Except for a brief moment when I was a 1st grader and wanted to be either a teacher, a grocery store sales person, a fantastically wonderful Scottish sword dancer, a singer, or -more importantly- an amazing classical guitarist, I realized after I turned 7 years old that I wanted to be a lawyer. Family history and lore are partly to blame. However, I recall I always argued both sides of the coin… I loved sophistry then, the what ifs, and the what thens…without understanding the ugliness behind that word, for I had yet to meet the nasty sophists of legend.
Once upon a time and long ago, there was a wonderful movie that made an impact on me because of the philosophical argument that you give the devil the same rights that you give righteous people. An argument that helped me understand why it is necessary to provide legal counsel to the vilest and most despicable of defendants.
I am always asked this question: why would any lawyer defend the despicable? And, in all honesty, I always struggled with the answer: but no more!
I eventually began to understand the famous dialogue between Thomas More and his son-in-law Roper and the pragmatic side of the law. It may not seem fair nor kind, but we need to have structures that protect the devil so as to defend the rest of us, meek and strong alike.
Every Easter, which for some of us is a time of deep reflection, I have always remembered a special moment.
One day, in 2013, my sister Cynthia and I ended up staring at a golden cross. A crucifix that transcended history. Here was a cross, with a relic in it, that St. Thomas More had in his chapel, on his desk, and which he may have taken to the Tower of London: the patron saint of adopted children, lawyers, statesmen, politicians, and widowers would soon be beheaded. That was almost 5 centuries ago, and I was amazed to be looking at the cross that meant so much to the Englishman.
Today, I marvel at the fact that he is still studied and revered by many, even if they don’t share the same faith, because he was known to be a man of principles, honesty, and who considered it his duty to protect the integrity of his reputation.
Amazingly, even the Church of England nowadays remembers this man, commemorating July 6, as the “Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs of 1535” day.
What a story!
You can read the fabulous story written by Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More, which is a jewel of a book, reviewed in the New York Times in 1998.
(Originally published in 2013. Updated).
Dum Spiro Spero 