People go to law school for a variety of reasons. I went to law school because I wanted to make a difference and fight for the voiceless. There are countless individuals in our society that simply feel as if the law is not there to protect their rights, much less to look after their interests. We live in a very classist society where oftentimes members of the poor and working classes feel as if the government is there to serve the elites and the big corporations. Perhaps it’s naive to think otherwise, but I personally believe that the law sees no socioeconomic class, no race, no religion, no sexual orientation. I am a firm believer in law and order and holding not only the government, but the wealthiest people and the most powerful businesses accountable to the same law that applies to blue collar people across the board.

One thing that I found when I started law school was that even the most idealistic of individuals started to clam up the more they progressed during their law school education. They may have been politically-engaged in their adolescence and even more so in college. And that may be because in college individuality and idealism are applauded, but in law school it seemed that anything that made you stand out from the crowd could be problematic in terms of hiring possibilities and even class rank. At the law school that I went to, for example, many of the students were corralled around like cattle by the administration. Any type of dissent was met simply with two words, honor code. Honor code? Yes, honor code. Any violation of the honor code put you in front of a disciplinary board that determined whether or not you could continue your legal education. I don’t know about you, but that’s certainly a powerful tool of control if there ever was one.

But let’s say that you didn’t attend a law school where the honor code was dangled over your head by members of the administration – and even front desk security officers who honestly were the eyes and ears of the deans many floors above. Maybe your school didn’t try to clamp down on expression and thought, but maybe the fear of being blacklisted even before graduating law school and long before even sitting for the bar exam was enough of a reason for you to stop believing in what you believed in your whole life.

I have a personal problem with that. I have a problem with law school students either being told that they have to stop being individuals or feel as if they have to stop being individuals simply to be able to graduate law school, pass the bar exam, and then hopefully land a good job. Hireability should not be based on sacrificing your values. It should be entirely merit-driven.

I can’t tell you how awkward it felt that first semester of law school. It wasn’t even the first semester, more like the first week. It was orientation, actually, and we were being told if you had social media to consider either deleting it or setting it to private.I remember people rushing to grab their phones and heard what sounds like a wave of keys typing in unison. Keep in mind this was January 2008 at the largest law school in the country. Our incoming class was easily bigger than most law schools in their entirety. I remember sighing and just staring at the presenters. I’d been politically active in left wing organizations since the age of 14 and vegetarian animal rights activist since a few months shy of my fifteenth birthday.

I remember sitting there thinking about how doomed I was to be entering a profession where potential employers would consider hiring me or not based on what my ideals were. Who was going to hire a Marxist that had already marched in several states for causes ranging from opposition to the Iraq War and the Cuban Embargo, to fighting for the return of Aristide to Haiti and the liberation of the occupied territories in the Middle East. I had written papers on the reunification of Ireland, how German communists died opposing the rise of Nazism, and singing the praises of the Spanish Republic. I had websites, Facebook groups that I not only administered but that I had created, and I was all over the newspapers from my student government days at the University of Florida.

Suddenly, the excitement of starting law school seemed somewhat fleeting. I felt as if I’d be blacklisted even before the first day of class. If the legal job market was this anal retentive, then I had real problems. Not that I’d ever sell out, anyways, but I figured if I was going to be a jobless attorney in the future I might as well enjoy law school and learn as much as I could. I’d be as active as ever politically and I’d never subscribe to these bullshit directives being thrown our way. I’d heard during orientation. But as I looked around, absolutely everyone was erasing their social media footprint. Everyone was on task – from my left to my right, including the row below me. I was in a room full of robots. This defied everything I always believed about lawyers and people who wanted to study the field of law.

Some of the most brilliant revolutionaries throughout time had been attorneys. Some even came from wealthy families and upon studying the law and seeing its application to society as a whole, turned into rebels. They saw a stark contrast from what they were told growing up and what they saw in reality. Not only did they find it morally repugnant but they put it all on the line and fought against the system.

It’s a little easier to be a rebel when you come from money, but countless law students from blue collar roots want to challenge the system just as much. A great many people go to law school because they want to fight for social justice. There may not be any money in it, but there’s the chance to really make a difference. And that matters more than the big houses and the fancy sports cars. That’s why I went to law school and I couldn’t understand the concept of professors telling new students to stop being individuals and start being sheep in order to be successful lawyers. And sadly, those who listened most during those first few days of January 2008 were probably the students with the most to lose.

I have nothing against rich kids and I certainly don’t think that a kid that was born with a silver spoon has any less chance of growing up to be a wonderful attorney but the stakes are considerably lower for them. What do I mean by that? A rich kid that goes to law school who perhaps holds on to very conservative ideals is not about to stop being that individual no matter what a dean of academics or a professor may tell them during orientation on the first week of law school. But a working class kid who maybe is there because of a scholarship or maybe is there accruing a substantial amount of debt and will need to pay for it at some point down the line, he/she does not have the luxury of being an individual or of being idealistic if he/she is being told at orientation throughout law school that that’s going to substantially reduce job prospects.

And it’s not just law schools. It’s also bar associations and the general hiring practices of some of the biggest and most respected firms throughout the country. Nobody wants a troublemaker working for them. Nobody wants somebody that could be labeled a whistleblower. Nobody wants someone who is willing to take a stand for something – even if that means standing alone. In any other situation someone like that would be applauded for their convictions, but I feel that in the legal profession someone like that gets shunned. And once you’re shunned you can’t get unshunned. It’s the equivalent of squeezing toothpaste out of the tube – you can’t put it back in. Once you are marked a troublemaker or a whistleblower or a rebel, very few large firms will even give you an interview , much less a call back or hire you. They’re simply going to pass on you and at that point word will spread like wildfire that you’re damaged goods. And all because of what? Because you’re an individual? Because you believe in something?

I wish I could tell young law students that our profession isn’t really like this. We live in a country that moves ever more to the right from generation to generation. Some may have you believe that every channel on television is part of the left-wing media and that the country is moving to the left but nothing could be farther from the truth. In just a few months a fascist may return to office or we may get stuck with four more years of a senile neocon who is too busy sending weapons to Israel and Ukraine to give a crap about the real economic need in every city in this country. Everyday when I go to work I see more and more homeless people sleeping on the streets and it makes me remember the days when I used to substitute teach in Florida, Michigan, and right here in Kentucky. I remember when I would see blessing bags go out every week. These were bags of canned goods and non-perishables sent to families to feed their children. These were families that either lived in cars or four or five to a small room at a motel 6. Although it’s a well kept secret, there is real hunger in America. There are children that literally go to bed hungry in the greatest country in the world. There are senior citizens that have worked their entire lives only to barely survive in their old age. The reality of the matter is we live in a substantially flawed country that could really benefit from passionate, idealistic new lawyers. But law schools, bar associations, and hiring practices seem to be purging the profession from the legal advocates society needs most.

At the end of the day each and every law student needs to make a decision as to whether or not getting hired trumps their individuality and their idealism. We have a Bill of Rights for a reason and each and every right should be exercised to its fullest. First amendment protected speech – whether it be written or spoken – on a sidewalk, a Facebook page, or in one’s thoughts should be a right that we all protect and exercise. Unfortunately there are honor codes, character and fitness committees, and hiring practices that undermine them for so many law students. This happens at the smallest law schools to the biggest, from the most elite, to the most common. It seems to really run the gamut and after 3-4 years of beating whatever idealism is left out of them, they’re fully re-educated and programmed to accept assimilation as a rite of passage.

There is nothing enlightened about selling out. You shouldn’t sell out to be a lawyer, you shouldn’t sell out to be a doctor, you shouldn’t sell out for any reason. You should be proud of who you are and the person that you have become through your childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Nobody has the right to intimidate you away from believing in what you believe in. No profession, license, or job is worth that. As long as you stay true to yourself and as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and can sleep peacefully at night, that’s all that matters. Sacrificing your ideals has nothing to do with being responsible or being an adult. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. You’re going to be an attorney and you’re going to be successful, but success is not measured by money and it’s not measured by compliance. Lawyers are arguers, litigators; we fight every step of the way. Don’t let them change you. Fight them every step of the way!