What Does the Law mean to You?
For both aspiring and experienced lawyers, the legal system can sometimes feel daunting and volatile. What keeps it working are vehement, passionate advocates. If you are studying for the bar, you might feel like giving up. It is possible you may even fail the bar on your first try. Accomplished attorneys all encounter difficult cases and/or clients at some point in their career, and here will always be hardships. You can read the best law books out there, but nothing will develop your abilities in navigating the legal system like hands on experience.
Society puts a great deal of pressure on people to live up to certain expectations, and the legal professional world can be high-pressure. But, these expectations are often unrealistic, and irrelevant. Your passion for the law and justice and doing what you know is right is what matters. What will determine success is how you adapt to your environment. For example: Bad guys need lawyers more than anyone, and someone has to defend them. It is a waste of time to worry about what other people will think or say about you for doing it.
If you are thinking about giving up on studying for the bar because you are worried about failure, remember that failure is our greatest teacher. Our society likes to pretend things can be perfect, but the truth is that nothing is perfect; Including the legal system. However, we must always keep striving for progress. At the end of the day, the foundation of American democracy hinges on lawyers. There is too much at risk to not give the law everything you have. Once one is able to embrace one’s own imperfections, he or she can move beyond them and improve their thinking.
Practicing law can be a very high-pressure environment, and it can be really difficult to navigate through. There is a lot of peer pressure, and a tremendous amount of responsibility. It is important to be motivated, confident, and that’s hard unless you are happy and satisfied with your own personal life. A positive, healthy spirit will help you avoid all kinds of potential troubles down the road. It will help you stay focused and be able to form articulate, convincing arguments.
Sometimes it helps to take a break. A lot of law students and lawyers are overwork and stressed out. It’s OK to watch TV, read fiction, listen to music, etc. Sometimes, when we are hung up on something in particular, it can help to just walk away from it. Once you come back, you’ll have a new perspective.
A lawyer must be able to build solid arguments. If your mind is always wondering, you aren’t giving it your all. The more you believe in yourself and your arguments, the easier it is to adapt. This will greatly increase your chances of success. There will always be a hurdle or obstacle in the way, it’s how we handle them that defines the type of person (or lawyer) we are.