“What makes you want to do law?” A managing partner at a prominent firm once asked me this question on the first day of my first internship. This was the first time that this question had caught me off guard. I had to pause and take a moment to contemplate on my answer. In a casual setting, I would probably just brush it off with a cliché joke: “I can’t do maths,” but is the answer really just because maths was so traumatic that I vowed to shun away from it for my entire life? I do not think so and in fact, I was not too bad at maths. So, what made me wanted to choose a career in law?

The truth is, I still do not have a clear answer to that. After three years of law degree and three legal internships, I am still asking myself the same question, “What made me want to do law?” If I were to be really honest, the more I delve in the legal line, the more a part of me wanted to stray away from continuing down this path and sadly most of my peers had the same thoughts as well. 

Fast forward a few years to my next internship and this time, it was my turn asking the question to my seniors: “what made them wanted to do law?” Their answers all share the same word: Passion. It was a simple answer, yet it speaks a thousand words. It reminded me that work is not all about money, you will have to love your work for you to be good in it and be motivated to be the best in it. I would dare say, in my batch of classmates, more than half of us in the class think of law as only something which they could earn a living off in the future.

It seems all this while, we have been thinking it wrong.

Now, back to the question, “what made me wanted to do law?” After some time, I think I have come up with a rough outline of an answer.

Firstly, to me, law is not just a subject that teaches you textbook skills. It is more than a degree which tests your ability to memorize black and white, man-made rules. To me, it is a subject that taught me how to form and organize my thoughts, how to think efficiently and methodically. More importantly, it made me realize that problems are not to be feared but to be embraced.  However, I have never really understood the societal impacts of the jobs of lawyers until I decided to take up the law clinic module during my final year. A background of my roles and duties at the time: I was tasked with handling cases on immigration law, specifically on providing legal aid for asylum seekers who had either find themselves stranded in the UK without a country to return to, otherwise known as statelessness, or providing legal aid to those who find themselves unable to return to their war-stricken home country. Hearing their stories and seeing the distress and anxiousness on their faces, it is evident that to some, the law clinic is their only hope for them to resume a somewhat normalcy in life- which is taken for granted by most people, including myself. Having knowledge on the law is a kind of power and a kind of responsibility. A power in the sense of being better equipped at protecting myself and my loved ones from exploitations by the capitalist market. A responsibility in the sense of contributing to the growth and development of the law for it to provide better protection to those in need and stricter enforcement to those who abused it. 

Of course, as I gain more experiences in the future, my reasons will grow and evolve according to the stages in my career. However, at this stage of my legal journey, these are the reasons why I choose to pursue a legal career. These are just my personal opinions and reasons, there is no right or wrong in it and everyone has the right to come up with their own conclusions. Once again, it had to be emphasized  that discovering your passion in not something that happens in a day, it takes time for it to slowly grows on you. These days, I find myself increasingly drawn to news on legal updates and development, something that I would have just browse through when I first started my LLBs. It seems I have found a glimmer of passion for it after all. 

Choosing the subject without having an interest in it is normal as I believe passion for it can be cultivated along the way. Little by little, taking baby steps, one at a time, there will be something in the whole learning process which would spark your interest and from then on, you build up that spark into a passion for it. Nonetheless, if you are still looking at the subject as a future money tree, or merely an exam paper that you are obliged to score well by the final year of your degree, it is best that you start reconsidering your future career choices for the sake of your mental and physical health.