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Felon-Turned-Lawyer

This article entails a lesson on the constitution which more than a hundred students received from both public and private schools at the Robert Jackson Courthouse in Buffalo. The students consist of both juniors plus seniors who were presented with the life story of TheArthur Duncan II, “Locked Up and Locked Out: The Second Chance.” He narrated to the students what he has experienced since early 2000 after he was imprisoned for three years for drug-related crimes. Moreover, the program also comprised of the judges representing several judges from different departments. The Arthur Duncan II journey to success is regarded as a unique one due to the life experiences he went through. He presents a story of the painful life he went through of despair, redemption and finally success. It is vivid that his present life success was as a result of the misery life he went through which made him who he is today (Bizjournals.Com, 2018). Today Duncan is a felon besides being an attorney, and he has observed at Law from both sides, and presently he enjoys being on the right side. He was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Buffalo primarily by his grandparents and in both the states, Duncan fell in with an illegal gang.

Duncan articulated that he joined high school in the late 1980s in Los Angeles and while in high school, he skirted the edges of gang culture and as he elaborates it, there was nothing good that came as a result of the gangs. The famous groups which instilled a lot of fear among many young individuals were referred to as the “Crips” and “Blood.” During that time gangs plus peddling, drugs were considered as burgeoning enterprises. Moreover, it was at this time while he was at high school that he suffered abuse from his stepfather who was cocaine-addicted. The stepfather could occasionally steal from the family and also beat his mother. The family was living in intimidations from the drug dealers who wanted to kill them because of the stepfather’s debts which were not paid to them. Duncan returned to Buffalo after finishing high school, determined that the life he was brought up in was not what he wished.

However while at Buffalo he met up with some childhood friends who most of them were in the criminal groups and he ended up selling drugs. As he elaborates, he started with marijuana then went on to selling crack on the streets of Buffalo for about eight to ten years. He recognized what he was doing was illegal, and he tried a lot to change his lousy conduct, but it was unsuccessful. He enjoyed life to the maximum by visiting different cities and partying hard without any worry since he was making some good cash from the illegal business (Bizjournals.Com, 2018). Later on, he was arrested along with some relatives and other individuals and charged with conspiracy, and in 2000 he was sentenced to forty-six months in the federal prison. Duncan spent three years in prison and eventually he was unconfined. However, he was required to spend a total of six months in a halfway house.

It is then from this experience that Duncan’s story takes a hairpin twist. He started thinking critically about his life and then he decided that he would not go again into prison and would not engage in drugs peddling again. However, he was in a dilemma of what to do in life since he lacked any required skill in the job market as all he possessed was only a high school diploma. Also, he had developed a stigma of being a felon that it would be hard for him to get any job to sustain him. He finally decided to go back to school so that the degree that will obtain would help in covering the negativity of his felony conviction. He enrolled at Erie Community College although he was at first rejected due to conviction. After graduating from the College, he later joined the University of Buffalo though he was first turned down again for his sentence. While at the University, he sustained his family which comprised of his wife and three children by driving a wheelchair van for fifty to sixty hours a week. This is an evidence of a hard life which Duncan was going through in education and particularly in his life.

Duncan graduated at the University of Buffalo, and later his determination of becoming a lawyer pushed him into searching enrollment at different law schools, where the majority of them turned him down due to his felony. An example is a University at Buffalo School of law which declined his applications, and this forced him to enroll at a law school in Ohio. The life at the law school in Ohio became tough for him and this significantly contributed by the felony conviction. He was restricted from doing several things like he could not live on campus. The tough situation and experience he was going through at the law school made him transfer to the local school of law, and he mandated to graduate in 2012. He wanted to become a lawyer, and his worries were whether he would be allowed due to his conviction. A professor who he became close to while at the law school helped him understand the situation correctly. The professor advised him that according to the Constitution, there existed no absolute bar for an individual to become an attorney in that State with a felony. However, he was required to appear before the committee of Character and Fitness for scrutiny (Bizjournals.Com, 2018). Fortunately, he passed the bar and finally managed to be admitted to practice as the committee made it absolute that he could practice law in the state Duncan who was a past felon was then able to work an associate corporation counsel for the Buffalo city where he worked at the litigation sector. Moreover, after working as assistant corporation counsel, he managed to form his law practice firm in 2016 to concentrate on criminal defense as well as personal injury.

It is evident that Duncan’s story conveys an incredible impression as well as encouragement towards the children and the entire individuals not only in Buffalo but the whole world. From his experience, Duncan knew that there was more to life and according to him his best was intelligence which he used to attain degrees which later helped him in life. He never imagined that one day he would become an attorney and thus his past criminal record never prohibited him from reaching a prestigious honor of enrolling as well as attaining a law degree from the University of Buffalo. Many individuals thought that Duncan was wasting time since they had never experienced an ex-drug dealer becoming a lawyer. According to Duncan’s book “Felon-Attorney,” there is always a second chance out there since one mistake does not necessarily mean that life is over as one can his or her life around as he managed to do.

Works Cited

Bizjournals.Com, 2018, https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2017/10/02/blj-felon-turned-lawyer-tells-his-story.html. Accessed 12 Nov 2018.