One at a time

My favorite part of law school and law-related work is the interaction with clients, and that has been the best part of this experience.

I also enjoy the purely intellectual aspects of the law -- research, writing, etc. -- but I have a very hard time motivating myself to do that work unless I know it's going to somehow help someone solve a problem. For example, I hard a really hard time getting excited about working on my moot court and LRW assignments -- I knew that at the end of the day, the only one who reaped any direct benefit from my work was me. And I felt that I could use that time better.

I don't even particularly care which problem I'm helping to solve, or how much I'm contributing to a solution, but I do care that there is a living, breathing person whose life will be at least a little easier (or not worse) because of my efforts. I measure my professional skill and progress by the scope of problems I can solve, and my skill and efficiency in solving them.

For these reasons, I am enjoying the work here immensely. My files include many very personal details about my clients and their families, enough that I feel very emotionally invested in helping them through their successions proceedings. One client's home was right in the middle of the Lower Ninth Ward, and the succession will help her receive much-needed assistance. I've met her and spoken to many of her children on the phone; I've gleaned personal details about her husband and their father; I've traced the growth of their immediate and extended families -- and when I work on their file, I'm determined to do everything as perfectly as I can, to help them get the help they need as quickly as I can.

I've worked with clients before, through student clinics and the like, but I've never felt such a strong sense of responsibility before. The significance of the work didn't really hit me until I spoke to my second client, a man still grieving the loss of his parents and several other recent tragedies. He seemed overwhelmed, and was incredibly grateful to just have the opportunity to speak to someone about his problems. I wished I could offer far more advice than professional ethics permits, but I told him everything I could. He actually cried, "what?" when I told him I was leaving at the end of the week, begged me to keep working on the case from Indiana. I refused to consider, and refused to let him consider, the possibility that it would be a long time before someone else worked on his file. And I am determined to resolve all the issues in his file tomorrow, however difficult or improbable that may be.