Do we kill the lawyers?

the With the Bar exam results announced yesterday, country now has 3,992 new lawyers. While I am extremely proud that most of the top passers are from UP Beloved, I had to pause to consider if this is really a good thing. Don’t we need more scientists, teachers, doctors, nurses, artists, farmers rather than lawyers?

Like many others, my fall back about lawyers is Shakespeare’s famous line from Henry VI, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

Looking it up though to get correct attribution, I found out to my chagrin that the Bard actually meant it as a compliment to lawyers! Obviously I have not read the full text (the play wasn’t required reading in college).

The line was spoken by Dick the Butcher, a follower of Jack Cade, a rebel who wanted to become king. They thought that by killing the lawyers and judges who carry out justice, they would disrupt societal order and set themselves in power.

Lawyers and judges are supposed to be the guardians and dispensers of justice, upon which all civilized society is founded. If all the lawyers and judges kept their oath, we would have an ideal society, where everyone – every one – would have a fair chance at getting justice.

Unfortunately, lawyers, especially when they become politicians and taste power and lucre, often lose sight of the nobility of the profession. Pray that the new lawyers stay true to their oath. — Marvin Tupas, Makati