our power lies in our ability to play upon the capacity of the human imagination, tipping it ever so slightly off the diving board into the depths of its own fluid subconscious. The human psyche’s compulsion to ruminate over the unseen, the unspoken, and the unknown may only require a minor catalyst to generate a self-sustained reaction. Just as Robinson “let everyone know, in [his] own discreet way, that [he] knows it” and Mr. Collins asked Baron Huddleston for “shorthand notes of the trial”, we do not necessarily need to be backed by brute force to exert quiet and incommensurable strength. All we must do is recognize the human capacity to see and to feel the potential power behind the mere voice at the other end of the phone line, and to use this to the advantage of our client and our cause.

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? 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’.

First, I can learn the language of the law, an important social prerequisite for human interaction in the legal community. This will enable me to communicate with the individuals and organizations that hold power in the hierarchical judicial system, understand the discourse through which their standard operating procedures unfold, and serve as both an effective advocate and translator for my clients.

Second, I can learn the character of the legal profession. By this I mean the component human natures within an anthropomorphic system of law. By studying social psychology in conjunction with the types of legal personalities I may encounter – ranging from Robinson, Judge Day, and Wylie, to the ‘multiple personalities’ of my classmates and professors – I can better understand how to read people, decipher their strengths and weaknesses, and predict their behavior. This will not only help me to interact with and influence others, but also to engage in an introspective analysis regarding the type of character I wish to cultivate for myself as a lawyer.

Finally, I can learn the mechanics of the system. In examining how structural inequalities are created, maintained and reproduced, and locating the points of interface and intersection, I hope to discover interstitial cracks within apparent cohesion; the places where the least amount of force can be applied most effectively to institute the greatest change.

Standing at the Fulcrum and Looking Forward

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, which enabled me to look at the law in context – reflecting on both its innate flaws and iridescent beauty; complex and enigmatic like the human beings who created it. As 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 urge 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 systemic structures of injustice and the forces that seek to maintain them.

Word Count: 998

Eben, I wish to continue editing and revising my work with you after the 'formal' semester is over. Thanks.