WHY I BECAME A FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY

At the beginning of a new year it is always wise to stop and reflect on the past year. It is a time to see yourself as you really are and do some soul searching as to your motives in the practice of law. It can be a very rewarding time, or it can be a humbling and uncomfortable experience. Sometimes I do this but only if the crunch of business allows.

This year the situation was different than most. I took the time because of the formation of a new law firm. I also attended the investiture of a friend of mine as the Associate Judge for the Tarrant County Family Law Courts. As I sat there listening to the speeches about my friend, I thought to myself, “Why did he become a family law lawyer? Better still, "Why does anybody become a family law lawyer? Why did I become one?”

My friend is a man of integrity, intelligence, pragmatism, and compassion. He holds the ideals of our profession tightly to his heart. After seven years of knowing him and facing him across the table on cases, those were the qualities that I observed about him. Amazingly, those who spoke of him from the dais used some of those very same comments about his character. Those are the very fundamental qualities that any attorney should have. My experience re-enforces the notion that those are the basics even more so for us family law lawyers.

But, the “why” question begs even another one…the “How can you” question. How can you be a family law lawyer? Most of us attended law school and sweated out the results of the Bar Exam because we wanted to serve to our fellow Man. Altruistic? Selfless? Maybe. For you divorce attorneys who are reading this, you have your own reasons. However, I think that you, like me, at least began your law career with that in mind. Let’s face it; most of us didn’t want to build something or count beans. We wanted to interact with people and help them with their problems.

Family law is a practice of intense people-to-people conflict. To paraphrase Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, family law is a contact sport. We are usually engaged in the life of a person during the most traumatic and hurtful time of that person’s existence. That is true whether or not you are dealing with the spouse that is causing the breakup of the marriage or the person who is being divorced. If ever there was a time to be altruistic, this is the time. I am not speaking of being a therapist or social worker. Lord knows that both of these people, as well as any of their children, are in desperate need of this type of help. I am speaking of wise, pragmatic, legal direction. I am speaking of detached representation where the attorney does not take on the case and make it a part of his own life, personally.

So, why did I become a family law lawyer? I did it because I took an oath to serve. I did to serve my fellow Man. I did it because I didn’t want to deal with dry, faceless issues. I am not a crusader for the downtrodden blind to the evil nature of us all. But, if I can use my education, training, and experience to help a person get through the most difficult time of that person’s life, then I have fulfilled my professional and personal obligations.

That, too, is why my friend became a family law lawyer; that’s why he will be a very good Associate Judge in our family court system.