My Aspirations in Public Service Aren’t Endearing, They’re Important

Quit minimizing the importance of careers in public service.

Anyone with aspirations to pursue a career in public service has experienced being bombarded with backhanded endearments upon disclosing their career plans. As an aspiring public defender, I’m here to tell you why careers in public service are important — not a back-up plan.

I became fascinated by the idea of becoming a public defender during my first year of undergrad. One day I walked into my criminal justice course and the professor was fumbling with the TV cart (you know, the one with the rickety wheels and a dinosaur of a television perched on top). I was thinking I should have skipped class. Little did I know that the VHS I was about to watch would, in many ways, change the course of my life.

That day my professor played a documentary about Gideon v. Wainwright to teach us the importance of the right to legal counsel regardless of the defendant’s ability to pay. While some of my classmates were dozing off around me, I become perplexed at the thought of anyone being denied counsel due to their inability to pay for it. What a barbaric concept! Then I realized that Gideon’s case wasn’t even decided until 1963. My heart dropped.

My heart still drops when I think about how terribly this country treats poor people — as if it is because of their own fault or wrongdoing. As if oppressive systems aren’t in place to perpetually keep poor people from obtaining wealth. As if not being poor is as easy as just “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps.” I was angry. I am still angry. I am even angrier now that I realize how systemic oppression intensifies when coupled with other marginalized identities like race and gender identity.

I wholeheartedly believe that lawyers, both current and future, are equipped to play a pivotal role in dismantling the oppressive systems that have perpetuated inequality for so long. As lawyers, we possess a unique skill set as well as a heightened platform, both of which we are capable of using to ignite change. It is up to us to determine how to use that skill set and platform.

I believe the initial step towards using those skills and platform to effect change is simply to recognize that systematic inequality exists. Recognition of the issues that Black Americans face in obtaining wealth, home ownership, having access to educational institutions, and equal access to employment opportunities are just scratches on the surface of how deeply ingrained systemic inequality is within our society. Recognition of these issues and seeing how they play out in the lives of the people around us help to better understand how to work towards changing them.

At this point, we are witnessing a movement. We are incapable of absolving ourselves from recognition of these issues. It is time to take more active steps, and it is my belief that pursuing a career that allows you to play an active role in dismantling oppressive systems is one of the most active roles you can assume.

This is at the heart of the reason why I decided to pursue an externship with the Louisville Metro Public Defenders, and the reason why my blood boils every single time I hear someone degrade the roles of public defenders by stating they aren’t “real” lawyers (your privilege and ignorance are showing). I believe that socioeconomic status plays a tremendous role in the perpetuation of systemic inequality in America. Historically, the Public Defender program has been a catalyst for change by providing quality representation to those who would otherwise be incapable of affording it and by speaking out against the oppressive systems that capitalize on the hardships endured by poor people. For me, the recognition of systemic oppression and structural inequality lead me to law school and has allowed me to pursue career that allows me to utilize the privileges that come with being educated to help others, but it is my desire to pursue a more active role in dismantling these oppressive systems.

While lawyers undoubtedly have a powerful and important role in society, if they are not actively working to dismantle systemic inequality, then they are helping to perpetuate it.