Hello, my name is Eric Benson, and I love being a lawyer. Yes, you read that correctly. I enjoy waking up in the morning, driving to the office and practicing law. OK, there have been a few depositions that were pure torture if I’m honest, but for the most part I enjoy what I do.
But I get it — lawyers are a strange bunch in many ways. We use phrases like “herein,” “pursuant to” and “Mirandize” and look at you funny when you don’t know what we’re talking about. We’re absolutely no fun to watch “Law & Order” with, repeatedly interrupting the show with objections (and I mean actual objections) about the inaccurate portrayal of courtroom procedure. And we have this strange habit of keeping track of time in six-minute increments.
So the law is a bit of an acquired taste. For me over the last 20 years, I’ve developed a taste for it. Since I was about 16, I’ve basically had two main interests to the exclusion of pretty much anything else: sports and law. 1990s hip-hop/rap music might sneak onto the list as a distant third as it definitely had a heyday with me for a few years there. The sports thing was far and away number one on the list for many years and probably still would be if I never realized, sometime around the seventh grade, that hoisting threes is a lot harder when someone over six feet tall is guarding you. The Jazz have never called me with a spot on the roster, so I fell back on the law.
My interest in the law has grown along with me over the years. From the O.J. Simpson trial during my teenage years (I was convinced The Juice was totally innocent back then but I changed my tune when I learned what DNA was in law school), to watching nine justices on the Supreme Court figure out who would be running the country after election night in 2000 (I’m still not sure how they sorted that one out exactly) to, most recently, binging on “Making a Murderer” episodes.
After graduating college, I attended law school — partly based on my longstanding interest in the law and even more because I wanted to put off reporting to a full-time job for another three years — and my interest grew as I attempted to learn the hidden language of the law.
Since becoming a member of the Utah bar over 10 years ago, I’ve clerked for a judge, served as a federal prosecutor and now practice at the Salt Lake City law firm, Ray, Quinney and Nebeker. These varied positions have literally placed me on opposite ends of the table and allowed me to see the courtroom from every angle.
Over the years, I have come to realize that the legal system is really just a vehicle for people to communicate through a formalized process and a lawyer’s role is essentially to break down communication barriers in order to help find solutions to their problems.
The irony is not lost on me that society has decided the best way to do this is to get lawyers involved so they can facilitate resolutions through the somewhat esoteric, technical, confusing language of legalese. As counterintuitive as it seems sometimes, it is the way we have done things since the founding of this nation and the way we will do things for years to come. And it works. Most of the time.
Almost every day, I see legal issues I find intriguing. Not just cases I’m working on, but cases and issues locally and nationally that shape our businesses, our communities and our attitudes about what is right and wrong.
For example, a federal judge in California recently ordered the technology giant Apple to assist the federal government in unlocking an iPhone belonging to a suspect in the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. Apple, balancing its desire to cooperate with authorities in the fight against terrorism with protecting the rights of its users’ privacy, has opposed the judge’s order. Who will be called in to referee this dispute that could potentially affect the way we communicate with one another for years to come? Lawyers and judges of course. As that case, and many others, proceed through the courts, I’ll be watching.
Against that backdrop, I present this occasional column on the law.
We’re in recess.
Eric Benson is a shareholder with the law firm of Ray Quinney & Nebeker and former assistant U.S. attorney. His practice focuses on assisting companies and individuals respond to government investigations and on civil litigation. ebenson@rqn.com