As a lawyer, I often have to use my professional skills in the service of others, while offering as much love to them as possible. This way of understanding others and of carrying out my job often produces a deep change in others.

One day a woman called me, because her daughter had decided, after an argument, to separate from her husband. Her partner had found a lawyer who within 24 hours had prepared all the documentation for a legal separation – it only needed the wife’s signature. She was worried and asked me if I could help. She knew that the young couple’s action was a result of momentary anger, and didn’t want this to ruin their future.

Without a mandate from either partner, I couldn’t intervene. The woman asked me, however, to see her daughter, whom she would send to me with the excuse of seeking advice from a lawyer.

So I listened for a long time to the young wife, and realized that their marriage could be saved. They had really acted on impulse without thinking of the consequences, and one signature on the petition would probably mean the end of their relationship. At the end of the conversation the wife asked me to represent her.

Subsequently, I called the colleague who had prepared the petition. I told him that before finalizing a separation I usually try to find out the reasons for the crisis in the marriage, and that 24 hours were not enough. I got him to send me the draft of the petition. After a few days I called up the wife.

She replied that both she and her husband had had second thoughts and had decided not to go on with the separation. After some years, I heard that they now had two beautiful children. I realized then that beyond the legal framework within which we live, love is the highest measure of justice, and can resolve problems that appear to have no solution.

(F.C.)