The Good Lawyer

Most lawyers want to believe that they do good. Sometimes it is hard to believe such a thing. The jokes tell us otherwise. Sometimes our outcomes tell us otherwise. And our daily submersion in the miseries of others tells us otherwise. Yet most of us do want to believe that we do good. One place in which we find hope for such a thought is in the arts. Literature and film sometimes tells us 'you're OK'. Here is an example.

'Everybody lies. Cops lie. Lawyers lie. Witnesses lie. The victims lie. A trial is a contest of lies. And everybody in the courtroom know this. The judge knows this. Even the jury knows this. They come into the building knowing they will be lied to. They take their seats in the box knowing they will be lied to. The trick if you are sitting at the defence table is to be patient. To wait. Not for any lie. But for the one you can grab onto and forge like hot iron into a sharpened blade. You then use that blade to rip the case open and spill its guts out on the floor. That's my job, to forge the blade. To sharpen it. To use it without mercy or conscience. To be the truth in a place where everybody lies.'

From The Brass Verdict, a novel by Michael Connelly. Now a movie too. Click below to hear the lines from the movie.