The reality of big city life is not so glamorous. We're looking for work, which means we're poor. We're doing well enough (genteel poverty is the Sewanee term), but you can't go out every night like that and "live high on the hog" as Sarah Palin put it (how she can use a proudly southern phrase such as that and complain about the media portraying her and her family as a bunch of frozen hicks in the same sentence with a straight face is beyond me). With that in mind, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that we don't actually go out that much. We're masters of the television and prepaid entertainments such as our music, playing with the cats, and our guitar and bass. I cannot tell you how happy it made me to be able to let Kate go to the Bob concert last week (which is pretty cheap as concerts go) and observe her post concert happy dance for the next day and a half. The concert itself contains a mountain of material--including the tale of the quest for the zipcar on the top of Mount Everest. *spotlight swivels onto Kate's side of the stage* But she's too shy, so I am now doing my best to embarrass her into telling you about how much she loves Bob, and all of the fun she actually got to have.
The last thing I have for this post is a repackaging of a letter I sent to a dear friend who is applying to law school. He asked me for some help in writing an essay question, "what skills and traits do you possess that will help you in the practice of law?" As he put it, applicants would have to know what traits were needed to be a good lawyer without ever having spent a day in the practice itself. I have not practiced, but I have studied the topic for a little over a year. Here's how I lit a stick of dynamite in the dam of his writer's block:
To answer your question about what skills and traits you possess, I feel that I must first explain what lawyers do. Lawyers are the champions of their client’s cause. Lawyers use their skills for the protection of their client’s rights and the advancement of their client’s goals. In representing the client, the lawyer must know what a client wants, and where necessary, advise the client on the best legal course of action—whether in or out of the courtroom. In the advancement of the client’s goals, the lawyer must be informed about the facts and laws that apply to the client’s needs. In adversarial matters, the lawyer must know the facts and laws that apply to the opponent’s position as well. Above all, a lawyer must have good judgment. A lawyer must know when to advance, when to stop, and when to retreat. A misstep in judgment can result in bad advice, a botched document, a ruined negotiation, or a lost case—all with potentially disastrous consequences.
Lawyers are also officers of the courts. They are the agents of the court system and ultimately responsible for society’s ultimate belief the that the justice systems (both criminal and civil) are a better system of conflict resolution than self-help methods such as vigilantism or clan feuding. People need to believe that the court system is fair or else they will stop using it and seek other, more seemingly gratifying means of conflict resolution. It is the need to preserve the court systems’ image of fairness that drives legal reform. Fairness is for this reason that lawyers are restricted in the lengths they may go to serve their client’s needs. Fairness is what is causing so much discussion over what lawyers are ethically allowed to do. Fairness is driving the discussions of alternative dispute resolutions such as arbitration and mediation; as well as the discussions of how to make quality legal assistance available for all of society, and not just the rich. Fairness is what gives life to the questions that challenge the profession and quake the foundations of the legal institution.
With that food for thought, what do you think makes a good lawyer?
-Pete
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