Can the words: FUN and LAWYER be put in the SAME sentence?

So the answer to this question: Can the words fun and lawyer be put into the same sentence? can provoke a large variety of responses, from hell no! all he way to absolutely!................. I am still in two minds.

At the moment I am currently doing an internship at an organisation in New York that specializes in class actions against the state or city for violations of civil and human rights as well as constitutional rights. My main role is to do legal research, u know find cases to support a potential class action, which at first was extremely exciting.... until the thrill of searching Lexis Nexis totally wore out and I was just left with an overwhelming feeling of boredem and a whopping headache from staring at a computer screen, skimming hundreds of cases at a time.

Anyhu this provoked a train of thought which had never even occurred to me before..... is it really fun to be a lawyer? I mean sure , its a great career, you can make shit loads of money and ... well I've just always wanted to be a lawyer since I was 7 years old! What I failed to ever ask myself was whether I would actually enjoy this career path. (This is another reason you should do work experience before jumping head over heels into a career you know nothing about, except what you read - which is usually misleading)

Anyway after I started drowning in this incredible feeling of boredom I started thinking to myself - what if I actually do not enjoy being a lawyer. Thus i decided to weigh up the pros and cons:

Ok so as an attorney in New York i could potentially have some extremely interesting cases to work on, I'm talking earth shattering, rock your world, landmark cases to work on...... so I can see the potential for these cases to bring a level of excitement that nothing else really can. On the other hand I have come to find that there is a LOT of paper work involved in all cases, more than i could ever dream of when i was in uni.

Collecting evidence is incredibly ....... ummmm, how do you say........ LONG! Contacting claimants and trying to fathom out what exactly happened to them when they got to the welfare office or job centre can be more difficult than completing a bloody Rubik's cube blindfolded! I swear some of these people can talk in riddles, without even realizing they possess such a skill!

In addition, my new research experience has left me with mixed feelings about the task. On one hand you can learn a whole load about the law by simple surfing Lexis Nexis and trying to find a case. Sometimes you find the most interesting information or case, which is great and shows that law and fun perhaps can be put in the same sentence. However, you can spend a whole day searching an extremely boring topic, like trying to find cases on procedural law or rules relating to late filing of applications, which IS 100% as boring as it sounds. (Luckily I haven't been assigned anything that boring as yet and hope such a fate will never meet me, shake ma hand then bludgeon me to death!)

Anyhu.... then i think about the way that I could make a difference, which for me is my idea of fun (and yea, this is why this blog is for law students and lawyers only.... other people will look at this and just assume i'm a totally loser!) Nehu.... I think that there is a certain buzz you get out of being in a court room making a fantastic argument that you know everyone wants to give a standing ovation for (but won't due to those silly unspoken rules of etiquette) Its that feeling ... that no model will ever get, no entertainer will ever get and no athlete will probably ever get that..... ooooooo yea!...... i'm one smart ass motherfucker!... you know ...... that feeling! Like I can run circles round you with my linguistic skills, quicker than A-rod can pop steroids.... ok off the subject nehu.....

I also see the potential and inevitable fact that as a lawyer you will lose cases, be maddddd stressed on a regular basis and actually have to work for your money unlike other people! But you'd be stressed as a freekin receptionist, thinkin "if one more pompous snob asks me to make them a cup of coffee im a kill 'em!" And u'd be earning waaaaaayy less money!

Ok so i'm kind of still in two minds, but if you can think of anything i missed or have a conclusive opinion on whether lawyer and fun really are two words to be thrown around in the same sentence... let it be known, and justify your thoughts... if u can.

So maybe my lesson from this work experience, which i actually didn't realize before, is that even when you are a big time lawyer you will have to do a lot of the boring, monotonous stuff that you do as a paralegal or junior associate, but i suppose it comes with the territory! Luckily i've rediscovered my interest in finding cases and reconnected with how important it is to make sure you have as much precedent and ammunition behind you when it comes to arguing a case... so i'm no longer bored... in fact, im staying at work till all hours of the evening just to finish the stuff!

So there you have it......it seems you can't have the excitement without the mind numbing boredom!....... it just is was it is! (and its probably the same for all careers, so i suppose there's no escaping it!)

Cherie Amour
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