The Abandoned Post on Why Maverix Left Law

Lawyers are not getting the best of publicities in the news these days...
As a former practicing lawyer, I share the pain and shame of having our brethren being dragged through the mud by headlines such as "Lawyers Wanted for Crimes" and "25 Lawyers Hunted".

I had a chat with several former colleagues of mine just awhile ago, and they all voiced the same disappointment, that they no longer feel proud to be a member of the Malaysian Bar Council. According to them, when the walk in the streets near the courts in their lawyer garb, the public seem to stare or glare at them as if they were criminals instead of officers of the court.

That's a shame. Really, it is.

Speaking of lawyers and court etc, it reminded me of my abandoned post... the one I wrote to explain my decision to quit practicing law. At the end of the day, I posted the one titled "Law is Mind Without Reason"

But I kept the original draft, the Abandoned Post, and after talking to my buddies, I got it out and re-read it.

After much thought, I figured there's really nothing wrong with it so... allow me to share it here with you.

The never-seen-before...
Maverix's Abandoned Post on Why She Quit Practicing Law

Woww? November was my last blog entry? Phew!

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Groucho Marx

When I told that joke to my collleagues, one guy just looked at me blankly for 2 seconds and spent the next 10 seconds laughing loudly. TOO loudly. That's how the rest of us knew he was only pretending to get it.
*sigh* What to do? Not everyone is a Marx-fan.

Aaaaanywayyy?

A LOT of things has been happening since I last wrote. As some of you might have heard, I've tendered my resignation. After almost 2 years of litigation, I have decided to hang-up my robe-n'-bib indefinitely.

No more legal practice for this little lady. I've had enough to last me a lifetime.

Don't get me wrong now. I enjoyed litigation. I loved the feeling of being in verbal combat in the court. I relished the joy of victory being announced from the grim lips of a judge. I even admit to enjoying the self-important pomposity and grandiosity of being a litigation lawyer.

But I've come to realize that it is not for me.

I started out all starry-eyed and eager, fervently hoping to change the world and make it a better place.

As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 -1865)

Abraham Lincoln's wise words are poorly adhered to in the reality of litigation.

I've realised that most of my time is spent delaying justice... and sometimes, to my chagrin, I find myself denying justice. And to my utter horror, I began to find myself actually getting to be good at it.

Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841 - 1935)

Once again, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to imply that all litigation lawyers are evil, deceiving scumbags, NO.
But to be a litigator, I feel that one needs to have stomach of steel.. and the ability to detach ones'self from common human traits like compassion or empathy.

One example.

I went to court on behalf of my client, a major financial institution. My job was to obtain an order from the judge to evict a family from a property belonging to my client.

In court, I am faced with a middle-aged man with a weather-beaten face, wearing an off-the-rack suit. He is accompanied by his 9-year-old daugther. Like many other people like him, he was unrepresented by a lawyer. No money to pay the legal fees.

The minute he heard that I was the plaintiff's lawyer, he approached me with dignified appeals not to evict him and his family from the house.

His voice is hushed but his eyes spoke volumes. I explained to him that my hands were tied. He had defaulted on payment and my client wants him to leave the property so that they can auction it off.

He clutches at a bunch of papers, tied up with a rubber band. He shoves the tattered bundle into my hands and tells me that these are letters from people who owe him money. And once he has collected these monies, he can pay the bank and my client should be able to let him stay.

I explained to him that it was too late for this. My client wants the property back and there is nothing much he can do about it but leave peacefully without having a bailiff forcefully throw them out.

To my utter chagrin, this middle-aged man starts to beg. He tells me that he's a taxi-driver, a single father raising 8 children and caring for his sickly mother. He tells me that if they are evicted, there is no place else for them to go.

His pleas get more and more emotional. And I could do nothing but stand there and listen... and tell him again and again that there was nothing I could do to help him.

My frustration at the helplessness of the situation quickly turned to mortification when I saw silent tears running down his cheeks. And that's when his daughter, who was watching our exchange, burst out into tears. The sight of her father crying was too much for the little girl and she wept while clutching at his waist.

Sobbing, she turned her face upward and looked at me.
Looked at me like I was the most evil monster she could ever imagine.

And indeed I was, as a few minutes later, I effectively got the judge to grant us an order to evict her family from her home.

This is only ONE example of the many depressing things I've done in the course of being a litigator. I've bankrupted several struggling businessmen, wound-up several companies and obtained warrants of arrest for several unsuspecting sleeping directors.

If there is such a thing as karma... I am so screwed.

It got to a point where I realized that I wasn't built for this kind of work. As 'strong' as I may seem to some people, deep inside, I'm still a bit of a wuss.

So, after giving it much MUCH thought, and after talking it over with my husband and my family, I realized that there was only one thing to do.
Get out.

Thus, one week from today, I will be bidding adieu to the legal practice.

Will I miss it?
Yes.

Am I glad to have made this decision though?
Yes.

Am very much looking forward to a nice long break before I pursue my 'future undertakings' :)

And hopefully, the karma will be a lot brighter this time.

-End of Abandoned Post-

So there you go.
Of course, the post I ended up with sounded much nicer, and much more positive. And it's all true.
But the stuff in the Abandoned Post is also all true.

However, there's a lot more of the truth that I have not revealed... and I guess, will not reveal...
There are somethings that are just better left unsaid.

And to my former brothers and sisters at the Bar, don't worry too much about the bad publicity. As long as you're not one of the "Lawyers Wanted For Crimes", you'll be fine... Hehehehe!

But seriously, I have faith in our lawyers... Not all of them are bad and quite simply, most of them are good. It's just a matter of getting rid of the evil ones and building a stronger reputation among the better ones.

As for the bad press, heck!
No one ever liked lawyers before this anyway :)

The greater the loyalty of a group toward the group, the greater is the motivation among the members to achieve the goals of the group, and the greater the probability that the group will achieve its goals.
Rensis Likert