Jurist — continued from Page 20
Also, the difference between the civil
bar and the criminal bar reflects an immense divide between the approach and attitudes of trial lawyers. The crimi- nal bar is comparatively small. A criminal attorney on either side destroys his or her own effectiveness if s/he gets a repu- tation for shading or evading the truth. “Jackets” last forever and getting a “jack- et” or bad reputation means that every- where you go, you are bucking up against a system that will no longer give you the benefit of the doubt. As a client, it may be great to have your attorney burn bridges for you and hold nothing back. Such a strategy, however, destroys an attorney’s effectiveness for future clients when the same lawyer has to go back over the charred and shaky bridge they
torched. It is also not worthy of an attor- ney’s status as an officer of the court or as a counselor. A counselor gives the best professional advice possible, and that includes bad news and saying no. The civil bar is so vast, compared to the crimi- nal bar, that the likelihood of seeing the same lawyers is far smaller. Though the bridge being burned may not have to be crossed in the future, reputations are still made or lost, and this carries a price. The size of the criminal bar has
therefore kept criminal lawyers more forthright and civil than the civil bar. Civil lawyers far too often brutally deni- grate each other, send blazing diatribes in various forms, fight over innocuous calendaring issues or discovery items or otherwise expend energy on small blazes,
while unknowingly sacrificing themselves in the war. No judge likes to see the inflammatory exchanges that invariably get attached as exhibits in warring motions. It is far more common to see this with male lawyers than with female lawyers but the dynamic is something that is uncomfortably too common. I recall in my first month in civil, I
drew the trial lawyers aside during a recess when the jury was deliberating, and I asked them their views on whether the best trial lawyers started out with integrity and grace, or whether these lawyers had the luxury of integrity and grace once they had achieved profession- al success. I believe the former is true. The most effective lawyers do appear to
See Jurist, Page 24
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