The profession we have chosen

26 Apr 15
From the film Lincoln Lawyer (2011) --

LA Detective Kurlen (played by Michael Pare):
How does someone like you sleep at night with all the scum you represent?
 
Defense lawyer Mick Haller (played by Matthew McConaughey):
I had a client once. He decapitated his ex-wife. Kept her head in the refrigerator.
 
Detective (sarcastic, hostile):
Nice, sweet.
 
Mick:
The DA got greedy. Tried to pile on two unsolved murders. Tricked up the evidence to make it look like my guy did it.
 
Detective:
But you got your boy off. And he's out walking around now right? Well f*ck you Haller.
 
Mick:
No f*ck the DA. And the cops who helped him. It's called the justice system Kurlen. It's not the way it's supposed to work.

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But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal-there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court. It can be the Supreme Court of the United States or the humblest J.P. court in the land, or this honorable court which you serve. Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal.
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird 218 (1960) (Atticus Finch)

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The study of law is sublime, and its practice vulgar.
– Oscar Wilde