AG glad for more women in law

“The legal fraternity is now heavily female-oriented,” he said.

The AG drew on his own experiences as the husband of an attorney. “I’ve been married to a lawyer of 20 years. She’s very much the rock in my life and my admiration for her grows as I watch her juggling the difficulties of the profession and the pleasures of her family.

“Women stand head and shoulders above men in many ways but if I could be so bold to say, they should not forget the power and charm of their family balance and their femininity,” the AG said in a conversation with Newsday yesterday.

Saying it is hard on women who are lawyers, he said there is nothing to replace the love of a mother, or the focus that a woman is as the rock of the home as a wife and mother.

Al-Rawi reflected on the idea of perseverance. “While this was a day of celebration of success, often it is not your successes by themselves which teach you life’s greatest lessons, but it’s more often an appreciation of those opportunities where you had failure,” he said. “As schoolchildren not yet in university, how much more often do you remember the question you got wrong as opposed to the one you got right.

When you walked out of an examination hall, you asked your closest friend ‘what did you put for question 11’, and then found out you’d put the wrong answer. It is that one you remember, much more than the one you got right.” He said the reason people persevere is related to simple concept laid down by their parents early on, telling you to trust, to love, to persevere, to have courage, and to not lose faith.

At the grad ceremony on Saturday, Al-Rawi told the graduates that the legal profession is not just about making money. “There is nothing wrong with pecuniary gain, but better was the thrill that you got in the case that could not be won, or the person who had some degree of personal torture which seemed insurmountable yet you had the ability to bring some measure of relief on. Those were the greatest examples of success in law. Those were the ones you remember sweeter than any pay-cheque that went along with it.” Al-Rawi urged the law graduates to ensure they performed social service in their law careers.

He reminded them that the original design of a lawyer’s gown had an open pocket for a client unseen to put coins into when the attorney’s back was turned and he was walking away from having litigated a case. “That is where the philosophy of service comes from,” he added.