What does a legal professional produce?

The "Tarihçi Kitabevi" (Historian Bookstore), located on Moda Street in Kadıköy, Istanbul, opened in 2009. The phrase "The voice of history and the living soul of Kadıköy," found on their social media accounts, describes this bookstore perfectly. It is not just a place that sells books; it is also a meeting point that enlightens its followers about history, culture, science, art, and society.

They host historians, authors, scientists, artists, architects, and professionals from other fields in talks that, as of last week, have been held for the 403rd time. These talks, which take place almost every Saturday, function as an academy with the contributions of the audience. Participating in an event held at Tarihçi on a weekend in Kadıköy, chatting with people, and sharing ideas is a great joy.

Nevin and Necip Azakoğlu, who keep this bookstore alive, are providing a great service to society. I hope bookstores continue to maintain this function.

The guest of the event held on January 24 was educator and author Neşe Doster. The event was titled as a commemoration of Uğur Mumcu, but Doster's speech was not limited to this topic alone. An incident she shared impressed me deeply.

Recently, the prosecutor of a juvenile detention center where children between the ages of 12 and 16 are held arranged for Doster to meet with these children. The goal was to contribute to the children's rehabilitation processes and to support them in adapting to society once they complete their sentences.

I felt great happiness that a colleague of mine, a Public Prosecutor, organized such an event and fulfilled the duty imposed upon them by the laws and, more importantly, by the profession itself. This colleague, who shows that beyond good or bad laws, there are good or bad practitioners, has clearly internalized the spirit of the legal education they received. They have shown that guiding the individual toward the good and the beautiful is a prerequisite for changing society.

The fact that the esteemed Prosecutor invited a Republican and Kemalist figure like Neşe Doster is also worthy of praise.

This incident, which I learned about on Saturday, gave me the opportunity to write about a topic that has been on my mind for a long time.

As I have written with sadness and sometimes shame in my previous articles, there are major debates in our country regarding legal practices and legal professionals. To reiterate briefly: the poor practices and decisions of members of the profession shake society's trust in the law. The fact that legal professionals are mentioned in connection with criminal activities also causes great shame.

While the state of the profession and the law is unfortunately obvious, there is also a major misconception that should not be fallen into: the proposition that members of the legal profession do not produce anything real and do not create a tangible work.

Humanity owes the civilization it has built to different talents, knowledge, science, experience, and most importantly, labor. A tunnel built under the seabed is awe-inspiring. Thanks to the efforts of people working in the field of medicine, we can live long and healthy lives. We owe the fact that we live in the safest buildings to those who designed them and the laborers who built them with physical strength.

What is the role of legal professionals in ensuring that societies live together and in solving problems? Is it a small task to resolve disputes arising from a construction contract worth billions of TL and contribute to meeting an essential public need, or to reveal the material truth in a death case and make a fair decision in light of concepts such as negligence, intent, fault, and conscious negligence?

Are the professional activities of reaching a solution in disputes between spouses by ex officio considering the interests of both spouses and the child, if any, something to be scoffed at? Can we say, for example, that Mahmut Esat Bozkurt produced nothing? If the portraits of United States Supreme Court Justices are hung on walls, for what reason is this?

Life is the time between the moment of conception in the womb and death. Everything that happens to us on this journey is a subject of law. It is the working field of the legal professional.

I can clearly say this: a person who has received a legal education by doing it justice and internalizing its spirit has taken a great step toward understanding nature and humanity. They realize that life does not consist only of 1s and 0s, and that there are unique worlds such as philosophy, logic, art, language, history, and geography. Thanks to the cases they follow, they develop admiration and appreciation for doctors, engineers, architects, artists, athletes, and laborers who work with physical strength—in short, for humanity and the human mind. Seeing that anything can happen to a person, they move away from arrogance.

I wrote above that there are good or bad practitioners of the law. Similarly, every profession has those who do their job properly as well as poor practitioners.

I offer my respects to all my colleagues who work with their labor, produce, and are hardworking, especially our Public Prosecutor whom I mentioned in this article.