Scarface Is a Perfectly Acceptable Person for Lawyers to Emulate

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LawCrossing.com is a website that lists legal jobs. Every now and then, I get an email from Harrison Barnes, the CEO of LawCrossing, who must know what he's talking about because he's a CEO and it sounds like he was named after a law firm. Harrison's epistles are meant to provide information on the legal job market and how to approach it, in a relaxed and casual tone.

Today's email was entitled "Scarface and the Passion of New Immigrants to the United States." Now, I had two reactions to the title alone. The first was, "immigrants rock and are so much better than the indigies!" (That's what we call the indigenous population. Okay, I'm the only one who calls them that, but it'll catch on, just you wait.) My second reaction was: "WTF?"

Harrison is clearly a fan of Scarface. He recounts a large swath of the movie in detail. (I have a vision of his college dorm room and - yes - yes, it's coming through - yes, there's a Tony Montana poster on the wall.) He then says: "The difference between us and Montana is how hungry most of us are."

Really? That's the difference? That's all that separates your average, run-of-the-mill junior associate and a murderous henchman for drug lords? Delusions of grandeur aside, I would like to think that, between me and Scarface, there is the additional barrier of the fact that I engage in an honest, legal profession....

The analogy is, I think, a bit odd.