lawyers and leicester March 27, 2006
I had a bad headache all day long and still can’t manage to get over this cold. I’m going to the doctor tomorrow and I want a prescription for anything they’ve got. Illness always depresses me. I couldn’t concentrate in class and kept having negative thoughts about my young classmates. Many of them seem a little bit souless to me. I’m taking a first-year class that involves ethics problems. When called upon, most of the students in this class will try to find a technical way around an ethical issue rather than saying, “I would not do that, it’s unethical.” Anyone who said that would be thought a credulous fool, and we all know it. Professor C., during the last class, said, “I want you all to listen to yourselves.” But I wonder if it’s too late to change the way they think about things. Or, maybe it’s too early.
At first, I wondered where these young people were getting this amoral attitude. I realize they are all borrowing an obscene amount of money to go to law school and many of them borrowed a lot for their undergraduate educations. If they want to be able to pay it back, they’ll need to land a good high-paying job. Perhaps they think exhibiting a killer instinct will help them land a clerkship at a defense firm. That didn’t really explain it, though. I’ve come to realize that a lot of these kids have attorneys for parents. Children often ape their parents’ attitudes and usually exaggerate them. I’ve seen my attorney friends get a mischievious twinkle in their eyes as they hypothetically figure out how to get around an ethical problem to get to a big bag of money. None of them would ever do it, though. I hope these kids realize that while their parents or friends might talk a big line about throwing ethics out the window for enough money, very few of them will actually do it. Of those who do, a large percentage will get caught.
The thing that keeps my lawyer friends on the right side of the ethical line, and that will keep me there, I hope, is not the fear of getting caught. I have no doubt that I would get caught elbow-deep in the cookie jar if I tried anything like that. The main reason is that once you lose your reputation, you never really get it back.
Most lawyers lie. They have to. When an opposing attorney asks you what your injured client will settle for, you can’t literally tell them the truth. No one negotiates starting from their bottom line, but everyone knows that. The idea is to get as much as you can for you client to your mutual benefit. When a lawyer lies about more substantive things that actually affect the outcome of cases, other lawyers instantly distrust them and lawyers talk. Eventually, judges find out you are a liar. I don’t care how much money I made, I could not lay my head down on my 1,000-thread-count sheets and sleep at night if everyone in town thought of me as a liar. I don’t think I took integrity very seriously when I was 25. I am sure this has come with age. As I ease into the second half of my life, I realize that, unlike money and 15 minutes of fame, an honorable reputation is something you get to keep when you die.
When I worked at a defense firm downtown, the partner I worked for always tried to deal honestly with opposing counsel. Even if he found them to be liars, he would never fight fire with fire like that. He never passed up a chance to nail them, but he didn’t take cheap shots. I think he would have jumped out the window of One Shell Square before knowingly letting a lie get into court. Since this was my first exposure to a working lawyer, I guess I was spoiled. I appreciate that example and I intend to follow it as much as I can. I can tell you, though, that it is possible to work for a hard-charging defense firm and make beaucoup money and still be able to look people in the eye when you talk to them. I’ve seen it done.
When I got home, I cheered myself up by making plane reservations to go visit Leicester in New York next month for spring break. He is living in Park Slope, working temp jobs and making the rounds. He had a job at a restaurant, but it was too time-consuming. He is dating a new guy who has a Jack Russell Terrier. I miss that kid so much. I haven’t seen nearly enough of him since last summer. Leicester has a small speaking role in a movie that is now playing on In Demand. It’s called “The Shooting Gallery.” Leicester plays the heroine’s friend, from whom she borrows money in a laundry. It’s really a terrible movie and Ving Rhames should destroy every copy of it. He spends the whole movie chewing on a chicken wing and talking with his mouth full. Leicester, however, is spectacular and I have seen the movie several times. He comes on about 12 minutes in.
I’m trying to get Steve to join me in New York, since it’s a holiday weekend. Leicester will be working some of the time while I am there, so maybe Steve and I could see some museum shows. Steve met Leicester only briefly and I’m sure they would get along. We might run into William Marshall, too, and learn more about his plans for after graduation. Steve sent me some great drawings of the house he and his brother are going to build in Hawaii. It’s beautiful, simple, elegant, sensible and light. The roof forms a “V,” so it looks like the house is getting ready to take flight. It’s full of air and sunlight. He called and said that his brother loved the design and it all looks very feasible. Steve is gifted. He has great originality. His creativity is very stimulating to me. I love those eyes and how they see things.
- Posted in : main, new orleans
- Author : dangerblond
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