10 Reasons - Cooking & Practising Law

As I was sauteing mushrooms one day, a thought occurred. That thought hit me like a meat tenderiser to meat. Cooking is similar to the practice of law. Not to be confused with a flash in the pan. Here are 10 aspects where similarities exist. 

1.           Preparation

When cooking, one first decides on the dish. After which, the ingredients are then diced, cut, etc. The plated dish is akin to the desired outcome and direction of a case.

2.           Fundamentals

Similar to drafting (i.e. ensuring the correct named party, jurisdiction of court) there are fundamentals when it comes to cooking e.g. oil needs to be hot enough to fry or one needs to slice / dice onions to saute instead of just chucking an entire onion into the pan. There are steps to each stage. Everything else is up to the person’s creativity, garnish and to taste.

3.           Ingredients

Each dish has certain important ingredients (without which the dish might even be inedible). Example if one wants to make spaghetti meatball marinara, one would need tomatoes, meat and pasta.

In pleading causes of action, certain aspects must be set out. Say negligence, one would need to have the duty of care, breach of duty of care and damages suffered.     

4.           Research

Speaking of fundamentals and important ingredients, one would need to do the proper reading and research on how to braise or fry the desired dish or the desired pleading. Akin to reading up case law and text books.

5.           Equipment & Tools

Without equipment and tools, it’s difficult if not impossible to practise law or to cook. After all, cooks and chefs use chopping boards while lawyers use keyboards. Cooks and chefs use pans while lawyers attempt to look deadpan when the unexpected occurs.

6.           Environment

The more conducive the kitchen, the better the cook or chef performs. Not very different with a conducive work environment for lawyers.

7.           Multitasking

Similar to how a lawyer’s scope of work involves taking calls, drafting, attending court, proffering advice in a day, one would need to dice, slice, fry, grill and to clean up. The ability to multitask is important. 

8.           Coming Together

After all said and done, everything would be dependent when the ingredients come together in a skillet, wok or in the oven. At that point in time, there is only so much that can be done. If things go south, and believe me it can, there is only so much that can be done.

Similar to having to go to court. One can do all the preparations, but ultimately one can only hope for the desired outcome.

9.           Presentation / Creativity

The presentation of a dish or a case is as important as the content.

10.       Passion

Certainly one can practise law or cook without passion. Essentially just to get the job done. But it would feel as if it’s a chore. However, when one sprinkles passion into the equation, the results are spectacularly amazing. 

There you have it, top 10 aspects where cooking and the practice are similar. I’ll conclude the article with this - thyme is to cooks and chefs what time is to lawyers.