Am I a real lawyer?
This is not an easy question. And it is not because it requires to define what a “lawyer” is.
For the most part of the world, a lawyer is somebody who finishes its law degree.
In Europe, a lawyer is only one of the other professions that you can practice after finishing your law degree at the university, and the term “lawyer” is usually saved for those who effectively act as lawyers, carrying lawsuits and going to the tribunals.
As I said before, to define what a lawyer is could be a Herculean task, and as I am a little lazy, I prefer to define what a lawyer is not.
Based in definitions that I hear all the time, I can “practically” guarantee you that a lawyer is not a dog, a rat, a snake or a piranha. The definition of “lawyer” as a synonymous of “vampire” requires an additional and extensive chapter, and it is not object to this article.
Once we assume that a lawyer is a human being, we are halfway between hating them, or trying to understand them.
The law practice is probably one of the most ancient professions in the world, and this is like that, from the moment mankind decided to live in community. And since that moment the “legal world” has become very complex and very specialized through the years.
Now it’s very common to find a law firm with more than 200 lawyers, and in occasions more than 1000.
Far from the oldest legal firms with just a few professionals working in practically all legal branches, the actual law corporations represent not only the extreme specialization of its lawyers, but also constitute an important center of power and lobby.
Such extreme specialization has a lot of advantages and not less disadvantages.
The advantages are clear since the “market” needs it and naturally pay its specialization, not bad really.
The disadvantages are in my opinion, related to the headline of this article.
We’ve got the image of a lawyer as a professional of law, and “law” in all his extensity, which means a professional who can give you legal advice in practically all kind of legal matters.
So when you are a specialized lawyer, who practically ignores everything in different subjects than yours, the question is inevitable; Am I a real lawyer?
In my opinion, the complexity of the actual society requires fitted answers to specific problems, and that means that you, as a client, shall look for a specialized lawyer who can help you to solve your problem, and I, as a lawyer, must invest in my own specialization in order to become a lawyer which is part of the solution and not part of the problem.
As lawyers, we must avoid loosing contact with different areas than ours because, at the end of the day, we will realize that all the areas of law are strongly related. However I really think that Law, as Medicine, requires specialized professionals even when we will need to recreate the conception of what a lawyer is, and even when that answer is far away of our ideas or stereotypes.
A real lawyer is the one who has the capacity to adopt your position and to defend your interests, putting all his knowledge, resources, dedication and professionalism at your service with the same intensity and passion as is his life depends on it.
That is a real lawyer, not a rat, a snake….
