trespassing william can't do card tricks as well as the dog from MIB

So I've mentioned before that I started law school on my 30th Birthday and that this was very satisfying but I never explained why it was satisfying. Here's why:

One of my favorite books of all time is The Trial by Kafka. I can't imagine that my fondness for Kafka in general or The Trial in particular is a surprise to anyone, so rather than explain, I will just make a few observations.

The main character of "The Trial" is Josef K. I asked a former co-worker to write one of my Law School recommendations. His name is Joseph K.

One of the cliches of lawschool is that law students learn the "secret handshake." It is somewhat true, not because the working of the law are secret (in fact, they can not be, as a matter of law!) but because lawyers themselves are so bizarre, as are their terminology, abbreviations, and customs. It is all so obscure and surreal to a non-lawyer, that one-hour TV drama's aside, the law can seem like an impenetrable secret that hides in plain site.

Josef K's trial begins on his 30th birthday. Its an upsetting ordeal. A year later, he is executed.

Most law students who perish, do so in the first year and drop out. I did not. Ha!

"Like a dog!" (irresistible joke)

Ok, ok... I will explain in better detail than that.

I spent a considerable amount of time fretting over my admission essay. While people are allowed write on a wide range of different things, I imagine that the main entree is some flavor of "Why do I want to be a lawyer?" For people like me, exiting a successful career outside of law, requires that this dish come with a helping of "Why I think being a lawyer will be better than the thing I am doing now" on the side.

What I ultimately wrote, while okay and factually true, was nevertheless even more overworked than my canonical rants. It was something on the level of giving "sometimes I just care too much" as the answer to "What would you say is your greatest weakness?"

Aside: If you are ever in an interview, and you are on the fence as to whether you even want to take the job, and the person who would be your supervisor asks you this question, end the interview. Be polite, but get the heck out of there!

So what was it about The Trial, that motivated me? For those who believe in justice and due process, The Trial is a supremely dismal tale. The depth of the horror, and my motivation, can be found in the penultimate paragraph:

Would anyone help? Were there objections that had been
forgotten? There must have been some. The logic cannot be refuted, but
someone who wants to live will not resist it. Where was the judge he'd
never seen? Where was the high court he had never reached?

Unfortunately, this is how the court system appears to almost everyone who fails to have obtain competent advocacy. Now, some people say that this means that our system of justice is too complex. Those people are kidding themselves. The world is complex. Cases which are tried invariably encompass some facts which are unusual and/or contentious. Therefore, the principals which guide the rules of law must be deeply understood in order to achieve a just result.

Sometimes the stand-by recipes for justice: "Split the baby" and "I'll flip you for it" will not do the trick. The only acceptable solution is to have a judicial system that is equal to the task of adjudicating controversies in this complex world, and for everyone to have the best advocacy possible.