Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Advocate of the Law

Lawyers.

Nicknamed ambulance chasers and shysters, the poor advocates tend to receive the worst sort of publicity. Far from being touted as the exemplary pillars of community they hope to be, lawyers unfortunately tend to get a bad rep amongst the community - being branded lying, cheating, conniving con artists who would screw their own mother for five cents.

Or at least that's what I receive from hearsay.

The majority however are far from the cunning shysters of popular culture. Just like Solicitor, one of the Calvinettes, who does serve the social good according to the letter of the law. So take heart, there really are dedicated advocates of the law out there fighing.

Even on television. Let me present to you the first article of evidence.


Our very own Eli Stone. Described by the producer as a Field of Dreams-type drama set in a law firm where a thirty-something attorney begins having larger-than-life visions that compel him to do out-of-the-ordinary things. Of course the prophetic visions could have come from that Big Fella up above - or from the inoperable brain aneurysm he's just been diagnosed with.

Apart from the fact that I'm a huge fan of musicals ( how can you not love George Michael singing about Faith? ), I actually have a thing for lawyers. And by that, I don't exactly mean because I find it extremely hawt to be pressed against a glass partition wall by a desperately horny suit-and-tie attorney while I search around in tight pants for his briefs.

Hot damn. Order in the court!

Then again, Eli Stone ( played by the delish Brit muffin Jonny Lee Miller ) can take me into the custody of law without prejudice any day.

Eli Stone
Dang, will you just look at the guy? Yup, I'm guilty of Love in the First Degree.

But that's not the reason. Maybe it was from too much exposure to Ally McBeal but honestly I've always wanted to read law. Terribly naive and idealistic I know but I've always had this thing for championing truth, justice and the Malaysian way. And oh yeah, to fight for that sad pathetic widow with a dozen indigent orphans being cruelly foreclosed by some evil nameless megacorporation.

No doubt members of the legal fraternity reading this would be cracking up laughing by now! Possibly imagining me ekeing out a miserable living in a dinky law office in a questionable district defending the despairing downtrodden ( and obviously financially insolvent ).

But I've always believed that we should all start our careers - at least in the beginning - with some vague sense of fiery idealism. If you don't enter law school hoping to change the world by championing the underdog, then why in the world would you read law? To do corporate law and conveyancing? To mitigate lucrative high-profile celebutante divorce cases? To make the slobbering fat cats richer?

Come on, that's not the reason legally blonde Elle Woods left her mani-pedis, her Manolos and her Hollywood mansion!

But that's exactly what Eli Stone thought he would be doing till God - and an aneurysm - showed him the way.

10 comments:

Jay Antonio said...

There are some real dedicated ones, unfortunately not every one of them are. Many do go to Law School not for the sake of fighting for Justice or passion but for various other reasons due to the fact that having a legal background does make you versatile.

There are many reasons why an individual goes on to read Law, it usually isn't for justice.

Realisticly speaking, Lawyers have to defend even those who are in the wrong which includes murderes & criminals.

Going on further when it comes to Judicial Precedent, Justice never is the ultimatum because the Law has to make sure that the precedent wouldn't bring in a floodgate of litigation.

Here in Kuala Lumpur there is an over surplus of Lawyers & that makes it a very competitive market. Sometimes desperate times do demand them to be "creative" & many surive well with their "creativity". Those who choose to go by the book, mostly find it a fight to survive in a highly competitive market.

Queen B said...

i always wanted to read law....but my dad is really conservative moslem that he dissapproved my initial course of study.

he thinks that the only the law of god should be upheld not the law which is created by human beings...yada yada yada...so, i end up not reading law...

anyway, i dunno why....it's just something about lawyers that turns me ON....any lawyers wanna "chill-out" with me?? *wink2 hahahha

Glog said...

Let me defend on the advocates behalf...

"Justice must not only be done but seen to be done"
Lord Denning

Well, how can justice be attained if one lawyer advocates for one party while the other party is not being represented? Even though he is a criminal, the maxim goes that "everyone is innocent until proven guilty".

So about us lawyers being deceptive and the list goes on, we are basically fighting on the interest of the client... Truely, we play a part in making sure our clients interest is protected. Try looking at it as though it was the flipside of the coin.

I believe that Justice ultimately lies in the hands of our judges (since we have no jury system) Hence, it depends on how smart our judges are.

Hollywood packaged lawyers as deceiving creatures out to rob everyone but inreality, lawyers themselves are friends with one another, firm to firm is always a partnership hoping to attain settlements instead of battling in court. This goes to show that its the clients themselves who are going out there to battle it out.
And since we only get one side of the story, we only go into court with our loped-sided case to be presented to the judge....
As I say, its all in the hands of the adjudicator. Not us lawyers. We are just doing our job, protecting the interest of our client, which is what the law wants us to do!

asm@di said...

damn you paul! now i have to download this show in addition to so many others! :P

Musang said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Musang said...

teringin nak couple with a lawyer. to find out what they are like.

and to find out if they will use those phrases in bed...

"overruled!!"

__S.B__ said...

The Law Is Reason Free From Passion.

Janvier said...

From the trailer, we're thinking Ally McBeal!

Sigh we like what David E Kelly came up with there.

D-Man said...

This show is a PR stunt by the ABA - they need all the good press they can get! Just kidding. My brother's a lawyer, and he's hot.

chase / chubz said...

i'm studying law coz its fun. heheeh
and it kips me away from boredom.