Let My People Vote by Desmond Meade

Author:Desmond Meade [Meade, Desmond]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 2020-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

LAW SCHOOL

DURING THIS TIME, something else happened in my life that I could never have predicted: I went to law school. During college, a professor or two of mine mentioned that they thought I would make a great lawyer. It was a compliment, but I didn’t really take it too seriously. As my graduation from college drew near, however, I started looking into it more seriously. I now had my bachelor’s degree in public safety management, with a concentration in criminal justice. I could do good work with that degree, but how much more would I be able to do with graduate school on my resume? I saw there were folks who had previous criminal convictions who were lawyers or were taking the bar exams in their state. I didn’t know whether the loss of my civil rights in Florida would impede my ability to practice law. What I did understand was that, even if you had a checkered past, you were still able to go to law school. And that that sounded like a thrilling intellectual place.

The drive to go to law school came from the desire to understand as much as I possibly could about the law, in order to be of more service to others. I didn’t know if I was going to be a lawyer or not. There were so many hoops you had to jump through. When you graduate from law school with a past like mine, they put you through a fitness review where they pepper you with all types of questions to determine if you have been rehabilitated. Have you risen to a level where you’re able to be an attorney? I felt comfortable in my answers, but when the subjective judgment of other people is involved, there’s always a possibility that things won’t go your way.

I could understand why they would want to grill me. Being an attorney is a very serious profession. People are often at their most vulnerable when they deal with an attorney. Sometimes a lawyer can be entrusted with overseeing a lot of money. You might end up with insider knowledge because your clients are revealing a lot of information to you, and you can’t take advantage of that knowledge for your own personal gain or the gain of someone who’s close to you. You have to be as honest as the day is long, because as a lawyer you are an officer of the court. A lawyer does not have to place a hand on the Bible, like those who testify in a trial do when they swear that whatever they say is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Once you’re sworn into the profession, you are always under oath, in a sense, and the court takes what you say to be the truth.

At times I thought Well, if I were a lawyer, what would I do? I would be a solo practitioner who represented people who could not afford me. I wasn’t going to law school so I could make the most money.

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