Last December, as recipient of NJ-ICLE’s Distinguished Service Award, Middlesex County Assignment Judge Travis Francis offered an important acceptance speech. His Honor spoke about the unique role of lawyers in maintaining the stability of government and the integrity of systems. “Lawyers are the gatekeepers against tyranny,” he proclaimed. He then reminded us of the butcher’s declaration in Henry VI, that, “First thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” That, you might know, was not a knock on lawyers; Shakespeare’s butcher was an evil conspirator whose goal was anarchy—disruption and disintegration of the kingdom—and he knew there would be challenges from the lawyers. Let us hope there always will be.
Lawyers as the gatekeepers against tyranny? Having “majored” in history, I could think of scores of tyrants and all sorts of tyranny. But, really—lawyers at the gate, fighting off Attila’s hordes or Hitler’s Panzer divisions? Was this notion merely one judge’s fanciful observation or is it a universal truth? If true, how did we get this job, what do we do here, and when can we go home? Besides, what is tyranny, what does it look like, and is it really at the gate?
