Downward spiral

In civilised nations, lawyers carry a certain image. They need to. They are astute and fairly well put together. They have to be because they go through tough processes to become a lawyer. They read extensively, take the LSAT, read more and then take their exams. By the end of it, they come out the other side more polished, academically sound and equipped with the necessary analytical and critical skills to understand how to apply the law.

If you didn't notice up there, I was talking about civilised nations.

Again, I'll leave it your fine sense of judgement because whenever I speak up against our inconsistent standards, old flabby men on WhatsApp groups begin conversing about the unknowing first-generation lawyers.

Bar councils regulate lawyers. Bars get people drunk; there's a difference. You dance in the latter, not the former. But in our case, the distinction seems to become murkier day by day.

Thankfully, the bar elections are over. At least one of them. I came across various social media posts where some lawyers were complaining about receiving a plethora of calls from random law firms, soliciting votes for their seniors contesting for various bar council posts. Not only were these calls being made to everyone, but they were also made during peculiar hours of the day. Some complained about being woken up at 11 pm by a naïve voice on the other side of the phone saying, 'Mr X is running for elections, please consider'. Interestingly, lawyers were referred to by their full names by the callers.

Do you know why that is a problem? Because that means their personal data was leaked by their respective bar councils. Their names, numbers and addresses were freely handed over, without question, for candidates to reach out to. No one consented to receiving these outrageously futile calls, and no one consented to having their personal data handed over.

To make matters worse, people also complained of receiving promotional messages on their WhatsApp from unknown numbers. These messages consisted of a mere poster of the candidate. No other context. I couldn't decide if that was funny or just bad marketing.

I also came across various misspelled Facebook posts too, talking about how their respective candidates would improve the system and some complained about the previous or current management.

I thought my misery would come to an end once the elections were over, but I was wrong. Now all I see on my social media are celebrations. Which isn't a bad thing. Humans deserve to be happy.

But I've been coming across videos of lawyers engaging in aerial firing. Isn't that illegal? Or do laws apply differently to people of certain professions?

I haven't had the time to congratulate those who won. So here goes. Congratulations to the winners. Now that you've won, will you initiate an inquiry against your fellow brothers who were engaged in aerial firing inside court premises?

The video shows everyone's faces clearly. Will any action be taken? Of course, none. Imagine if someone loses their life due to the bullets that come back down, who will be held liable?

This is the system, welcome. Leave it if you don't like it.

Also, the last thing I want to see when I wake up in the morning is to watch grown men in suits dancing in court to the beat of the drum.

What happened to having class, decorum and upholding professional standards of the profession? What happened to carrying your black coat with pride and dignity? They say you get what you deserve. In a country where law schools are handing over degrees for fun and stay order lawyers are opening up law schools, what do you expect?

When you call your lawyer tomorrow for legal advice and they don't pick up, don't be surprised. They're probably at an election campaign doing a full-blown bhangra dance with a suit on. As funny as that sounds, it's despicable.

Switch jobs if your boss makes you do all these things, and thank me later.