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What did you just say to the kids?
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this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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I always wanted to be a criminal defence lawyer after having a bad interaction with the police, but I'm currently too depressed to handle that. I'm way over-empathetic, so if I ever become a lawyer and have a client who I genuinely believe is innocent, if they get convicted of BS charges, I'd be heartbroken to see an innocent person getting convicted, and probably blame myself for it. Maybe being a lawyer just isn't for me.
DEFINITELY not for you!
If you became a criminal defence lawyer, I can tell you that most of your clients would be ones who have committed crimes. Only a few would be ones who haven't. The work is still fun and you should remember that the standard of evidence is "innocent until proven guilty". More often guilty people go scott free than innocent people getting convicted(happens, but if you are even a little competent, it's almost impossible).
A lot of times the police also concocts stories and twists facts. It's also one of the very few professions where there is a person dedicated to making sure you fail at your job(the opposing counsel). With all this, you have to be very smart and cold. They will use everything against you. And remember, the world is always "grey" and never black and white. You can find dirt on even the likes of Gandhi (racist against blacks and also slept with his 16 year old niece) and Nelson Mandela. No one is "pure" or "good". It's all a spectrum.
The idea behind wanting to be a criminal defense lawyer is not necessary to "protect innocent people" but rather to protect against unfair and excessive punishment against an entity that has huge resources to fuck up people's lives for minor crimes. Like smoking weed? 40 years. (There was an article about it) Getting an abortion? Get charged with murder. Laws are just so unnecessary cruel, which is why I always wanted to be a laywer. Unfortunately I think that's a bit too much for me to handle.
In that case it sounds like you would have been better off being a politician (they make the laws), judge (you can give minimal sentences) or just a lobbyist / non-profit.
Being a judge practically requires having a law degree as a prerequisite (and also convincing whoever appoints judges to appoint you or convincing people to elect you), being a politician requires actually convincing people to vote for you, also lots of funding for advertising. Much more difficult than being a lawyer.
Agreed, only reason I suggested this is because as a lawyer, you will at most practice in just one district. In a country with thousands of districts. Even then you may not get a lot of clients who you seek to help against unjust laws, because they have to select you too and it's a free market. Would just be impractical to make a big difference.