By Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

C-Span interview on The Majesty of the Law

April 9, 2003

C-Span interview on The Majesty of the Law
ITEM DETAILS
Type: Interview, TV appearance
Source: C-SPAN2 BookTV

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Transcript

(Excerpt, Automatically generated)

Section on the current court system you say, it has been said that a nation's laws are an expression of its people's highest ideals. Regrettably the conduct of lawyers in the united states has sometimes been an expression of the lowest. >> yes. Yes. I have had a concern that has increased through my years as a lawyer with a decline in professionalism in the legal profession. and perhaps in others as well. But that's the one with which I'm most familiar. and I graduated from law school in 1952, from Stanford law school. And we met in a reunion, perhaps our 40th reunion, I don't remember exactly when this poll was taken. The questionnaire was sent out to all of us by class members asking a series of questions, including the question, if you had to do it all over again and become a lawyer, would you? Would you do it all over again? A majority of my classmates said no. And that shocked me. But I thought it was indeed a reflection of how the legal profession has changed since I entered it. And it's more of a business today than it should be. And less of a profession. I really think that lawyers -- people who study law, should expect to provide a lifetime of service to other people who need their help. Whether they can get paid for it or not. And that lawyers should be seeking more to serve than to make as much money as possible. With all of the resultant problems. When my husband, for example, first started to practice law, in those days law firms thought it was quite acceptable

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