Lawyers: A New Priesthood?

PETER KING

It is alright, Mr King, I have not prefaced the caption with anything that might in your belief system be associated with your christian name.

“This may sound ridiculous, but I do believe that I’ve been called to be a lawyer.” Peter King, a corporate partner at Shearman & Sterling in London, knew within two days of starting his law degree at Cambridge that he had found what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. “I don’t know why,” he says. “There was just some chemistry.”

It would be overly cynical to suggest that Christian faith and being a lawyer are mutually incompatible. I think of all the lost souls slaving for the Legal Services Commission. They certainly manage to combine being lawyers with holding irrational beliefs. I do not mean that they believe in a god. They may or they may not. But they subscribe to an even more improbable belief; namely, that the UK government will one day treat them fairly. The probability that this is true is much lower than the probability that a god exists. This proves only that some lawyers suffer from delusions. If I add that I have met many very able lawyers who used to or still do legal aid work then I must accept the proposition that there exist lawyers who are good at their jobs but cleave to irrational beliefs.

I have recently referred to Thomas Cromwell (Henry VIII's lawyer) in a post. He professed belief in god. But then he had to and was probably just a cynical liar and a hypocrite.

There is no compulsion on Mr King (i.e. no threat that his head will be chopped off if he does not at least pretend to believe in god) and I fully accept that his belief in god is genuine (albeit deluded). See my previous post on Dawkins.

I just find his thought processes somewhat confusing. He ascribes his "calling" to the law in terms of "chemistry" rather than "theology". What branch of chemistry is he referring to? The most likely answer would seem to be "alchemy". Mr King has certainly turned his talents (if not lead) into gold. Thus, if he does believe in alchemy, that may not count as an irrational belief at all.