My Grandmother and My Mother said I Should be a Lawyer - Raymond Two Hawks Watson

My Grandmother and My Mother said I Should be a Lawyer - Raymond Two Hawks Watson

It’s surreal. I graduate from law school on May 20 and it has been an extremely rewarding experience. Truth be told, I grew up with an aversion to the law. Starting with my grandmother’s frustrated exclamations that I should be a lawyer because I always argued back to her, bolstered by my mother’s many years of work as a paralegal, and exasperated by negative interactions with law enforcement, my experiences and rebellious nature as a youth confirmed that a lawyer was something that I was not going to be when I grew up. I carried this mentality into my undergraduate and early professional career, adamant that the law was an adversary to be overcome. As time progressed, I came to understand the fallacy of such logic.  I had falsely assumed that my lack of understanding of the law necessitated that the law was unfair. It didn’t; it just meant that I didn’t understand the law, and ignorance of the law is never an excuse. Further, I came to realize that better understanding the law allowed me to better advocate for and be a resource to the communities that I served in Rhode Island. This realization ultimately led me to pursue a law degree at Roger Williams University School of Law in 2019.

I was completely unprepared when I began law school. I had been out of a formal academic environment as a student for 14 years, and I was now a married father of two children, running a cultural consulting firm, and Chief of my Tribe. I had also mistakenly assumed that law school would like my former academic experiences; I quickly realized that it wasn’t. Law school was more than just studying legal terms and arguing about the facts of cases. I was constantly reminder by my law school professors that I needed to start to “think like a lawyer.” In this regard, one of the most beneficial lessons I learned was that when dealing with the law my personal beliefs and standards were secondary to what the language of the law stated. Once I understood and accepted this concept, law school began to make more sense. I also saw how adopting this perspective would benefit my advocating for marginalized communities in Rhode Island. I was intrigued and I wanted to learn more.

Given my experience and background advocating for indigenous rights in Rhode Island, when I started law school my primary interest was specifically in American Indian law. Accordingly, I was thrilled when Federal Indian law was offered during the Fall of 2020, followed up by Tribal Courts, Law and Government in Spring 2021. Dr. James D. Diamond, a national Federal Indian Law expert, was my professor for the classes, and his knowledge and expertise supplemented by ongoing discussions with my classmates, specifcially Dr. Taino Palermo, helped me hone the legal theories I had cultivated over the past several years. As law school progressed and I took more classes I soon realized that all aspects of the law were relevant to my specific interest in American Indian law. Armed with this knowledge and perspective, I developed interests in mediation and transactional lawyering which are skills that will not only advance my interests in indigenous rights and law but will also benefit my work in the Rhode Island community generally.

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As I finish law school, I am appreciative of the professional skills I have developed and how they will support my ongoing community work. Law school has been a consistent and comprehensive opportunity to increase my legal knowledge, hone my legal research skills, develop my ability to analyze and interpret legal concepts, and increase my professional network. These are key skills and opportunities that will greatly enhance my professional career. Law school has also challenged me to interpret indigenous customary law and traditions in a manner that can be understood and respected by the legal community. Simultaneously, I have been challenged to translate complex legal concepts to indigenous audiences in a manner that appropriately relates to and respects their own customary laws and traditions. These are skills that I am especially grateful to have developed. Additionally, graduating law school has confirmed that the legal theories that initially led me to pursue a juris doctorate are valid in the eyes of my legal peers. Lastly, and potentially most impactful, completing my law school degree has confirmed once again that my grandmother and my mother were right; I was supposed to be a lawyer. It’s taken 42 years for me to acknowledge it, and I have been kicking and screaming the whole time, but once again they were right . . .  like they always are.

I will close this week’s commentary by saying this; the law permeates every aspect of our daily lives. I started off adverse to the law, in part, because my grandmother and my mother said I should be a lawyer. Now I’m about to graduate Roger Williams University School of Law and am fully prepared to honor their legacies by encouraging the little people in my family and my tribe to consider becoming lawyers. Life’s funny, isn’t it? That’s why I always say God is good.

 

My three cents.

Raymond Two Hawks Watson