Why Did I Become a Lawyer?

Why did I become a lawyer?

I’ve been a lawyer for about 20 years. The reason I personally went to law school was to figure out how the world works (and do you have the opportunity to make more money). Prior to going to law school, I was a musician, and I have to admit that there was a lot of mystery is about how people made money and how the world worked in general. I personally went to law school on a lark, meaning that I did it kind of on the spur the moment. At the time, I had a masters degree in music and was trying to figure out how it was going to actually make a living and be able to retire one day. I went to the public library and borrowed some books on how to study for the law school admission examination. A month later, I took the law school admission exam and got into the Iowa College of Law, which is one of the top 20 law schools. I was lucky enough during my first year of law school to become a research assistant for the late Professor Alan Widiss, who was a nationally known insurance law expert.

In law school they talk about the “seamless web of the law”. What they mean is that after a couple of years of studying all of the laws you come to understand that they are all inter-related with politics, psychology, social engineering, the economy, and so on. Before law school, it felt like I was just walking around the streets of the city. But after law school, I was able to get up on the “second floor” of the building and see how people actually related to each other on the street below. I saw the bigger picture. I saw precisely what the law required, and what I could possibly do that still complied with the law but was different than other people currently thought. (I saw the “loopholes,” as people say.)

Now for my own personal opinion. The law is the foundation of civilization. In former times, people‘s behaviors were regulated by commonly held higher aspirational standards set by religion and ethics. Those religious morals, ethics and higher standards were more demanding than the meer requirements of the law. For example, religion would teach us to love each other, but the law merely csays we should not kill or physically hurt each other. Somehow our civilization has now come to depend exclusively on this final set of ground rules.

In any event, learning about the law lets you understand the bare bones of what holds our society together.