MESSAGE TO NEW LAWYERS
Ladies and Gentlemen good evening.
Looking at the new breed of young lawyers today, who would be joining the exclusive and elite priesthood of legal advocacy, I could not help seeing myself reflected in the mirror of their youth, when I too was a young lawyer, fresh out of law school, and still wet between the ears. I was 24 years old, and what gave me the highest pleasure and pride, was the honorific title of “Attorney”. At last, I said, people would not simply be calling me “Mr.” but “Attorney,” and this title, would precede may name for life.
After the bar, or after I got over the bar, (not the one open at nights) I had two major choices, judging from the offers that came: Either to join the big name law firms and the corporate giants in the Manila Metropolis, or to decline all offers and hang my shingle in a small office in Bacolod City, the place of my birth.. I chose the latter. I don’t know if I made the right choice but I chose to be a small country lawyer, rejecting the potential of earning big bucks, and instead cut my teeth in the fast vanishing field of solo practice, where you were on your own. . Why I became a judge is another story.
But let me tell you why I had a soft spot for country lawyers. Big time practitioners, counsels of corporate giants and partners of humongous law firms in the bustling metropolis of Metro Manila, do not know the heartbeat of their community. The harvest field is so vast, they are too much detached, cold, clinical and impersonal. They are mainly preoccupied with maximum billings. They move only in their own urban kindred circles. They don’t care about social acceptability.
In contrast, the small city lawyer knows his community and embraces the people who live, work and interact with him everyday, moving in the same usual places where they meet. He knows that in his local community the administration of justice is based on law practice. He is looked upon as a champion of a cause, whether that cause be worthy or unworthy. At times if he gets the good breaks, he can get into politics, become a local politician, and end up not practicing law or sadly, practicing law for free.
The life of the law, it has been said, is not logic but experience. The small city lawyer is a peace maker. He handles and resolves problems with a personal touch, using the wisdom of experience, and invoking the most basic of legal principles. He appeals to the values of kinship and friendship. He does not specialize in any field of law, because he professes to be a master of all. He is not choosy about clients who are mostly known to him as friends, neighbors and worst quarrelling relatives. Once engaged, he takes his obligation seriously. He takes control of the litigation. He does everything from writing pleadings, legal briefs, and fighting the case in court. He acts as confidant, adviser and counselor. He summons all his powers or resources to the cause. He identifies himself with the client’s cause, fully, sometimes too fully. He would fight the adverse party, fight the counsel of the adverse party, fight every hostile witness, fight the court and fight any obstacle to his client’s cause. He thinks and formulates all kinds and types of motions and pleadings, for every purpose under the sun, and dumps them all to the opposing counsel, who in equal measure, looses a barrage of acerbic rejoinders all to the exasperation of the judge. He appeals if he loses the case. If he loses in the end, he joins his client, (if the client is still not in prison) in the bars (the ones open at night) and watering holes, blaming, and cursing and chewing out the judge like an appetizer, over rounds of heavy drinking.
But beneath the surface he loves his profession. He has a sense of dedication to the administration of justice. He is proud to be the lone advocate, he is courteous, and respects the judicial office. The law to him is like a religion and its practice, more than a profession. He is not always popular in his community, but he is too independent minded to inspire confidence.
As new lawyers, in this modern age, you have now more choices and far greater field of choices in whatever type of lawyering you hope to specialize in. I wouldn’t advise you to follow the fast disappearing breed of country lawyers, although, I would like to suggest, you embrace his practical virtues and high ideals.
The late theologian and Roman Catholic priest Henry Nouwen in a passage from his book, wrote: "The lust for power has entrapped the human spirit. Instead of gratitude there is resentment, instead of praise there is criticism, instead of forgiveness there is revenge, instead of healing there is wounding, instead of compassion there is competition, instead of cooperation there is violence, instead of love there is immense fear." As lawyers you will always be in the frontline of conflicts and controversies. I don’t see, however, why as advocates fighting the cause of your clients, you cannot be a peacemaker.
As you begin your journey into the challenging land of the law, I hope you will become men and women who will bring out hope, instead of despair, unity instead of divisiveness, faith instead of unbelief, love instead of hatred, compassion instead of indifference.
Wherever your mission leads you, always remember that you are legal craftsmen, and not simply legal carpenters. Strive to practice your profession, as the highest form of art.
Welcome and God Bless You.
(DELIVERED AT THE TESTIMONIAL DINNER HONORING THE NEW MEMBERS OF THE BAR, HOSTED BY THE INTEGRATED BAR OF THE PHILIPPINES, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL CHAPTER, IN BACOLOD CITY, BY JUDGE RAY ALAN T. DRILON, EXECUTIVE JUDGE, RTC BACOLOD CITY, June 20, 2008.)
