As a high school senior, I heard these words from an attorney at law who visited us at Fox Chapel Area High School, a borough located in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA. And I believed that then. And I believe that now, maybe even more so now than before.

We teenagers had been primed to understand the law, not from ethical attorneys like him, but from the television sitcom “LA Law,” which glamorized the legal profession, rather than base it in the dry, boring, and uninteresting practice that it was 90% of the time. That was unfortunate, because my classmates went into practicing law without understanding how noble it was, not how exciting it was.

My very first experience working in the law was a paid internship at Akman & Associates, PC, a privately owned public interest firm in Pittsburgh, PA. I liked working for a firm that provided its services to those who would otherwise have few legal options. It was a pleasant and fufilling experience that strongly suggested to me that I could be a lawyer for the right reasons.

After graduating from Harvard, I went to work for Irell & Manella, LLP, a top-20 law firm specializing in entertainment law, in Los Angeles, CA. During my tenure there as a litigation clerk, I had a chance to interact with two other litigation clerks, a couple of paralegals, a duo of associates, and a pair of partners. They were all fine people. But that would be the last experience I would have working in a law firm.

I didn’t like the “mercenary” approach to the law that made it so adversarial. The confrontational “hired gun” approach gave lawyers a bad rap. I realized that if I wanted to be a good lawyer, I would have to jump through certain hoops. Being “good” first meant being reliable and having a good track record. Being truly “good” meant being a partner, so that if a case were repugnant to me, then I could turn it down.

For better or worse, like it or not, those formative experiences turned me away from the law. But I have and will continue to have the greatest respect for the lawyers I came to meet, who refused to bow down to the easy and preferred answers, not because they were obstinate, but because they knew there were others more worthy of their consideration. It is their example I will continue to follow in life, not others.

J.J. Park
Jasonjjpark.com