The debacle that followed the American election is being blamed on the most despised class of non-criminal human beings on the planet-the lawyers. In the most litigious society on earth, the United States, legal eagles soar high, and now they've hijacked the democratic process. That's probably one of the least of their sins in the overall scheme of things.
Yes, lawyers are essential if there is to be law, the presumption of innocence and protection of fundamental rights. Courtroom drama is an honoured genre in film and pulp fiction, and I confess to being rather fond of the novels of one John Grisham, a lawyer by profession. Check out the films "Twelve Angry Men" with Henry Fonda, and "Inherit the Wind" featuring Spencer Tracy as the great Clarence Darrow-as close to a lawyer-hero as America has ever had. Those stirring movies show the legal process at its theoretical best, with reason and good will triumphant after a tussle of immense intellectual proportions. But these days, an American television channel is as likely to show you commercials featuring "personal injury specialists" who will sue anyone and charge their client nothing in hopes of a massive jury settlement. Slipped and fallen on your neighbour's walk? No problem, just hire Sue, Grabbit and Runn, and settle out of court for a couple of million. Never mind that you were drunk when you fell, or running to make a late appointment, or ignored the signs warning you to be careful. It's Not Your Fault!
Lawyers dominate democratic governments in many developed countries-the political equivalent of letting the fox baby-sit the chickens. People who make money from manipulating the rules are making the rules. Hello! Anyone home? The outgoing president of the United States is a lawyer, a law professor actually. He met his wife, also an advocate, in law school. I take some heart from the fact that neither of the two gentlemen who've asked the courts to appoint them as President Clinton's successor has worked in a law office. But ask them how many lawyers they have hired in their lives, and they won't be able to tell you. They have long since lost count. The problem, of course, is that the modern task of the lawyer involves constant reinterpretation of the intentions of people long dead, or out of the political loop. That's a license to bend rules, and to create new ones where the existing structure doesn't serve the clients' purpose. If the law were simple and straightforward, if courts dispensed true justice, if all people and organisations acted with good will and if truth were ever-present, then who would need lawyers? They exist because we are so gravely imperfect.
There are many lawyers who do good. One of the best is Asma Jehangir, a lawyer from Pakistan, who has done more to enforce the badly tattered standards of decency and human rights in that country than any politician, general or businessperson. In fact, it's clear that lawyers in countries like Pakistan, Nepal and India are crucial because they do the opposite of many of their counterparts in developed lands. They uphold the spirit and letter of the law by highlighting misuse of legal process by elites. Long live Asma Jehangir and her ilk.
Shakespeare's famous line from Henry VI "the first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" was actually spoken by an anarchist plotting revolution, so it's clear the bard was actually praising the legal profession in a roundabout way. Most likely, judging from many other jibes at lawyers in his plays, Shakespeare saw them-wisely-as the necessary evil that they most assuredly are.
