The Rights of the Individual Today in New York
Controversy swirls around the commencement address at Boston College. The speaker, Representative Edward Markey (D-MA), told the graduates, "“You must find some ways to use your training to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.” The Wall Street Journal took issue with this advice. It is easy to see why. The comfortable want to stay comfortable and they do not want a bunch of young lawyers trying to knock them off their cozy perches.
I think Representative Markey is right. At our law firm, we focus on helping the victims of employment discrimination. Our cases almost always pit the afflicted against the comfortable. The comfortable manager who sexually harasses a subordinate or refuses to promote women into hirer ranks. That kind of thing. Our law firm has sued some of the largest companies in the world for employment discrimination. These mega companies have their mega law firms in tow and they typically try to wear us down with delay tactics and the like. Our entire operation is focused on overcoming the delaying tactics employed by defense lawyers. Not only do many lawyers focus on representing the comfortable, but, in my view, some of them abuse the legal system to some degree in trying to wear down the afflicted. There are also many ethical and very talented defense lawyers and I admire them. The world needs more lawyers who want to help the afflicted - the afflicted need legal help too but sadly few can afford a good lawyer. We also need to think about changing the way lawyers bill clients to increase access to legal services.
