by Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
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This is now the second week of the bar exams. Two more weeks to go. The results of the bar exams are not a good measure of a person’s intelligence. I know some very intelligent people who never made it even after several attempts; also of not so intelligent ones who somehow made it.
For sure, there will be thousands of new lawyers come December as there are about 10,000 candidates taking the exams now.
Those who will never make it, take heart. Your having gone to law school will not be a waste. I remember a father who encouraged his children to go to law school, not to become lawyers but as better business people in the future.
As to the few lucky ones who will become members of the bar, I can only give some few advices.
Number one is to take care of your health, If you will end up practicing law, you will be dealing with a lot stress. How to survive intact the rigors of the profession must be your number one priority. If you have a family history of people dying due to stroke or heart attack, you must think really hard. What will be the use of being called a practicing lawyer if you will end up for the rest of your life in a wheel chair? Some even ended up with broken families, or having several romantic partners in life, or committing suicide. Others landed in jail, or unluckily shoved to the short cut path to the cemetery by being gunned down. Still others were fortunate enough to have reached a ripe old age but were disbarred along the way.
While you will go through a lot of struggles, there will also be joyful moments, particularly, when you will win a case whether by accident or due to the stupidity of your opponent. However you win cases, there is one thing you must never forget. The Law of Karma is real. Any injustice you will commit as principal, or accomplice, or as enabler will come back to hound you, sooner or later. Other consequences can be the things mentioned above.
The most important thing is to maintain a lid over your ego. If it goes haywire, you will end up doing things you will strongly regret.
So many lawyers’ egos became so bloated to the extent they started thinking they could get away with anything, even committing rape or murder or swindling astounding amounts from their clients. So a good number of such fellows landed in jail or being disbarred or being gunned down.
In other words, as practicing lawyers in the future, the road to old age will be very treacherous, full of temptations, so inviting it would be easy for you to commit errors of judgment.
The ultimate remedy to avoid that is to become spiritual, of the serious kind, not because you are now petitioning God in your own secret way for Him to make you pass the bar. Develop the habit now of regularly praying, but better meditating, as you continue with your ulterior motive to capture some of His grace and end up becoming worthy of being addressed . . . . ATTORNEY.**
