By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
Here are a few advices to the new lawyers. This might be like pouring a sobering cold water over the euphoria you are now drenched with, but I will say it anyway. Lawyering is not the way to become rich. It will enable you to live comfortably and be able to send your kids to good schools but that is just about it.
If you want to get rich like Lucio Tan of PNB, etc., or the members of Henry Sy’s family (of SM, BDO, NU, etc. fame), go into business. Just by your first IPO (initial public offering of shares of stock) you might already be able to pocket several millions already which you cannot even dream of, even after several lifetimes by being a practicing lawyer.
And here is another “tabo” of cold water. Only very few of the bar passers will survive in private practice. After a decade or two, not even 5% of a batch in law school might will be spending their time thinking of court cases they are handling. The rest would be in private or public offices but not as practitioners depending on attorney’s fees to survive.
The private practitioners who ended up becoming multi-millionaires are the ones who go into politics and doubling as public project contractors on the side. They get a lot of money by stealing from the money of the people for infrastructures. In other words, it is by being “switik.” As I always say, everybody in the end gets his comeuppance, the bad karma. There will always be a reckoning in the end. Hopefully, it will not befall your kids and other members of your family. Do I have bad karma? There must be a lot of it lying dormant in the recesses of my unconscious. Two years ago, I got a heart attack. Thank god! That must have been a big chunk of my bad karma being paid for. It is better to pay in installments. Or by rendering social service or by serving those who are suffering. It is a reality we have to deal with.
Here is another pour of cold water. Private practice is a stressful profession. If you are not careful, you might end up becoming invalid or bed ridden. Ask lawyers around and they would be able to name lawyers who were recent victims of such. So many others are waiting in line. Their symptoms are already manifesting.
How to deal with this? There are many ways but I will just mention one or two for now. Follow this column and there will be more in the future.
It is good to have a hobby by which you can let off steam, to sweat things out. This is the reason many lawyers are playing golf or are into other sports like tennis. Such are good ways. Discover what you enjoy which is what is good for you. In my case, I work on my junk cars (maka pa tetanus) of reputable brands. A reputable doctor I know does it by farming.
But so many other lawyers I know do it the stupid way. By drinking alcohol or by womanizing, or both? That is even stupider.
Don’t look at me. KKK (kanya kanyang kaligayahan.)
There is an ultimate “better way”, by meditating (intense prayer). You can do it any which way, but I do it the Ananda Marga Yoga way.
Is going to church every Sunday not intense enough? We should do more. Go on a spiritual retreat every now and then. No just during Lent. It should be oftener than that.**
