Working on this case, Schlichtmann experienced a profound revelation. The concept of a system of justice—laws and courts that permitted welfare mothers to challenge governors!—seemed to unfold gloriously before him. He suddenly saw that lawyering wasn’t just wills, divorces, and sordid criminal matters, the leaky faucets and clogged pipes of society. The law, he decided, was perhaps the highest calling a man could aspire to.

Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, loc. 226