Law Week reminds us of the importance, joy and privilege of practising law in this province. Our profession reveals a road of wonderful opportunity. Opportunity of intellectual challenge, of economic comfort and of lasting friendships.
Law Week also reminds us that we must not lose sight of another opportunity on this road we travel. It is the opportunity to see and hear and understand that many of our fellow citizens live in the shadows of our justice system. They are the disenfranchised, the desperate and the dispirited. They are always poor, displaced and without any real opportunity or hope. We are indeed the privileged, but often we are an island of privilege in a sea of need.
Law Week rekindles our obligations as lawyers to offer our skill, our dedication and our hearts to those who cannot pay us a cent. His Excellency, the Right Honourable David Johnston once remarked that lawyers have a social contract with society. He said:
"We enjoy a monopoly to practise law. In return, we are duty bound to serve our clients competently, to improve justice and to continuously create the good. That’s the deal."
Fulfilling these obligations can change a life and it is the fulfilling of these obligations that ultimately defines the spirit and soul of our great profession. As was once said, the moral arc of the universe bends slowly but it bends inevitably towards justice. In the end, Law Week reminds us of our constant opportunity to influence that arc, to guide it and to shape it.