legal profession-changing lanes
TRANSCRIPT
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C hangingL anes-Directed by Roger MichellKeep constant guard over the actions of your life.
- The Rule of St. Benedict (Rule 4)
Being equal to the hindrances that confront us is no easy task, especially in an
urban milieu where speed, anger, impatience, and incivility prevail. In this movie, a
series of events find two men in a situation of jeopardy and great vulnerability; however,
instead of taking responsibility for their actions they choose to enter into a vengeful
battle with each other, doing more harm than what ought to be good.
Gavin Baneck, a successful New York attorney, is in a rush to file a power of
appointment, which will prove that the deceased client signed his foundation over to
Baneck's law firm. While changing lanes in the FDR, he collides with another car,
belonging to an insurance salesman, Doyle Gibson, who is also in a rush to a hearing in
order to try to gain custody of his children and to prevent his estranged wife from taking
them to Oregon. Baneck tries to brush Gibson off with a blank check, thereby
disobeying the due process required by law. After Gibson refuses to accept the check
and voices his desire to "do the right thing", that is, filing a police report and insurance
claim, Baneck strands Gibson, telling him, "better luck next time," ignoring the latters
request for a lift towards a destination which turned out to be similar. After arriving to the
court late, Gibson learns that it proceeded without him, consequently notgoing in his
favor.
Several themes are explored by this masterpiece, but a certain favorite, one that
I will never forget, is the irony, a good example being the two students fresh out of law
school whom Baneck interviews apparently for the position of articled clerkship with the
firm. The young man especially says he would like to be a lawyer because he believes
people are by nature good, and that conflict arises from historical forces, the law being
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yorkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawyerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_appointmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_appointmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_checkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_checkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_appointmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_appointmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_appointmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawyerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York -
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there as a "buffer", and him believing strongly in fairness and justice. He is given the job
by Baneck, who invites him to see for himself just how the law is in actual practice.
Certainly, it is very curious as to how extremely different the two characters' days would
have been had only Baneck cared to ask Gibson where he was going that morning,
which is the same place as he, to give him a friendly lift.
Another focal point of this masterpiece, pertaining to falsifying the power of
appointment and using it to collect the money due to the principal and converting it to
his benefit, is an apparent manifestation of a lawyer unfit to manage the legal business
of others, unworthy of public confidence and devoid of high sense of morality and fair
dealing expected and required of the member of the legal profession. Society has
entrusted to the legal profession the administration of law and the dispensing of justice,
and this trust demands lawyers to be at the forefront in the observance and
maintenance of the law and the preservation of its democratic institutions and liberties.
However, lacking proper ethics and sense of morality, as emphasized by the
Benedictine rule inhibiting the involvement of fraud, dishonesty or greed in the actions of
ones life, the practice leads not to upholding the nobility of the cause it represents , but
to the death of their very souls.
Lastly, but certainly not the least in the themes of this piece, is the anchor that
faith in God provides for the members of society. A lawyer, no matter how exalted, must
not forget this faith, for the justice he seeks to administer and uphold is but an
instrument that the Almighty one designed for the betterment of the world he created.
The law is not just in the letter of doing what is lawful and permissible, but more in the
spirit of what is just and honorable. Certainly, it is a pleasant thought that must never be
forgotten even in the passage of time and the successes it brings.