The Social Dangers of a Legal Education
Back when I was a law school professor my favorite class to teach was called Legal Analysis. This is a first-year class that teaches baby law students how to think like lawyers instead of how to think like normal people. 😉
Legal analysis is THE fundamental skill of a lawyer. It basically involves using one’s knowledge of law to analyze a situation (what is called in law school a “fact pattern”) and come to a defensible legal conclusion. I frankly told my students that they would thrive or wither in law school (and the bar exam, if they made it that far) almost entirely as a function of their skill in doing a legal analysis.
One of the absolutely foundational principles of doing a legal analysis is to argue both sides of an issue. Indeed, one of my professors outright told us that we were to structure our answer to an exam essay question with, “Plaintiff will argue….” “Defense will argue…” or we would fail. (I followed his admonition — dare I say it? — slavishly, and doing so earned me a B+. My classmates who didn’t similarly comply got grades that reflected his displeasure at their so doing.)
Did Jones commit burglary? Is the contract between Wilson and Smith valid? Was Johnson’s testimony on the witness stand hearsay? Did the sheriff’s actions violate the demonstrators’ First Amendment rights?
Pretty much every single question on a law school exam, or on a bar exam, requires doing a legal analysis to answer, and doing an analysis successfully requires carefully examining the arguments on both sides of this issue.
I used to tell my first-year students: As you acquire more legal knowledge, and as your ability to do a legal analysis of both sides of an issue improves, you are going to turn into somebody who is, at least occasionally, more than something of a pain in the ass.
What’s going to happen is that some social/legal/political/economic issue is going to receive widespread media attention, and somebody is going to go on a hearty rant about said issue, and many other people are going to merrily join into said rant regarding the issue, and everybody is going to be having a marvelous time ranting about the issue…except you.
You will find yourself sitting alone in a corner thinking to yourself…um, er…wait a minute.
You will find yourself in the socially perilous position of thinking that…um, er…maybe those Awful Terrible Hideous people on the other side of said issue actually have a valid point (or two, or three, or more) regarding that issue.
You are well advised to think twice before saying that out loud, especially while the rant is heatedly in progress, because doing so will absolutely not make you more popular.
In this situation, you are well advised to remember the life advice contained in the chorus of the Kenny Roger’s song, “The Gambler.”