Sihyun Kim
May 5, 2006
Informational Interview Paper
As advocates of the law, lawyers are entrusted with the role of upholding people’s rights,
freedoms, and security. Because the law is crucial to every aspect of our lives, it is no surprise
that lawyers have to deal with different people in different situations on a day-to-day basis.
According to Rosemary McDermott, a lawyer with her own law firm in Thurmont, Maryland, it
is not too uncommon for the average lawyer to be needed by a significant list of clients who all
have different legal matters that need to be addressed. For instance, a typical day in the life of Ms.
McDermott is as followed:
Ms. McDermott begins her day by first scanning through the newspapers
to check if any of her clients were involved in various violations of the law. Then,
several of her clients call to update Ms. McDermott on what has recently
happened. Soon, Ms. McDermott starts her work on the major task that she has
previously set her mind to complete. Today’s task is to resolve a case involving a
will. A man has recently passed away after having left behind a will. However,
the authenticity of the will cannot yet be proven, and, as a result, one of the
rejected beneficiaries of the will has recently come to Ms. McDermott in order to
ask for her help in the matter.
As she sets down to resolve the irregularities found in the will, Ms.
McDermott suddenly receives a telephone call from another client regarding an
emergency child custody hearing. Because the case is more urgent than that of the
will, Ms. McDermott apologetically reschedules and soon finds herself rushing to
court. Upon arrival, Ms. McDermott is met by her frantic client who has never
been asked to testify in front of a judge and jury. Ms. McDermott must promptly
prepare her client for the case, asking to stay calm and to honestly and tersely
answer whatever the opposing attorney may ask. The court case then begins, and
Ms. McDermott has to argue on her client’s behalf. After the case ends, the
decision is made, and Ms. McDermott must advise her client what must be done
hereafter.
After the court case is over, Ms. McDermott discovers that her cell phone
is ringing. She promptly picks up to discover that yet another client has been
involved with a legal dispute. This time, a landlord is seeking to claim the money
in rent that one of his tenants has failed to pay. Ms. McDermott quickly rushes
over to the District Court, but discovers that the tenant has not shown up. As a
result, Ms. McDermott and her client obtain a Judgment against the tenant. They
can either collect the money owed by taking a part of the tenant’s wages, or by
taking money from his bank account.
The day then gradually comes to a close back at the office. When Ms.
McDermott returns from the District Court, she finds that a long list of messages
has been left on her answering machine. Most of these calls merely ask for legal
information, such as “I bought a car that doesn’t run. How do I take the seller to
court?”, “I want to change my name. What’s involved?”, and “My partner took all
our petty cash reserve. What are my rights?”. Ms. McDermott tries her best to
respond to these messages as quickly as possible, but with her working day
coming to an end, she leaves the calls she has not yet answered for the following
day.
As Ms. McDermott’s busy day can surely testify, the tasks and responsibilities every
lawyer must fulfill on a daily basis can be quite overwhelming. A lawyer must have the
necessary skills in organization and time management in order to deal with the endless list of
clients who urgently need assistance in legal matters. Some of these matters are quite serious and
deal with various issues such as child custody, annulment of a marriage, and immigration rights,
while others may simply deal with various questions concerning the legal system some clients
may have. In addition, a lawyer must be able to quickly jump from case to case in the course of a
single day. A day that begins with a case involving property litigation can easily end up with one
that involves child custody. In all, Ms. McDermott admits that the workload and the fast-paced
nature of her job can sometimes be quite stressful. Nevertheless, she firmly stands by her belief
that her job has been one of greatest satisfactions in life. Acknowledging that law is one of
society’s fundamental pillars, Ms. McDermott feels honored to serve on a daily basis as one of
its advocates in society.
Furthermore, because lawyers must regularly interact with people of very different
backgrounds, they must be quite adept in basic skills of human interaction. As Ms. McDermott’s
account of her daily routines shows, it is quite common to encounter emotional clients who find
themselves unable to cope with the harsh realities of the courtroom. A good lawyer must have
the tact and compassion to get his or her clients to cooperate no matter what the situation may be.
In other words, a lawyer must be able to win the trust of whomever he or she must represent
before the judge and jury.
Indeed, according to W.H. Knight, the dean of University of Washington School of Law,
the path of becoming a lawyer does not merely involve the memorization of contract law,
constitutional law, criminal law, employment law, and family law. Compassion, commitment,
and the love for one’s community, he states in his address to the school’s new students, can be
good predictors of whether a lawyer will be successful:
I hope that you learn to listen to each other. I hope that you learn to respect
differences of opinion. I hope that you recognize that nothing of consequence is
built without passion, compassion, and commitment. The tools of our profession
permit us to build bridges, to bring order out of social disorder, to employ the
riches of our society for positive ends. Law can be a great instrument for
achieving good in the world. Law can also be a terrible tool to oppress people and
societies. As each of you begins this new year, my wish is that each of you always
recognizes the important privilege and responsibility upon which you embark.
(Knight)
Law, the very thing that brings harmony and justice to our society, can also be cruelly
manipulated to subjugate those whom it was originally meant to protect. For this reason, a
lawyer must never fail to realize that even in the rigid world of law, human judgment and
intuition play key roles. After all, given that it was created to help and serve human beings, the
law should not be seen as a heartless enterprise that has no room for basic compassion.
Work Cited
Knight, W.H.. “The Dean’s Column: Community, Compassion, and Commitment.” [http://www.
law.washington.edu/News/DeanCol/05-06/09-26-05.html]
McDermott, Rosemary A.. “A Day in the Life of a Lawyer.” [http://www.emmitsburg.net/law/art
icles/day_in_the_life_of_lawyer.htm].