Education / Schools, Kids

Kids Are Refreshingly Naive About The Legal Profession

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This past weekend we spent some time in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the houses are big (compared to Manhattan apartments), the downtown is small, and lawyers make time for inspirational lunches with school children. Or so we read in the Charlotte Observer:

It’s not every day that an eighth-grader gets to sit down to lunch with a lawyer, but it happens once a month for nearly 80 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students.

CMS’ “Lunch with a Lawyer” program helps middle schoolers who are interested in law careers learn more about the profession by getting to know a lawyer.

The article offers a refreshing take on why people become lawyers. See your profession through the eyes of 12-year-olds, after the jump.

Among the students in attendance was Tong Fang, 12, who sat at the table reserved for Jay M. Robinson Middle. She’s considering the legal profession because she thinks it’ll offer a nice-paying job and “some satisfaction that you did something right.”

Nice-paying job? Very possible (although perhaps less possible than it used to be). Satisfaction that you did something right? Maybe not, if you opt for the high-paying Biglaw job instead of the legal services gig, Tong.

A few tables away, Southwest Middle’s Geophrey Darrow said television’s “Law and Order” program makes criminal defense appealing to him.
“I always wanted to be the one who said, ‘My client is innocent because …'”

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We think this kid has what it takes. It’s not about representing innocent clients, it’s about saying the right thing to present them as innocent.

The host for last week’s luncheon was Mecklenburg County Superior Court Judge Albert Diaz, who handles complex business cases for the court and also recruits lawyer mentors for the lunch program.

Diaz told the students a law degree provides unlimited career opportunities.

Laid off lawyers, did you catch that? No fears for you. Your opportunities are unlimited!
Students get taste of law profession [Charlotte Observer]

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