I once had a law professor that often
make the joke that the entire reason why
you go to law school is just so you can
learn a handful of fancy Latin phrases
to impress people at dinner parties it’s
not the fanciest or most Latin of words
I know but today I want to talk to you
and try really hard to impress you
talking about zeal zeal is hands-down
one of my favorite word’s
one of the most important words for me
zeal great energy or enthusiasm and
pursuit of a cause or an objective it’s
not the only way to get at this point
it’s probably more common to talk about
having passion enthusiasm there are
other fun ways to talk about having
gusto but I’m talking very particularly
about zeal and zeal is the very
particular word that I’m choosing today
and it’s so important to me because I’m
a lawyer so going back to that dinner
party example whether you’re making
small talk with a stranger at a bar
whether you’re at a dinner party it’s
pretty common to ask people what do you
do and talk about your profession and
when people find out that I’m a lawyer
it’s pretty common that people want to
ask me about their legal problems
something they’ve had before something
they think it’s around the corner
or better yet their cousins aunts sister
halfway across the country is in this
mess what can they do and odds are you
know for lawyers that face this type of
situation it might be that they ask you
a very specific question about the type
of work you do and maybe you can help
them a little maybe can point them in
the right direction but if you think
about it odds are whatever a lawyer gets
asked in this type of situation the most
likely correct answer is I don’t know
people hate to say I don’t know
grinnellians hate to say I don’t know
but if you think about it that’s
probably true okay so we have 50 states
every state has a bunch of different
cities and localities with their own
laws the 50 different states with laws a
complex federal system on top of it of
laws and these laws are changing all the
time
if you become a lawyer you probably
become specialized you don’t really go
to law school to learn everything in
every situation and not just to impress
that person at the bar so what you do
instead is you learn in law school how
to think like a lawyer that way you can
kind of be a professional chameleon
whatever situation you end up in
wherever you practice whatever you
decide to do however things evolve you
can do what you need to do to get
up-to-date to be adapt to be a
professional now whether you’re a
current student here considering law
school or whether law schools never in
your cards and you just might want to
you know brush up on your logic skills
for some reason self-improvement or I
once had an ex-girlfriend tell me that
it wasn’t fair dating a lawyer because I
want every argument so you know but for
whatever reason if you want to learn
what it means to think like a lawyer you
don’t have to go to law school there’s
plenty of books and websites and videos
out there on this topic and if you dive
into it probably the most common things
you’re going to see are are sort of on
this list so like the first thing
especially if you’re like gearing
specifically for things for law students
you’ll be taught Iraq issue rule
analysis conclusion so in law school
most exams or what we call issue
spotters like a big long fact pattern
where you’re supposed to read it and the
idea is that you do this you spot the
issue you discuss what the rule is that
applies to the issue you show your work
you’re now assess your application and
you explain the conclusion the result
that should come from it and all the
while while you’re doing this you’re
also taught these other techniques
you’re taught to avoid emotional
reactions and distractions don’t let a
red herring take you off topic but focus
on the logic the core of the issue you
learn how to argue and see both sides
maybe you’re assigned aside you don’t
personally agree with or maybe you need
to see the other side to anticipate and
get out in front of it or respond to it
you learn how to infer rules from
patterns you see what’s happened time
and time again to anticipate what
happened next what will happen next you
compare situations using analogies you
know if you come before a court you
might want to say hey this is just like
this thing that’s
happened ten times before the same thing
should happen today
or it’s not like that thing and
something new should happen today and at
the same time you learn to accept
ambiguity in question everything and
these are all fine useful skills and I’m
guessing these are all skills that you
learn as grinnellians and in all
different fields of work and you don’t
have to be a lawyer to use these skills
and I have no problem with this idea of
what it means to think like a lawyer but
when I think about what it means to me
to think like a lawyer and how I hope my
clients view me these aren’t the first
things that come to mind I mean think
about it if you’re asking a friend hey
what did you think about that lawyer
that handled your divorce proceeding
last year they’re never gonna say oh
they were so great at Iraq I really love
that no instead I’m going back to my
word about zeal because to me what I
hope to be is a zealous advocate the
idea of lawyers as a zealous advocate
has been around for a while one of the
first ways it was written out was in the
American Bar Association’s Canon of
professional ethics back in 1908 so this
is basically this organization wrote a
draft of ethics rules that they
suggested that other states and other
courts kind of adapt and make their own
kind of a sample and under Canon 15 they
wrote you know under Canon 15 which is
how far a lawyer may go and supporting a
client’s cause they wrote that the
lawyer owes entire devotion to the
interest of the client warm zeal not
just the warm zeal in the maintenance
and defense of his rights in the
exertion of his utmost learning and
ability to the end that nothing be taken
or if held from him saved by the rules
of law legally applied all right so
let’s break this down for a second so
the first part of it the lawyer owes
entire devotion to the interest of the
client basically that’s meeting is a
lawyer the one you hire the one that’s
appointed to you should be on your side
they’re not playing the other side that
makes sense
next part warm zeal in the maintenance
and defense of his rights and the
exertion of his most learning and
ability basically meaning that you
should use all of your knowledge all of
your experience to fight as hard and do
ever you can for your client now
obviously there are limits to this you
can’t go out and better call solve the
situation you have to stay within the
ethics rules but even if something may
be unpopular or unconventional whatever
is best within the context for your
client you should do to the utmost of
your abilities and in the end to the end
that nothing be taken or if held from
him save by the rules of law meaning
that we hope that if both sides have
people playing on their side and playing
as hard as they can fighting as hard as
they can that we should have just
results that we have fair results I want
to talk a little bit about how I learned
what it means to be a zealous advocate
in the context of my first job after law
school so after I graduated law school
my first job was with this great
organization in New York City called the
Center for family representation and
what CFR does is it’s about half
attorneys and half social workers and we
were court-appointed to parents and
child abuse and child neglect cases and
Manhattan Queens and so basically if
social services in New York was
considering intervening in a family
supervising the family maybe removing
the child and placing the child in
foster care we were the people appointed
to help them make the arguments that
they should keep their child in their
home or that they’ve done enough to have
the child returned back to their home
and as you can imagine people don’t end
up in this type of situation or in
family court in general for really sunny
or rosy reasons you know unfortunately
the majority my clients were dealing
with things like substance abuse and
drug addiction and alcohol mental health
poverty domestic violence and too often
a combination of many of the above but I
was doing the type of work I wanted to
do and I learned what it means to be a
zealous advocate regardless of the
situation I faced I mean to use a poker
analogy you play the cards you’re dealt
and sometimes I was dealt great cards
sometimes I was dealt not-so-great cards
but regardless my responsibilities and
my duties were the same to be a zealous
advocate and do everything that I could
for them
and while I was going through this
process and learning what it meant to be
a zealous advocate for them I also
witnessed that these parents more often
than not regardless of how good or bad
the situation was that brought them to
work with me
were often a zealous advocate for their
own children they had strong passionate
feelings about how their children should
be treated and it was really encouraging
to me but I also sometimes noticed that
they didn’t always apply that same level
the same high level of standards of
respect and treatment to themselves and
it kind of dawned on me that it’s often
easier to be a zealous advocate for
those around you than for yourself it’s
often easier you know to speak up for
your friends and family intervene on
their behalf that may be face some hard
truths about yourself and I’m not saying
that solutions and issues like domestic
violence and substance abuse are easy
you can’t just flip a switch and fix
them but understanding yourself worth
and demanding more of yourself as one of
those first steps and I don’t want to
sound like a hypocrite up here talking
about it because at the same time I
began to realize that I was kind of
guilty of this myself too and in
particular one day just about two years
ago I was on a crowded busy New York
subway on my way to work and suddenly I
had the first full-blown panic attack of
my life and to put in context I want to
think a little bit about where I came
from to get to this point see I’m the
oldest of three kids my family were the
first generation our family to go to
college I did well in high school I did
things like Mock Trial I successfully
fought and overturned a book ban at my
high school things like this kind of
made me think oh maybe law maybe being
an advocate would be fun I came to
Grinnell I did well here I went to a law
school I did well there passed the bar
got the type of job I wanted and I was
being an actual lawyer but to use
another metaphor I kind of realized that
morning having that panic attack that
are sort of lie
wily coyote chasing the roadrunner and I
was going so fast from goal to goal and
step to step at the time I started doing
what I wanted to do when it was the
angle all the time I was a mile off the
edge of the cliff and just falling all
the way straight down now thankfully
that situation I used it as a wake-up
call
I started things like therapy and
medication I got a lot better about diet
and exercise I got a little bit better
about sleep I know that’s crazy for
grinnellians but good sleep helps a lot
and I’m not perfect but it’s something
I’ve worked on every day and I think
I’ve come a long way and it’s something
I think I’m heading in the right
direction about and this whole time over
these last two years it also helped a
little bit to realize that I’m not the
only one who struggled these last two
years I mean a lot of people in this
room across this country have had a real
hard time the last couple of years and
it’s kind of hard for me to think about
this and not also connected with things
like black lives matter and me too and
these other situations where on these
issues that people often would speak out
about regarding others but are also
speaking up and saying hey I deserve to
be treated with respect I deserve the
best – so I’m not sitting here and
pretending that I have all the answers
about myself I don’t have the answers
for you I don’t have the answers for
this country but the only small piece of
advice I can try to end with today so
you can take away from here is to learn
a lesson I learned and keep being a
zealous advocate for those around you
for those you love that’s a very
Grinnell thing to do but in the process
don’t forget to be a zel’s advocate for
yourself thank you [Applause]
make the joke that the entire reason why
you go to law school is just so you can
learn a handful of fancy Latin phrases
to impress people at dinner parties it’s
not the fanciest or most Latin of words
I know but today I want to talk to you
and try really hard to impress you
talking about zeal zeal is hands-down
one of my favorite word’s
one of the most important words for me
zeal great energy or enthusiasm and
pursuit of a cause or an objective it’s
not the only way to get at this point
it’s probably more common to talk about
having passion enthusiasm there are
other fun ways to talk about having
gusto but I’m talking very particularly
about zeal and zeal is the very
particular word that I’m choosing today
and it’s so important to me because I’m
a lawyer so going back to that dinner
party example whether you’re making
small talk with a stranger at a bar
whether you’re at a dinner party it’s
pretty common to ask people what do you
do and talk about your profession and
when people find out that I’m a lawyer
it’s pretty common that people want to
ask me about their legal problems
something they’ve had before something
they think it’s around the corner
or better yet their cousins aunts sister
halfway across the country is in this
mess what can they do and odds are you
know for lawyers that face this type of
situation it might be that they ask you
a very specific question about the type
of work you do and maybe you can help
them a little maybe can point them in
the right direction but if you think
about it odds are whatever a lawyer gets
asked in this type of situation the most
likely correct answer is I don’t know
people hate to say I don’t know
grinnellians hate to say I don’t know
but if you think about it that’s
probably true okay so we have 50 states
every state has a bunch of different
cities and localities with their own
laws the 50 different states with laws a
complex federal system on top of it of
laws and these laws are changing all the
time
if you become a lawyer you probably
become specialized you don’t really go
to law school to learn everything in
every situation and not just to impress
that person at the bar so what you do
instead is you learn in law school how
to think like a lawyer that way you can
kind of be a professional chameleon
whatever situation you end up in
wherever you practice whatever you
decide to do however things evolve you
can do what you need to do to get
up-to-date to be adapt to be a
professional now whether you’re a
current student here considering law
school or whether law schools never in
your cards and you just might want to
you know brush up on your logic skills
for some reason self-improvement or I
once had an ex-girlfriend tell me that
it wasn’t fair dating a lawyer because I
want every argument so you know but for
whatever reason if you want to learn
what it means to think like a lawyer you
don’t have to go to law school there’s
plenty of books and websites and videos
out there on this topic and if you dive
into it probably the most common things
you’re going to see are are sort of on
this list so like the first thing
especially if you’re like gearing
specifically for things for law students
you’ll be taught Iraq issue rule
analysis conclusion so in law school
most exams or what we call issue
spotters like a big long fact pattern
where you’re supposed to read it and the
idea is that you do this you spot the
issue you discuss what the rule is that
applies to the issue you show your work
you’re now assess your application and
you explain the conclusion the result
that should come from it and all the
while while you’re doing this you’re
also taught these other techniques
you’re taught to avoid emotional
reactions and distractions don’t let a
red herring take you off topic but focus
on the logic the core of the issue you
learn how to argue and see both sides
maybe you’re assigned aside you don’t
personally agree with or maybe you need
to see the other side to anticipate and
get out in front of it or respond to it
you learn how to infer rules from
patterns you see what’s happened time
and time again to anticipate what
happened next what will happen next you
compare situations using analogies you
know if you come before a court you
might want to say hey this is just like
this thing that’s
happened ten times before the same thing
should happen today
or it’s not like that thing and
something new should happen today and at
the same time you learn to accept
ambiguity in question everything and
these are all fine useful skills and I’m
guessing these are all skills that you
learn as grinnellians and in all
different fields of work and you don’t
have to be a lawyer to use these skills
and I have no problem with this idea of
what it means to think like a lawyer but
when I think about what it means to me
to think like a lawyer and how I hope my
clients view me these aren’t the first
things that come to mind I mean think
about it if you’re asking a friend hey
what did you think about that lawyer
that handled your divorce proceeding
last year they’re never gonna say oh
they were so great at Iraq I really love
that no instead I’m going back to my
word about zeal because to me what I
hope to be is a zealous advocate the
idea of lawyers as a zealous advocate
has been around for a while one of the
first ways it was written out was in the
American Bar Association’s Canon of
professional ethics back in 1908 so this
is basically this organization wrote a
draft of ethics rules that they
suggested that other states and other
courts kind of adapt and make their own
kind of a sample and under Canon 15 they
wrote you know under Canon 15 which is
how far a lawyer may go and supporting a
client’s cause they wrote that the
lawyer owes entire devotion to the
interest of the client warm zeal not
just the warm zeal in the maintenance
and defense of his rights in the
exertion of his utmost learning and
ability to the end that nothing be taken
or if held from him saved by the rules
of law legally applied all right so
let’s break this down for a second so
the first part of it the lawyer owes
entire devotion to the interest of the
client basically that’s meeting is a
lawyer the one you hire the one that’s
appointed to you should be on your side
they’re not playing the other side that
makes sense
next part warm zeal in the maintenance
and defense of his rights and the
exertion of his most learning and
ability basically meaning that you
should use all of your knowledge all of
your experience to fight as hard and do
ever you can for your client now
obviously there are limits to this you
can’t go out and better call solve the
situation you have to stay within the
ethics rules but even if something may
be unpopular or unconventional whatever
is best within the context for your
client you should do to the utmost of
your abilities and in the end to the end
that nothing be taken or if held from
him save by the rules of law meaning
that we hope that if both sides have
people playing on their side and playing
as hard as they can fighting as hard as
they can that we should have just
results that we have fair results I want
to talk a little bit about how I learned
what it means to be a zealous advocate
in the context of my first job after law
school so after I graduated law school
my first job was with this great
organization in New York City called the
Center for family representation and
what CFR does is it’s about half
attorneys and half social workers and we
were court-appointed to parents and
child abuse and child neglect cases and
Manhattan Queens and so basically if
social services in New York was
considering intervening in a family
supervising the family maybe removing
the child and placing the child in
foster care we were the people appointed
to help them make the arguments that
they should keep their child in their
home or that they’ve done enough to have
the child returned back to their home
and as you can imagine people don’t end
up in this type of situation or in
family court in general for really sunny
or rosy reasons you know unfortunately
the majority my clients were dealing
with things like substance abuse and
drug addiction and alcohol mental health
poverty domestic violence and too often
a combination of many of the above but I
was doing the type of work I wanted to
do and I learned what it means to be a
zealous advocate regardless of the
situation I faced I mean to use a poker
analogy you play the cards you’re dealt
and sometimes I was dealt great cards
sometimes I was dealt not-so-great cards
but regardless my responsibilities and
my duties were the same to be a zealous
advocate and do everything that I could
for them
and while I was going through this
process and learning what it meant to be
a zealous advocate for them I also
witnessed that these parents more often
than not regardless of how good or bad
the situation was that brought them to
work with me
were often a zealous advocate for their
own children they had strong passionate
feelings about how their children should
be treated and it was really encouraging
to me but I also sometimes noticed that
they didn’t always apply that same level
the same high level of standards of
respect and treatment to themselves and
it kind of dawned on me that it’s often
easier to be a zealous advocate for
those around you than for yourself it’s
often easier you know to speak up for
your friends and family intervene on
their behalf that may be face some hard
truths about yourself and I’m not saying
that solutions and issues like domestic
violence and substance abuse are easy
you can’t just flip a switch and fix
them but understanding yourself worth
and demanding more of yourself as one of
those first steps and I don’t want to
sound like a hypocrite up here talking
about it because at the same time I
began to realize that I was kind of
guilty of this myself too and in
particular one day just about two years
ago I was on a crowded busy New York
subway on my way to work and suddenly I
had the first full-blown panic attack of
my life and to put in context I want to
think a little bit about where I came
from to get to this point see I’m the
oldest of three kids my family were the
first generation our family to go to
college I did well in high school I did
things like Mock Trial I successfully
fought and overturned a book ban at my
high school things like this kind of
made me think oh maybe law maybe being
an advocate would be fun I came to
Grinnell I did well here I went to a law
school I did well there passed the bar
got the type of job I wanted and I was
being an actual lawyer but to use
another metaphor I kind of realized that
morning having that panic attack that
are sort of lie
wily coyote chasing the roadrunner and I
was going so fast from goal to goal and
step to step at the time I started doing
what I wanted to do when it was the
angle all the time I was a mile off the
edge of the cliff and just falling all
the way straight down now thankfully
that situation I used it as a wake-up
call
I started things like therapy and
medication I got a lot better about diet
and exercise I got a little bit better
about sleep I know that’s crazy for
grinnellians but good sleep helps a lot
and I’m not perfect but it’s something
I’ve worked on every day and I think
I’ve come a long way and it’s something
I think I’m heading in the right
direction about and this whole time over
these last two years it also helped a
little bit to realize that I’m not the
only one who struggled these last two
years I mean a lot of people in this
room across this country have had a real
hard time the last couple of years and
it’s kind of hard for me to think about
this and not also connected with things
like black lives matter and me too and
these other situations where on these
issues that people often would speak out
about regarding others but are also
speaking up and saying hey I deserve to
be treated with respect I deserve the
best – so I’m not sitting here and
pretending that I have all the answers
about myself I don’t have the answers
for you I don’t have the answers for
this country but the only small piece of
advice I can try to end with today so
you can take away from here is to learn
a lesson I learned and keep being a
zealous advocate for those around you
for those you love that’s a very
Grinnell thing to do but in the process
don’t forget to be a zel’s advocate for
yourself thank you [Applause]
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