Law School 2

So they found that people who were more 'pessimistic' tended to do better in law school than those who were 'optimistic'
This is in an outdated study - 1995 - but let's see if it has anything to it.
Pessimistic people are always looking for what is wrong, while these things tend to be under the radar of optimistic individuals.
Thus, in law school, if one is always vigilant to positions that are weak, illogical, etc, I suppose that would make a great grades in law school.

But this is only law school... I'm thinking people who are successful outside of school "aka life" tend to have a healthy balance between these two. They know to be on the look out, yet need to be optimistic about opportunities to strive towards them - and not burn themselves out.

But this need for pessimism may explain the high depression and suicide rates among lawyers.

I think I would really enjoy being knowledgeable and professional in telling clients their legal choices, being a legal counsel.
One of my favourite things is finding out new information, and then advising my friends of my findings. I like being of some benefit and having weight in the matter. I enjoy research and analysis and I enjoy being right. I think these are good prerequisites for law.

Immigration law, mediation, environmental law, properties/wills, family, constitutional law, these are the more social, more emotionally engaging areas of law that I'm looking into.

My dream of course, is to be an international human rights lawyer... but it almost seems like just a dream...

ah, see, I've got that pessimism.

To be... or not to be

So as I've done more research,

I'm thinking - do I want to be a lawyer?

I'd told myself that I'd like to do international human rights law - but really, the interesting cases that I've read about would probably come to me perhaps once in my lifetime.

I'd dreamed of
seeing war criminals put in jail,
having rapists convicted with ever longer sentences,
striking down unjust and discriminatory laws,
helping refugee and poor immigrant claims,
slamming corporations and those who commit white-collar crimes...

But the reality of it seems to be
trying to maximize monetary gains in messy family break-ups,
helping corporations justify their unscrupulous tactics,
defending potentially guilty offenders,
and most probably - be engaged in completely mundane tasks of which have no relevance to me except feeding my paycheck (all while dedicating myself 16 hours a day to the job).

My needs for justice will more often than not be unmet. Perhaps I'd slack off because I couldn't identify with what I was doing anymore.
And when it comes down to it - perhaps I am a bit too fragile for the job. High levels of stress have not been met by grace in my case.

I mean, I am capable of being aggressive, impartial, and decisive
- but those are certainly not my strongest enduring traits.

But we'll see.
Constitutional law still holds promise... working as a lawyer for an NGO would probably be ok as well. Anyway, as October approaches, you will hear more thoughts on this...