Best things to do with a law degree except "be a lawyer"?

This question made me smile. This was my Dad's final argument to me. He said, you don't have to be a lawyer, just take up law. Read more: What are the best things to do with a law degree besides "be a lawyer"? Adelaimar C. Arias-Jose, LLB Law, University of the Philippines Diliman (1994). Updated January 2, 2018. www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-things-to-do-with-a-law-degree-besides-be-a-lawyer.

On my senior year in my undergraduate course, my Dad began his project: convincing me to go to law school and become a lawyer like him.

Of course, when you're a college senior, you've had quite a bit of practice making up your own mind and you don't take kindly to unsolicited advice on what you should do for the rest of your life. I would have told him off, but I am Filipino and respect toward parents is a big part of my culture.

He said to me: you should take up law — You're argumentative and you're pushy; you should take up law because you're always concerned with your rights; you should take up law because you're always concerned with right and wrong; you should take up law because you like sticking up for other people; if you take up law, you can be of service to others less fortunate than yourself; if you take up law, you can fight for civil rights (I was a child during Martial Law); if you take up law, you can work in the foreign service and see the world; you can work for a bank; you can work for the government; you can be a judge; you can work with me and we'll build a law firm. Ad nauseam and ad infinitum.

I didn't budge. I had my own plans.

Just before I graduated my Dad said, you can go to law school but you don't have to take the bar exam; you can take law, and take the bar exam but you don't have to practice law. You can take up law — you need to take up law because you are a woman and you are prone to being sexually harassed — the law can be your shield and your sword.

I love my Dad, but still, no.

For crying out loud, he said, take up law already. I'm paying for law school anyway and if you really hate it, you can go and teach. You'll be given better teaching jobs if you have a law degree. You just have to take up law, you don't have to take the bar or work as a lawyer, just take up law.

I took a qualifying examination at the French Embassy in Manila. It was an essay examination in the French language to be able to qualify for studying at any French university. I passed that and I was admitted into the Universitē de Grenoble, Facultē de Droit.

My Dad said, what? Leaving for Europe? Taking up law there? I'm not paying for that. What good would you be here? You won't be able to practice here in the Philippines, you wilk still need to take law here and qualify here.

Even though I spoke French and I could probably scrape by had I gone on to the law school in Grenoble, I was straining against the leash because I wanted to study in France but it wasn't very practical. It was the adventure of a lifetime, but it wasn't really what I wanted to do.

Just to stop him wheedling, I took the Law Aptitude Examination — this was the entrance test to the University of the Philippines' College of Law.

What, he said, you're not taking entrance exams to other law schools? What if you flunk there? What if you pass but they don't admit you?

I figured — only the best. If I don't get into UP Law, the toughest law school around, well, it wasn't worth it. I passed, I did the interview, I got accepted. I enrolled in the evening class.

What, my Dad said, you'll work while in law school? You won't have time to study. You'll be exhausted. You'll be distracted. You will flunk out. You won't finish.

Guess what? I taught for one year, during my freshman year. And then, for the rest of the four years in law school, I administered a preschool.

Five years later (it was a five-year program), I made it. I graduated, I took the Bar and passed it. I have been a lawyer since. I was the kind who went to court everyday and I defended people who were accused of crimes (rape, statutory rape, act of lasciviousness, drug possession, drug trafficking, frustrated murder, murder, bouncing checks). I also did a lot of annulments and breaches of contracts, ejectment cases, adoption cases.

I've worked various jobs while practicing law. I taught, I counseled, I wrote articles, I lectured, I wrote papers, I presented them. I published a book!

Oh, I also got married (to another lawyer from the same law school — we spoke the same legalese and thought along the same lines). I raised children. Twenty-three years later, I'm still a lawyer.

You can think of being a lawyer as having a profession or having a job, that's fine. But you can also be a lawyer — a person knowledgeable about the law — a person people will ask questions of, a person whose opinion is desired, a person whose legal mind sees things in a way that is unique. You can do anything and be anything by being a lawyer. Read more: What are the best things to do with a law degree besides "be a lawyer"? Adelaimar C. Arias-Jose, LLB Law, University of the Philippines Diliman (1994). Updated January 2, 2018. www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-things-to-do-with-a-law-degree-besides-be-a-lawyer.