Down with the sickness

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They used to say you should keep your head down, work hard and fake it till you make it. Back in the day, interns and fresh graduates used to be paid a stipend for their labour and progressed in somewhat decent working conditions. You had supervisors who were a little humane, rational and didn't come to work after quarrelling with their wives.

Now though, things have changed. Parents spend big money on their child's education, help them earn a degree so they can enter the workforce and make a decent living for them. Sometimes, that transition is smooth, the other times it isn't.

This transition is heavily reliant upon the supervisors. Nowadays, especially within the legal profession, we lack mentors and idols whom we can look up to. We do have big lawyers in town but what defines a big lawyer? See, everyone has a price. You can pray to God as many times a day you want but when the right price comes, we all sit down to bargain.

Unfortunately, in our legal system, we've constructed a façade whereby we come off as God-fearing (not God-loving) and pious in front of our clients and lawyer friends but deep down, we're all dipping our fingers in the same mud and oh are we proud of it.

Interns and fresh grads are welcomed with opened hands and tightly shut wallets on the pretext that they're lucky that they even have an office to work in. Once they make themselves at home, these newly acquired sheep are dispatched to different courtrooms to update serial numbers for their bosses.

Sahab, in his egoistical pride, possessing only two legs, insists on appearing before all courts himself. In the unlikely event of him not being able to make it, the young experienced associate asks if he can proceed with the matter, the Sahab's brain plays a video recording where he starts losing his clients due to the fact that the fairly young associate ends up doing a stellar job.

And this, men and gentlewoman, is where the conflict arises.

It is heartbreaking to see lawyers with immense talent, merely updating serial numbers for their bosses in courts. And I agree, it's a part of the job and it's necessary. But having done this for long enough, I can tell you, you don't need a law degree to do that.

Years pass by and young lawyers, merely to be associated with big names, continue to waste their potential by doing clerical jobs like these. Not to include other clerical jobs that they're made to do. Imagine a young lawyer, having spent millions on his education, being told to write and deliver Eid cards for his boss. God help us.

Many continue to advocate for a more balanced approach towards treatment of fresh law grads and young practising lawyers. But only advocating isn't enough. Those who talk big and continue to treat their employees in a vile manner need to ask themselves if they have a clear enough conscience.

The most ironic observation I've made is big lawyers not even paying minimum wages to their associate and going out talking about how young lawyers aren't paid enough. Hypocrisy definitely will help you make it big.

Pay your employees enough and pay them on time. Big names out there failing to pay for months on end is a prevalent practice and naive lawyers continue to work in dire conditions.

And I don't blame them, when you have fresh grads coming from far out villages to Karachi, they have little choice but to bear ill-mannered seniors. No wonder we aren't progressing as a country and our system has come to a standstill because those working within the system are just as inefficient as those operating it.

Stand up for yourself, call out those who are usurping your rights, your money and your time. Be a force, be disciplined and learn how to fight. Be a monster but please, don't be a hypocrite.