You're a smart kid. Do you really want to be a lawyer?I am hoping this provokes an argument between my two sons, one of whom is a lawyer.I mean lawyers, after all, don’t produce anything. They enable other people to produce and to go on with their lives efficiently and in an atmosphere of freedom. That’s important, but it doesn’t put food on the table and there have to be other people who are doing that....Scalia wonders why you aren't out "inventing the automobile or, you know, doing something productive for this society?"
And they appear here in the Court, I mean, even the ones who will only argue here once and will never come again. I’m usually impressed with how good they are. Sometimes you get one who’s not so good. But, no, by and large I don’t have any complaint about the quality of counsel, except maybe we’re wasting some of our best minds.
Regards — Cliff
PS: This issue came up indirect during the City Life Program this morning.
Okay, but why is it always people with JDs who say this type of stuff?
ReplyDeleteI am going to throw a yellow flag on the field here, which is my diplomatic speak for calling B.S. to Scalia and other prominent law school grads who echo his words (I know, there are many). I would put a lot more faith in someone who DIDN'T go a traditional route and then encouraged others to do the same..
Many good friends of mine from various stages of my life went the law school route...they enjoy their current jobs to varying degrees, but suffice to say none are hurting materially or even necessarily hurting for options.
Maybe a lot of great minds are in law, but not all great minds are, or can be, engineers.
As someone who chose NOT to go the law school route, I'm now throwing a lot of stuff back on the table because I'm realizing how many doors grad schools (including law) can open for bright people with non-technical backgrounds, who might find themselves VERY limited by their options sans the degree.