Today, I think I have finally confirmed to my firm that I am indeed a square peg, in an incredibly round organisation. *Sigh*. #ChroniclesofWendelyn.

We were having a meeting in my department, a weekly internal update/ information sharing session. The management of the department were called to an impromptu meeting so it was just us, the ‘mere mortals’ of sorts. We discussed and debated, chit and chatted, expatiated and ventilated…generally engaged in the pleonasms we lawyers are want to do. (I really hope I do NOT marry a lawyer…engineers, architect and investment bankers, apply within). All done in a bid to find solutions to some of our subsisting, more complex cases.

While suggestions were ratcheted across the table, I noticed something that always makes me feel uncomfortable at this firm; we enjoy killing ants with bulldozers. The firm is THAT firm from the TV shows. You know the ones, the power firms on the Goodwife and Suits. #GoFigure. It really is. How do I know this? For one thing, we are forever the Defendants. Lol. Always representing the party, usually some big organisation, who is being sued. We are essentially, well-dressed legal bullies.

The discussions at the table this evening just seemed to revolve around Machiavellian ways; more and more ways to squash the little guys with cleverer and more deviant yet surprisingly legal solutions. I guess we ought to applaud ourselves; we are incredible lawyers! Honestly, we are. We win our cases, we are thorough, prepared and ruthless.

Ruthless. That’s the part that worries me.

When did the job of lawyers move from upholding justice and ensuring fairness to merely winning?

I could not stop thinking about this even as the solutions; smart but unkind, intellectual but unfair, swirled about me. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t know when I said aloud “I just hope that God doesn’t punish us for what we do in this office!”.

“What did you say?!”

Oh hell! They heard me??

Turns out the lawyer sitting next to me did indeed hear what I thought I said in my head. He asked that I repeat to the entire room what I said.

Now, I’m not one to be shaded like that. Think you can put me on the spot, perhaps cast me in a bad light? “Not I” said the Cat.

So, I did it. I repeated what I said.

Yeah, I said it!! *insert neck roll here*. Lol.

“I said, “I just hope that God doesn’t punish us for what we do in this office….” They were stunned.

But once I began, I couldn’t stop.

I explained calmly that our role as lawyers is to uphold not just the law but wherever possible, the principles of fairness and decency. Just because the application of the law results in an injustice, does not mean you must effect that injustice. Wherever possible, why do we not make an effort to inject fairness into our practice? We are advisors, our clients often rely on our ‘learned’ opinion. So why don’t we sometimes say “Don’t fight this little guy, you might win…but you will make enemies, leave destruction in your wake and unkindness as your legacy. Maybe negotiate, give a little and you might get a lot more. It’s not worth it. Win-win’s are good too!”.

I told them, the things we do in the name of our job cannot be so shockingly different from the things we do in the name of our God. There is too much of a discrepancy in our office personalities and our homes, family dad/mum, church, mosque personalities. This is not what is expected of us! You cannot have a persona you save only for God and another you reveal to your fellow humans. How long can we persist in this soul-eroding behaviour?! This job is not your cover-up, your bosses’ directions are not an excuse, from time to time you just have to take a position and ask yourself “What on earth do I stand for?”.

I ended with the warning that no one of us is honestly permitted to complain about the state of the nation because in the end, we the lawyers and indeed the judiciary in its entirety, are a fundamental part of the country’s continuous decline.

*steps off soap box*…I was greeted with many uncomfortable stares and an extremely loud silence.

BUT, I knew I did the right thing *insert Kanye Shrug*.

When I got to my desk, what came to mind was several old testament prophets; Jeremiah & friends. Do you realise that everytime God said He was angry with Israel and would destroy them, it wasn’t solely because of the evil leaders that had led the people into idolatory and wickedness? A lot of the time, God specifically pointed out the ‘smaller’ sins everyday people committed towards each other, as a reason he would punish the nation in its entirety.

Nigerian leaders are not the root cause of our problem.

We are.

You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.
-Lev 19:11

You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning.
-Lev 19:13

You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume.
-Lev 19:35-36

You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
-Deu 16:20

You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in
the land which the LORD your God is giving you. For all who do such things, all who behave unrighteously, are an abomination to the LORD your God.
-Deu 25:13-16

Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor’s service without wages and gives him nothing for his work.
-Jer 22:13

Etc.

How can we claim to love God yet exhibit such hate to each other, in the name of money, in the name of a job…in the name of the Law?