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I once had a law professor that often would
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make the joke that the entire reason why you go
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to law school is just so you can learn a handful of
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fancy Latin phrases to impress people at dinner
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parties.
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It's not the fanciest or most Latin of words I
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know, but today I want to talk to you and try
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really hard to impress you.
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Talking about zeal.
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Zeal is hands down one of my favorite words of
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the most important words for me zeal great
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energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an
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objective.
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It's not the only way to get at this point, it's
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probably more common to talk about having
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passion, enthusiasm.
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There are other fun ways to talk about having
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gusto.
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But I'm talking very particularly about zeal.
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And zeal is the very particular word that I'm
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choosing today.
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And it's so important to me because I'm a lawyer.
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So going back to that dinner party example
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whether you're making small talk with a stranger
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at a bar, whether you're at a dinner party it's
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pretty common to ask people, what do you do?
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And talk about your profession.
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And when people find out that I'm a lawyer it's
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pretty common that people want to ask me
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about their legal problems something they've
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had before, something they think is around the
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corner or better yet, their cousin's, aunt, sister,
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halfway across the country is in this mess.
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What can they do?
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And odds are, for lawyers that face this type of
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situation it might be that they ask you a very
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specific question about the type of work you do
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and maybe you can help them a little, maybe can
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point them in the right direction.
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But if you think about it, odds are whatever a
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lawyer gets asked in this type of situation the
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most likely correct answer is I don't know.
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People hate to say I don't know, grunlians hate to
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say I don't know.
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But if you think about it, that's probably true.
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Okay, so we have 50 states.
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Every state has a bunch of different cities and
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localities with their own laws.
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The 50 different states with laws, a complex
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federal system on top of it, of laws.
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And these laws are changing all the time.
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If you become a lawyer, you probably become
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specialized.
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You don't really go to law school to learn
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everything in every situation and not just to
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impress that person at the bar.
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So what you do instead is you learn in law school
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how to think like a lawyer.
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That way you can kind of be a professional
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chameleon whatever situation you end up in,
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wherever you practice, whatever you decide to
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do, however things evolve you can do what you
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need to do to get up to date to be adapt, to be a
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professional.
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Now, whether you're a current student here
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considering law school or whether law school is
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never in your cards and you just might want to
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brush up on your logic skills for some reason,
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self improvement or I once had an exgirlfriend
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tell me that it wasn't fair dating a lawyer because
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I won every argument.
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But for whatever reason, if you want to learn
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what it means to think like a lawyer, you don't
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have to go to law school.
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There's plenty of books and websites and videos
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out there on this topic.
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And if you dive into it, probably the most
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common things you're going to see are sort of on
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this list.
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So the first thing, especially if you're gearing
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specifically for things for law students, you'll be
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taught Iraq Issue Rule Analysis conclusion so in
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law school, most exams are what we call issue
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spotters, like a big long fact pattern where you're
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supposed to read it.
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And the idea is that you do this, you spot the
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issue, you discuss what the rule is that applies to
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the issue.
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You show your work, your analysis, your
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application, and you explain the conclusion, the
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result that should come from it.
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And all the while, while you're doing this, you're
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also taught these other techniques you're taught
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to avoid emotional reactions and distractions.
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Don't let a red herring take you off topic, but
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focus on the logic, the core of the issue.
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You learn how to argue and see both sides.
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Maybe you're assigned to side you don't
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personally agree with, or maybe you need to see
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the other side to anticipate and get out in front
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of it or respond to it.
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You learn how to infer rules from patterns.
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You see what's happened time and time again to
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anticipate what happened next, what will happen
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next.
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You compare situations using analogies.
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If you come before a court, you might want to
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say, hey, this is just like this thing that's
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happened ten times before.
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The same thing should happen today.
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Or It's not like that thing and something new
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should happen today.
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And at the same time, you learn to accept
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ambiguity and question everything.
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And these are all fine, useful skills.
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And I'm guessing these are all skills that you
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learn as Grenadians and in all different fields of
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work.
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And you don't have to be a lawyer to use these
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skills.
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And I have no problem with this idea of what it
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means to think like a lawyer.
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But when I think about what it means to me to
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think like a lawyer and how I hope my clients
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view me, these aren't the first things that come
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to mind.
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I mean, think about it.
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If you're asking a friend, hey, what did you think
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about that lawyer that handled your divorce
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proceeding last year?
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They're never going to say, oh, they were so
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great at Iraq.
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I really love that.
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No, instead I'm going back to my word about
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zeal.
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Because to me, what I hope to be is a zealous
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advocate.
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The idea of lawyers as a zealous advocate has
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been around for a while.
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One of the first ways it was written out was in the
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American Bar Association's Canon of
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Professional Ethics back in 1908.
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So this is basically this organization wrote a draft
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of ethics rules that they suggested that other
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states and other courts kind of adapt and make
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their own kind of a sample.
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And under Canon 15, they wrote under Canon
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15, which is how far a lawyer may go in
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supporting a client's cause, they wrote that the
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lawyer owes entire devotion to the interest of the
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client.
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Warm zeal.
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Not just zeal.
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Warm zeal in the maintenance and defense of
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his rights, in the exertion of his utmost learning
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and ability to the end that nothing be taken or
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withheld from him.
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Saved by the rules of law legally applied.
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All right, so let's break this down for a second.
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So the first part of it, the lawyer owes entire
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devotion to the interest of the client.
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Basically, that's meaning is a lawyer, the one you
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hire, the one that's appointed to you, should be
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on your side.
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They're not playing the other side.
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That makes sense.
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Next part.
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Warm zeal in the maintenance and defense of
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his rights and the exertion of his utmost learning
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and ability, basically meaning that you should
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use all of your knowledge, all of your experience,
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to fight as hard and do whatever you can for
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your client.
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Now, obviously, there are limits to this.
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You can't go out and better call solve the
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situation.
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You have to stay within the ethics rules.
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But even if something may be unpopular or
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unconventional, whatever is best within the
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context for your client, you should do to the
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utmost of your abilities.
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And in the end, to the end, that nothing be taken
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or withheld from him saved by the rules of law.
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Meaning that we hope that if both sides have
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people playing on their side and playing as hard
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as they can, fighting as hard as they can, that we
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should have just results, that we have fair
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results.
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I want to talk a little bit about how I learned what
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it means to be a zealous advocate in the context
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of my first job after law school.
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So after I graduated law school, my first job was
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with this great organization in New York City
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called the center for Family Representation.
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And what CFR does is it's about half attorneys
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and half social workers.
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And we were court appointed to parents in child
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abuse and child neglect cases in Manhattan and
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Queens.
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And so, basically, if social services in New York
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was considering intervening in a family,
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supervising the family, maybe removing the child
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and placing the child in foster care, we were the
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people appointed to help them make the
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arguments that they should keep their child in
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their home or that they've done enough to have
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the child returned back to their home.
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And as you can imagine, people don't end up in
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this type of situation or in family court in general
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for really sunnier, rosy reasons.
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Unfortunately, the majority of my clients were
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dealing with things like substance abuse and
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drug addiction and alcohol, mental health,
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poverty, domestic violence and too often a
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combination of many of the above.
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But I was doing the type of work I wanted to do
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and I learned what it means to be a zealous
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advocate regardless of the situation I faced.
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I mean, to use a poker analogy, you play the
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cards you're dealt.
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And sometimes I was dealt great cards,
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sometimes I was dealt not so great cards.
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But regardless, my responsibilities and my duties
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were the same to be a zealous advocate and do
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everything that I could for them.
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And while I was going through this process and
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learning what it meant to be a zealous advocate
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for them, I also witnessed that these parents,
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more often than not, regardless of how good or
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bad the situation was that brought them to work
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with me, were often a zealous advocate for their
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own children.
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They had strong, passionate feelings about how
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their children should be treated and it was really
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encouraging to me.
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But I also sometimes noticed that they didn't
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always apply that same level, the same high level
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of standards of respect and treatment to
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themselves.
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And it kind of dawned on me that it's often easier
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to be a zealous advocate for those around you
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than for yourself.
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It's often easier, you know, to speak up for your
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friends and family, intervene on their behalf,
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than maybe face some hard truth about yourself.
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And I'm not saying that solutions and issues like
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domestic violence and substance abuse are easy.
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You can't just flip a switch and fix them.
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But understanding your self worth and
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demanding more of yourself is one of those first
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steps.
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And I don't want to sound like a hypocrite up
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here talking about it because at the same time I
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began to realize that I was kind of guilty of this
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myself.18881
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