Privileged To Be a Lawyer

PRIVILEGED TO BE A LAWYER By: Dillon Eduardo Zinser

PERSONAL CONNECTION AND PROFESSIONAL FULFILLMENT

Being an attorney has been the most challenging, yet simultaneously rewarding and fulfilling undertaking of my life. From a young age, I always dreamed of being an attorney. As cliché as it may sound, I wanted to be an attorney to help people in need. When I was fifteen years old, my family sought an order of protection against a neighbor who threatened our safety. During that process, my family sought the assistance of an attorney. My family was ultimately successful in obtaining the order of protection, due in no small part to the assistance we received from the attorney advocating for us. Before that time, the practice of law was completely abstract to me. It was not until my family had to go through the harrowing experience of seeking an order of protection that I really had the slightest idea of how a courtroom operated, or what attorneys actually did in practice. I still had much to learn about the realities of practicing law, of course. Even in law school, I cannot say that I really understood what the practical experience of lawyering looked like (until perhaps I became a student attorney in the UT Legal Clinic). All the same, the constant in my life, through all those years, was wanting to be a lawyer to help people and make the world a better place.

While I was in law school, I worked multiple jobs in order to support myself and reduce my student loan debt. One particular job that I had during law school was working as a maintenance worker at the Pilot/Flying J Travel Center on Watt Road. Much of my workdays consisted of cleaning showers, cleaning bathrooms, changing trash cans, filling propane tanks, and picking up loose garbage. The monotony of those shifts had a great impact on me. Day in and day out, so many of my shifts felt exactly the same as the ones that came before. I never planned on being a maintenance worker long-term, but the monotony of those shifts made me yearn even more for a career that would offer excitement and fulfillment.

In the present of 2023, I feel privileged to be a lawyer because I am able to help people accused of crimes through the most difficult moments of their lives. I am entering my fourth year of practice as a criminal defense attorney. While a sizable portion of my clients are retained cases, most of my cases are indigent clients that I am appointed to represent by the court. Even on my most stressful day of work, I am never confronted with losing my own liberty, unlike my clients who may face days, years, decades, or life in prison if they are convicted. In being a lawyer, I have learned that the best way to advocate for your client is to build a personal connection with them. Sometimes, as we all know, your client may not be interested in forming any sort of connection. But at the very least, having a strong sense of empathy for your client’s situation can help you be a successful advocate.

I feel privileged to be a lawyer because each day of work is exciting, different, and intellectually stimulating. Being a criminal defense attorney is never a monotonous job. Every case, every client, every work day is different in some way from the one that came before. Every client’s case has unique facts; every client has their own personal story; and every investigation yields different results. I feel fortunate in getting to know my clients, and be a part of their lives. In my time as an attorney, I have also visited many courthouses and jails across the various counties of East Tennessee. There are many regions and smaller towns that I (most likely) never would have seen if it weren’t for being an attorney. All this to say, I experience a level of contentment and fulfillment in being a lawyer that I never felt with the other jobs I held in life.

Lastly, I feel privileged to be a lawyer because of the friendships I’ve made with other lawyers, court staff, and members of the legal community. When work is stressful, or I’m handling a difficult case, I always receive encouragement and support from the other lawyers I talk to. The sense of camaraderie that I experience with my fellow attorneys always inspires me to the best advocate possible. If I were not a lawyer, I would never have had the opportunity to meet and work with such an amazing group of legal minds. We truly are blessed to have such a congenial local bar, and I would encourage everyone to participate in the KBA’s many events. If you aren’t feeling that ambitious, I would encourage you to simply strike up a conversation with another attorney in the courtroom. We all have much to gain by communicating and learning from one another.