{"id":12800,"date":"2011-02-07T00:56:29","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T05:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=12800"},"modified":"2011-02-07T17:26:45","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T22:26:45","slug":"the-power-of-one-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2011\/02\/the-power-of-one-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of One: Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When I landed in law school, I had little understanding of what it meant to be a lawyer.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By graduation day, I had a couple ideas.\u00a0\u00a0 Ten years later, I have a few more.\u00a0\u00a0 One idea that I had long before I ever entered Sensenbrenner Hall, proved overwhelmingly right.\u00a0\u00a0 It is simply this: that being a lawyer requires \u201csomething more\u201d than showing up for work each day, figuring out what the law is, and regurgitating it in a courtroom or contract.\u00a0 \u00a0What that \u201csomething more\u201d is, has taken me a long time to discover, and I\u2019m still learning.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When I began practicing, I wholeheartedly took up the generally frenetic pace of this American life, and the new lawyer\u2019s life in particular.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Those who have done it will surely agree that, while years in which one bills upwards of 2000 hours are fruitful in some respects, they leave little room for growth in other essential aspects of being human. \u00a0\u00a0Bustling with busy-ness and a desire to serve the community, I also did lots of pro bono work and volunteering with the bar.\u00a0 This allowed me to collect a wide variety of experiences in the law and on its fringes.\u00a0 A day of depositions defending a multi-million dollar corporation, might precede a meeting with a homeless shelter director to strategize about meeting legal needs of its individual residents.\u00a0 \u00a0Thus in 2007, when I switched up my career path to teach\u00a0 justice in an undergraduate setting, I had much to reflect on, some time for it, and perhaps most importantly, a realization of the value in doing so.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I now recognize, praise and honor the lawyer\u2019s unique opportunity to be a force for greater good, in our paid work, our pro bono work, and other moments in which we assert our professional identity.\u00a0\u00a0 In my writings to you this month, I will highlight three roles that lawyers commonly assume:\u00a0 we are by turns counselors, advocates, and peacemakers. \u00a0I will share with you a story to illustrate the power each of us has to express that role to its fullest, what I call, \u201cThe Power of One.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0In the course of these writings, I will share with you more of my own personal journey, and invite you to deliberate about your own path.<\/p>\n

A few caveats about this series, and its name.\u00a0 Make no mistake, as a student of social justice, I cherish no affinity for the myth of self-reliance our culture buys and sells. \u00a0\u00a0That is not the kind of power I am talking about.\u00a0 Nor do I assert that lawyers as a group possess superpowers not otherwise found in the general population!\u00a0 \u00a0And certainly, advocating, counseling and peacemaking represent only a few of the hats in the lawyer\u2019s millinery.\u00a0 My point will be simply to show that as human beings, each of us does<\/em> possess tremendous gifts with which we can effect change in our own lives and in the lives of others, and lawyering provides unique opportunities to apply those gifts.<\/p>\n

Why this subject?\u00a0\u00a0 Because we all need encouragement, and in my experience, we lawyers need it from each other especially.\u00a0\u00a0 Because it is easier to be a critic than to create, and I would rather use this platform to honor creating than write yet another critique.\u00a0 \u00a0Because as Wordsworth lamented over 200 years ago \u201cGetting and spending we lay waste our powers\u2026\u201d; let us stop the getting and spending for one single second, and dare to dream a larger life! \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0And finally, because over the years I have talked with many lawyers sitting somewhere between vaguely uneasy and wholly dissatisfied with our chosen profession.\u00a0 I myself vascillated across that spectrum for awhile.\u00a0 Comprehending my own personal power to effect change helped me discover something akin to what I felt at law school graduation \u2013 a celebratory and grateful attitude about my ability to be a lawyer.\u00a0\u00a0 This, dear reader, is a gift of joy too rare not to share.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I landed in law school, I had little understanding of what it meant to be a lawyer.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By graduation day, I had a couple ideas.\u00a0\u00a0 Ten years later, I have a few more.\u00a0\u00a0 One idea that I had long before I ever entered Sensenbrenner Hall, proved overwhelmingly right.\u00a0\u00a0 It is simply this: that being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-practice","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}