the Zealous

Has being a lawyer changed your outlook on the world?

I've not been practicing long (bit more than a year now but in the field for longer), but I've already experienced that I've grown more cynical, pragmatic, amoral, less empathetic and more distrustful. I've noticed I've become way more proactive and assertive and more capable.

I'm not sure I like the way my worldview is going. I can definitely get more shit done and have an easier time figuring stuff out but I'm starting to lose out on a lot of principles I used to have. I don't want to start to turn into a douche.

Seems like I, like most people, started law school with the intention to bring more justice to the world. I've found that the opposite is true. I'm in corporate law by the way (both transactions and litigation).

This is the second in an occasional Zealous series exploring major legal philosophers, with the aim of demonstrating why their ideas should matter to anyone who currently practices law.

We turn now to H.L.A. Hart (pictured), the philosopher whose question Ronald Dworkin spent his career trying to answer: What is law, and does it have any necessary connection to morality?

H.L.A. Hart (1907-1992) was the most influential legal philosopher of the twentieth century. After graduating from Oxford with first-class honours in Literae Humaniores (Oxford's Classics degree, famously referred to as "Greats"), he qualified as a barrister and practiced at the Chancery Bar before World War II interrupted his career. During the war, Hart served in British intelligence (MI5), working alongside figures including Alan Turing and future MI5 Director-General Dick White. He never returned to practice, instead accepting a philosophy fellowship at Oxford, where conversations with ordinary language philosopher J.L. Austin redirected his intellectual energies toward law.

In 1952, Hart was elected to Oxford's Chair of Jurisprudence (a position established in 1869). The lectures he delivered over the next decade became The Concept of Law (1961), widely recognized as the most important work of legal philosophy published in the twentieth century. His other major works include Causation in the Law (1959, with Tony Honoré), Law, Liberty and Morality (1963), and Punishment and Responsibility (1968).

In previous posts, the Zealous has highlighted the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer when the focus was on Iran, where human rights attorneys like Amirsalar Davoudi faced thirty years in prison and 111 lashes for the crime of defending political prisoners. Afghanistan was another, where the Taliban seized the bar association’s databases, containing home addresses, family members, and case histories, and used them to hunt down lawyers who had represented women, human rights activists, or anyone associated with international organizations. Seven lawyers were killed. One hundred forty-six were arrested or investigated. Women were banned from the profession entirely.

This year, the Coalition for the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer announced its focus country for 2026. It’s the United States.

Let that land for a moment.