Invictus

By August Bequai

“Howe rapidly the iron age succeeds the age of brass!”

   William Erskine, Epigram

Today, we are in the midst of a profound social, economic and political transformation of our society, wrought on us, in large part, by the IT Revolution, and with no end in sight. Privacy is threatened at every turn; the chasm between the economic elite and the masses has grown astronomically, confidence in our political institutions has dramatically waned, and hucksters use social media to play our citizenry off against each other.

These are dangerous times for our society, and confidence by the public in our legal system is, more than ever, of paramount importance. It is the firewall that safeguards our freedoms. Writing at the time of the Industrial Revolution, W.S. Gilbert (in Iolanthe’s “Lord Chancellor’s Song”) said it best: “The law is the true embodiment / Of everything that’s excellent.” The same can be said of our 21st century society.

The Virginia State Bar’s (VSB) primary purpose is to ensure that the state’s legal community serves the interests of the Virginia’s citizenry, no matter what segment of its socio-economic or political spectrum they come from. It is not the VSB’s task to safeguard the economic needs of lawyers or their law schools. The Diversity Conference (DC), as a vehicle of the VSB, also seeks to best serve the needs of the citizenry of Virginia.

Invictus, as a vehicle of the DC, serves the same objectives. It provides a vehicle for the various elements of the community to voice their concerns, by submitting articles that address the needs of those who are unable to do so because of an economic, social, medical, and/or political impediment — without favoring one over the other.

With that in mind, feel free to contact us with any ideas that you may have for an article. The more innovative and challenging the article, the better for our readers. Thank you.

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August Bequai, Esq. is an attorney in McLean and the editor in chief of Invictus. You may reach him at attyabeq@aol.com.