Weblog

Friday, 22 May 2009

  • For the Public Good

    It has been a long road with many sacrifices along the way in pursuing my calling of being a public service attorney. Many have been supportive of my decision to leave the private sector to move into the public sector, even in this recession. But very few understand what public service means. There are a good number of people who think a "public service attorney" is a public defender. (I guess because both titles share the word "public.") But that is just one of many capacities in which a public service attorney can serve the public. Public service is a broad and diverse field including civil and criminal prosecution, consumer rights advocacy, real estate law, corporations law, tax law, environmental law, municipal law, etc. Public service attorneys work with various public agencies, and one among many is the public defender's office.

    Misinformation abounds with respect to every profession, but misinformation about the public sector is surprising given the transparency and accessibility of information about the public sector. Salary is a good example. I was watching the news and a seemingly well-educated young man was recommending that there should be reductions in the California state workforce to deal with the State's budget problems. He gave an example: make cuts to the California Department of Fish and Game. He guessed that they earned $300,000. The Governor of California does not even earn that much. See http://www.dpa.ca.gov/salaries/elected/main.htm.

    Many of us who work or aspire to work in public service desire to work for the public good. Salary is not an issue. In working with the Kings County DA's Office, the California Attorney General's Office, and NYCEDC (a New York City agency), I have met many experienced, intelligent and motivated attorneys who desire to serve the people and work for the public good. Many of them like me left the private sector.

    I think it's hard for people to understand why any attorney would work in public service, and not corporate law, where apparently, entry-level attorneys receive a six-figure salary and big bonuses. Perhaps it's because "serving the public good" is not even apart of our daily discourse. What does it even mean? For me, it means being deeply dedicated and passionate about a greater cause than yourself. It means serving the people, advancing justice, and improving the government, people's health, economy, and environment. It means being actively apart of the solutions to the problems that we face as a community and trying to make a better society. This is what I want to be apart of you, don't you?

Love, Love, Love

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13.