Lawyer or Cynic?

Being a lawyer makes you cynical. Seriously people, I have become of a cynic since I started law school, and eveb more of one since I began practicing. It all started in torts when all us 1Ls thought it was funny to walk around and name random torts in action. Hey, you bumped into me-battery!Opps, did you see that assault? This prof has kept us over by 1 minute-false imprisonment.... And let's not even start with all the negligence and duty jokes.

The point is that you go to law school not to learn the law, but to learn how to think like a lawyer. All those issue spotting essays make you see issues all around you. You begin to walk around your house thinking of ways you can sue your landlord, meals become lessons in let's sue the fast food chain, and buying things.... its products liability! Law students are like trained dogs, we are conditioned to hunt out issues and give you the answer to your problems.

But then I began to practice. My eyes were opened to a whole new world of cynacism. Insurance policies protect, well some people; people will blame everyone and everything other than themselves for injuries; don't employee people, you may be liable for what they say, don't say, and do or don't do; buying a home is well not an investment, its a lawsuit; and don't build or make anything... because when someone does something stupid with it, its YOUR fault!

I now walk around thinking of all the lawsuits just waiting to happen! That guy cut me off, well I can sue him! My backyard and porch are flooding, blame the landscape guy, my fireplace is leaking, darn inspector did not catch it! I drive home from work thinking of all the people I could sue for reckless driving, I shop in the grocery store and see slip and falls, or food poisoning. I now wonder if I could soley live off of damages awards.

Ok, so I don't seriously think that everyone is walking around contemplating lawsuits, but after you spend time looking at lawsuits all day, you begin to think what's wrong with the world! I am now that person who reads every line of fine print, the back of every receipt, and follows every traffic law to a T. Law school may have made me a cynic or perhaps its just opened my eyes as to how the worl really works. ~The Illegal Blonde