It's probably hard to generalise, since there are any number of other traits that make someone a good lawyer, apart from those shared with doing philosophy. However, I understand that law firms are very interested in taking people who have done a philosophy degree, and a good number of philosophy students show an interest in studying law. Several skills that are very important to philosophy are also important to law, in particular the abilities to make sense of abstract information and convoluted sentences, to construct arguments on both sides of a case, to anticipate objections and prepare replies, to spot fallacies and weaknesses in arguments, to integrate a wide range of different kinds of relevant information, and to write and speak clearly and persuasively, breaking down complexity into simple components. There may be other relevant traits that help as well, such as an interest in what is right or just, a good memory, motivation for hard work, and so on. On the other hand, IF philosophers are...

This is a difficult question! In fact, two difficult questions. I'm just going to tackle the second one, and leave aside how we should think about political obligation. In the end, I think the answer is that legitimacy and civil disobedience are compatible. But it's going to take a while to get there. I’ll start with a working definition of civil disobedience, taken from perhaps the most influential political philosopher of the 20th century, John Rawls. He says civil disobedience is ‘a public, non-violent, conscientious yet political act contrary to law usually done with the aim of bringing about a change in the law or policies of the government’ (A Theory of Justice, p. 363). A couple of brief comments on this definition that will help us answer your question. If you don't agree with these, then you won't agree with where I end up. 1. Civil disobedience always involves doing something illegal. However, in most democratic countries, such as the US, civil disobedience is not itself a crime. If arrested...