When I went to law school, I did not think I would practice law after graduating. After all, I had no lawyers in my family, no legal mentors, and only met a handful of attorneys prior to applying to law school. Therefore, I don’t think I fully understood all the legal career options available to lawyers and what exactly those looked like. But lawyers wrote (a lot), and I loved writing and storytelling.
Instead, I had my heart set on going into journalism or broadcast media. I had researched successful people in those industries and realized that many had law degrees.
Nevertheless, I went to law school with an open mind. I was from the Chicago area and was brand new to New York City. I wanted to soak up everything about this new experience. But in my first year, I became increasingly drawn to the idea of being a trial lawyer and working on social justice cases. Maybe that shouldn’t be such a surprise—both media and trial work involve storytelling, and, in a way, uncovering the truth.
I have practiced law for over a decade, and I have truly enjoyed the experience. But alongside my practice, I have been very aware of the role that media, journalism, and storytelling has played in my work and the systems in which I have worked. Therefore, in these next few blogs, I am going to share some of the ways the media has impacted my work as a lawyer and inspired the creation of Estorie Agency.
Justice Denied
In January 2013, I started working as an Assistant District Attorney in the Rackets Bureau at the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office. In this specialized division, my colleagues and I investigated and prosecuted cases involving organized crime (human trafficking, gun trafficking, large-scale burglaries, and plots to kill witnesses and judges) and public corruption (any cases involving defendants who were police officers, correctional officers, or public employees). It was an exciting job and overwhelming at times, and I loved my colleagues.
But the issues plaguing the system were obvious. During my time there, the New York Times ran a four-part series titled, Justice Denied: Inside the Bronx’s Dysfunctional Court System. The series highlighted backlogs in the courthouse, a defense attorney who used unethical delay tactics, defendants sitting in jail for years without trials, my office’s prosecutor failures, and prosecutors asking for adjournments for less than urgent reasons. The series sparked a lot of conversation amongst the line attorneys in the DA’s Office, as well as I’m sure, upper management.
The New York Times did not necessarily offer a cure for the Bronx’s ailments, nor was that it’s job. But, after showing the world what was broken, I saw changes. Judges proceeded to trials more quickly, plea offers become more reasonable, and attorneys refrained from asking for adjournments on questionable grounds. Public pressure and scrutiny, the result of public exposure, began to move the needle in the right direction.
The Takeaway
This is but one of example—of many—of how storytelling, when done correctly, can cause change. Here, it was systemic change and encouraged (or pressured) the players working within that system to make it operate in a more just manner.