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.


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.