Humility is a golden virtue, oft-forgotten and undervalued. As legal professionals, we may have had our fair share of victories, but it’s the constant fear of failure that often underpins our success. The unnerving minutes before filing a motion or the nervous anticipation before presenting a case in front of the highest court; those jitters are reminders of our commitment to doing our best. The fear of humiliation – of making foolhardy mistakes that might damage our reputation – it keeps us grounded, diligent and helps us avoid the perils of pride and overconfidence.
This is a lesson that Coleman Hughes recently served to the professional world at large. A rising star by any measure, Hughes has gained respect and admiration for his work from the most reputed brains of our time. Daring and controversial, his work on subjects like abortion and Black optimism has raised eyebrows and applause in equal measure.
However, his recent dissection of George Floyd’s situation in the Free Press, seems to have missed the mark by a substantial margin. According to Radley Balko’s critique, Hughes’s examination of specialized materials fell short in several areas. The critique pointed to a lack of depth in the analysis which was detrimental to the quality of the work.
Balko’s critique, ambitious as it might be, lays out a valid concern – the loss of humility in the face of rapid success. A lack of humility often paves the way for complacency, which is the beginning of downfall in any profession, including ours. Especially when dealing with specialized fields, a tinge of humble inadequacy could be the key to unearthing new learning, insights and eventually, the truth.
In the wake of Balko’s critique, others in the intellectual sphere have begun reflecting on their hasty acceptance of the narrative pushed forward in the documentary. With the emergence of an opposing, rational narrative, Hughes’s commentary started to crumble, leading to a slippery slope of defending facts that were evidently flawed, as Hughes found himself mired in a swamp of embarrassing corrections.
This whole situation underscores the importance of humility in our profession. To remember that success does not render us infallible, intelligence does not replace experience, and expertise in one domain does not extend to all domains. This is a key to safeguard ourselves from the kind of pitfalls Hughes had to encounter and underlines the fact that we, as lawyers, perhaps ought to strive to be better than this.