Re-imagining the legal profession

Lawyers reaffirm their ideals

A global network of law students and professionals gathers for a series of profound conversations.
What emerges is a vision of legal work that is socially responsive and spiritually rich.
The following stories will bring you their experiences and reflections:

Keywords for lawyers	Is there law in heaven?	Law and justice

By Anne-Claire Motte

Law students are often a bundle of contradictions. Many start law school with the hope of building a meaningful career that serves the cause of justice; but as they weave their way through a complex array of courses and practice areas, and as many face the reality of how to get out from under the heavy load of student debt, their high ideals often slip away.

Law schools often claim that their curricula and programs will help mold students into lawyers who work for justice, but in reality the emphasis on technical proficiency often overshadows those deeper, harder-to-grasp ideals. As a result, some perceive law school as the process of losing one’s soul and becoming increasingly distant from the actual needs and problems of ordinary citizens.

Happily, this is not the end of the story, for there are many initiatives that are trying to re-imagine and renew the legal profession. Among them, the Focolare’s international Communion & Law project gathers lawyers, judges, students and scholars to explore how relationships of fraternity can be built among the various actors in legal systems, and how this in turn might contribute to a culture in which the value of justice could permeate all legal structures and relationships. Following a successful 2005 conference, which brought together more than 700 legal professionals, the students and young lawyers launched their own international event, “Law in Search of Justice,” held in February near Rome.

More than 280 young lawyers and students arrived from 26 different countries and five continents, representing the most varied legal systems and cultures. Some had already been living the Focolare spirituality for some time. For others it was a chance discovery.

“I have been feeling extremely isolated in my profession, and I do not have the sense that justice can be reached in my daily work,” shared Maria Valeria, a criminal defense attorney in Rome, “so when I saw the poster for this event in the court corridor building, I came looking for a response to these concerns.”

The approach might have struck some as unusual, for it included an invitation not only to exchange ideas, but to actually live the ideals proposed, in the course of the relationships that we were building right there at the conference. From lending laptops to leaping language barriers, sharing meals, or passionate discussions about the differences in our legal and educational systems, all of these efforts bonded an extraordinarily diverse group into a true network of communion, open to deeper conversations.

Workshops designed by the participants themselves on topics such as immigration, organized crime, ethics and appreciation for clients helped facilitate the discovery of law as responsive to human values and social concerns.

Sociologist Vera Araújo observed, “Law is not cold; it carries values. It is not only technical; it is also human.” Many were touched by such a capacious vision of legal practice that embraces a wide range of human emotions and experiences, and helps lawyers to discover their own role in creating relationships that foster more responsive legal systems.

The conversation was also enriched by the presence of professors and experienced lawyers who reflected on their own search for justice in their careers. Their example helped all of the participants share the difficult struggles for justice in various parts of the world: in Africa and South America, efforts to build a more just society despite corruption and social inequality; in Italy, efforts to counteract organized crime and create alternative structures; in Europe, initiatives to respond to the tensions arising from immigration; and in the Middle East, work for justice as the necessary foundation for peace. In these moments, often distant doubts, sufferings and aspirations became a shared reality.

One of the highlights was a conversation with the Focolare’s newly elected president, Maria Voce, who had worked as a lawyer before dedicating herself full time to the Focolare. With great warmth and simplicity she shared her initial fears of not being able to meet her clients’ expectations, and her own questions about how to handle conflict.
“I realized that I only had to do one thing,” she said, “to listen with love, give advice out of love, be a lawyer out of love.” This approach often led to a peaceful resolution “in my office with a cup of coffee and a sign of reconciliation between the parties.”

The last evening included a tribute to some of history’s heroes in the search for justice: Gandhi, Martin Luther King and several judges who battled the mafia. Chiara Lubich was continually remembered for her vision for a legal profession in which “fraternity can make a difference.”

“This transformation will be possible if we are guided by the Gospel,” she encouraged participants in her 2005 message, “if we build relationships of brotherhood between lawyers and judges, between convicts and victims, between the incarcerated and prison guards and so on.”

How did the gathering speak to those who were initially skeptical? Marco, an Italian law student mused, “It’s worth a try.”

“You gave me back the spark of hope that had been extinguished during the tough years of law school,” said another student. “I am ready to work toward this new vision of justice, together with all of you, without
compromise.”

Anne-Claire Motte works at the Fordham Law School Institute on Religion, Law & Lawyer’s Work.