Let me start off by saying that practicing law, you have to have self control and patience. You never know what kind of case or client you will get, so you must take it as it comes.
Your clients can turn out to be extremely unreasonable and a tad crazy, or they can be the sweetest, most unselfish people you’ve met. Either way, they are your clients and you must do all that is in your power to stand for them and protect them.
One of my struggles within law, is my own personal bias. You may be given a type of case that you don’t know where you stand or what you believe. When these types of things happen, you must only listen to what your client says and represent their story to the best of your ability in order to win the case.
One of my toughest cases was a domestic violence report. A man had been accused of beating his wife and children as well as a large amount of verbal abuse. His past showed drug use as well as anger management issues. I had to support his side and help him to get the most out of the battle for his children as I could. In no way shape or form did I support this man and what he had done to his family but he was my client. I worked hard to put all my personal opinions aside and simply do my job. In the end, he did not get much out of the battle (which I was secretly overjoyed for) but I did my job to the best of my ability which is what I am paid for.
Personal opinions affect us day to day more than we know and that is something many people fail to remember. I have seen many lawyers go into cases and turn them down partially into it due to their own personal bias. They let how they feel about the case and the client get in the way of them doing their job and this is not something a lawyer can do. If you can handle the stress and emotion of representing even people you may truly hate, than you can handle this field. However, if you let your emotions overwhelm you and take control of how you think, then I wouldn’t suggest moving on into the law field.
Being a lawyer is not by any means easy even when you can push your bias aside. I have come home broken hearted and in tears due to cases before because they turn out to be so cruel. Innocent people getting punished for things they have no control over, brutal murders in which the criminal is not given a just punishment, and broken families are part of my daily life.
Although I have the ability to limit some of the feelings I have for these cases, I cannot push them all to the back of my mind. So I let myself feel after a long month of broken hearts and broken cases, that come with being a lawyer.
Frank