My mother gave me a plate for mounting on my office wall quoting the line from William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 2. It has been on all my law office walls and now is in my office at home after I recently closed my law office.
The story began for me in the summer of 1976. I had just graduated from Marquette University Law School, after which I backpacked through Europe with a law school classmate for six weeks. And then I visited a girlfriend in Venezuela, whose father worked in the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, for a couple of weeks.
After returning from Venezuela, I put on a tie and sport coat, and started my career in law, working in my father’s law office. My mother gave me a plate for mounting on my office wall quoting the line from William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 2, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
Although I was not the ideal child, I don’t think my mother ever wished me such a fate. My mother was an English teacher and theater advocate, and most likely understood the context of Shakespeare’s line. It’s not that lawyers should be killed as bad people, but to emphasize lawyers’ importance in government and the rule of law. Authoritarian rulers first take out people of importance and standing in the way of their rule.
The plate from my mother has been on all my law office walls and now is in my office at home after I recently closed my law office and stopped practicing law for a living. I always liked the plate because of its satirical humor, but over time have appreciated it more as a statement of how important lawyers are in maintaining our democracy and the rule of law.
As gatekeepers of that third branch of U.S. government – the judicial system – lawyers and the courts are still attacked and vilified by wrongdoers, especially those with power.
Over the years, I have witnessed the importance of lawyers in shaping laws that equally protect and benefit the people of this country, this state, and sometimes even in another country.
I have had the privilege of being a member and chair of the Elder Law and Special Needs (ELSN) Section board and its legislative committee, and have witnessed the impact we lawyers can have in preventing legislation harmful to people, and by enacting legislation beneficial to the people of this state.
We attempt to work with the legislative and executive branches to create laws benefiting the people, and fight back against proposed legislation that does not fairly treat people or their legal rights. We also work with administrative branches of government to assure a fair application of the law to all people.
Early in my career I presented a resolution of the Milwaukee Bar Association to the annual meeting of the American Bar Association calling for the end to apartheid in South Africa. The resolution was adopted, and ultimately, apartheid was ended.
As lawyers we have power to right wrongs, promote democracy, and assist with the fair application of laws for all people.
As a lawyer, I encourage your participation personally and through the ELSN section’s legislative efforts to ensure a continued U.S. democracy and a rule of law for all its people. Contact ELSN liaison Kara Olson at the State Bar of Wisconsin if you are interested in serving on the ELSN section’s legislative committee.
Getting back to Henry VI, Dick the Butcher utters the line during a rebellion led by Jack Cade. Cade, a pretender to the throne, hopes to destabilize the existing social order, and the line serves as a tongue-in-cheek recognition that lawyers, by upholding the law and administering justice, are impediments to anarchy. In the context of the play, the line highlights the subversive nature of Cade’s rebellion and the chaos that ensues when legal structures are undermined.
And oh, my mother gave the same plate to my father for hanging in his office.
Good job mom!
This article was originally published on the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Elder Law and Special Needs Blog. Visit the State Bar sections or the Elder Law and Special Needs Section webpages to learn more about the benefits of section membership.
