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In a recent interview with CSPAN, Justice Scalia noted that perhaps too many good minds were being devoted to lawyering rather than something more productive:
“I mean there’d be a, you know, a defense or public defender from Podunk, you know, and this woman is really brilliant, you know. Why isn’t she out inventing the automobile or, you know, doing something productive for this society?
I mean lawyers, after all, don’t produce anything. They enable other people to produce and to go on with their lives efficiently and in an atmosphere of freedom. That’s important, but it doesn’t put food on the table and there have to be other people who are doing that. And I worry that we are devoting too many of our very best minds to this enterprise.”
Because this is a Supreme Court justice, this comment will get a lot more respect and exposure than it normally would. But to me, it’s just another example of self-hating whining from a lawyer.
To Scalia’s point about how a public defender in a podunk town is wasting her talents, let’s ask the people she’s defended in court. I doubt they would feel like her skills are wasted. They also wouldn’t accept a stint in jail for the greater good.
More important is Scalia’s general argument that what lawyers do has little value to society. To the degree that he’s arguing that we are a litigious society and the law is overly complex, he’s correct.
But Scalia is wrong to dismiss the contributions of lawyers to society. Helping to produce something has value. Patents are a great example. Without that legal development and the lawyers who defend it, it’s likely we would have not have the range of innovative products that Scalia thinks the smartest lawyers should be working on.
Scalia’s comment was in the larger context of a discussion on the quality of counsel. If Scalia is right about what lawyers do or do not produce, then he is wrong that the quality of counsel has improved. Lawyers are only valuable and worthwhile to the extent that they help society, not based on how well they can argue. If lawyers aren’t contributing, it says more about the quality of lawyers rather than what the best ones should be doing.
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Comments
10.05.09
You know what, I thought I would never put these words together but I agree with Scalia in a very limited way. I think that oddly law does attract really bright and inventive people, and often their brillance is wasted because they are restrained by the limits of the law in a way that others, who choose to operate outside of it, are not. I know really brilliant people who became lawyers to help people who simply aren't going to ever make a difference in law because of the constraints of the system. Not that the public servant attorney doesn't do something great for those she is around, but often, by the time she reaches them, her efforts are wasted. There has to be a better way. In that respect, Scalia is right. But I am quite certain that isn't what he meant!
10.07.09
I never thought of it that way...good minds WASTED on lawyering. I guess if you are bright growing up, mom and pop always want you to be either 1) a doctor or 2) you guessed it a lawyer, like there are no other possible options for a bright-minded individual to live their lives. The other plus is the money. You expect those 2 professions to have a lot of money, cause hey, someones gotta pay back those student loans.
So maybe...maybe these bright minds SHOULD be going into other fields, perhaps fields they truly love...and share whats in their hearts more w/ the world instead of following what society screams for them to do.
Beth, yeah, the public servant attorney does make a difference of course. They just don't get the recognition sometimes.
Great article.
Sheila
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