Lawyering & Wise Livelihood

Sometimes I wonder if “wise livelihood” is possible in the law. Can we support ourselves and our organizations and not deal in intoxicants, poisons, weapons, or humans…given the many nuanced interpretations of those words? Including the ways we might, from some perspective we can’t quite see, inadvertently be dealing in one of those ways?

And can we ever completely do no harm in our adversary system? In our divided country? Our impacted world?

Maybe. And then I wonder, what if no one does that perfectly, but everyone stays committed? That alone feels like a huge deal. A win. One that could, maybe, turn the tide. And if it doesn’t, then at least at the end we’ll be able to say, “I pointed my work; pointed my heart and mind, towards wisdom.” Which is, by itself, a great thing.

Happy Lunar New Year. Ramadan Mubarak. Have a reflective Lent.