LAWYER QUOTES IV

quotations about lawyers

lawyers quote

There were lawyers who promoted quarrels to get fees. But they were the pariahs of the profession. The best lawyers were peacemakers, and though, of necessity, professional partisans when engaged in litigation, they were generally honorable partisans.

LYMAN ABBOTT

Reminiscences

Tags: Lyman Abbott


As to the essentials of a good lawyer, I have some very definite convictions. He should have a keen sense of right and wrong and a firm belief in basic moral values. I would hate to trust the welfare or protection of the life or property of any of my clients to a lawyer who had no respect for moral values, or one who had a callous indifference as to what was basically right and wrong.

JOSEPH T. KARCHER

New Jersey Lawyer, Nov. 1986


There must be some honest lawyers at the New York bar, and some impartial judges on the New York bench, but I should not like to be set to find them.

LYMAN ABBOTT

Laicus: Or, The Experiences of a Layman in a Country Parish

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We lawyers learn to study the faces of our witnesses, to form quick judgments, and to act upon them.

LYMAN ABBOTT

Laicus: Or, The Experiences of a Layman in a Country Parish

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If you cannot avoid a quarrel with a blackguard, let your lawyer manage it, rather than yourself. No man sweeps his own chimney, but employs a chimney-sweeper, who has no objection to dirty work, because it is his trade.

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Lacon

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Lawyers are in the business of advocacy, not judgment.

ALLAN C. HUTCHINSON

Is Killing People Right?


Lawyers are a bad lot.... They cheat their living out of honest people.

ALBERT R. CARMAN

Incurable!


Lawyers are like rabbits. They have a nasty habit of multiplying.

LEO REILLY

How to Outnegotiate Anyone


Lawyers rarely test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic question: "Will it do good?" When challenged about the expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, "Why not?"

LAWRENCE LESSIG

Free Culture

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He who will always be his own lawyer will often have a fool for a client.

J. HUNTER

attributed, Day's Collacon


Americans see lawyers as obstructionists, as defenders of murderers.... In reality, lawyers are the glue that holds society together. Without lawyers ... without law, you have anarchy.

BILL CUNNINGHAM

Cincinnati Magazine, Sep. 1992


Anyone who believes a better day dawns when lawyers are eliminated has the burden of explaining who will take their place. Who will protect the poor, the injured, the victims of negligence, the victims of racial discrimination, and the victims of racial violence?... Lawyers are the simple yet essential means by which people seek to vindicate their rights and we must not foreclose that means.

JOHN CURTIN

remarks at American Bar Association annual meeting, Aug. 13, 1991


Successful trial lawyers are like heat-seeking missiles carrying payloads of information prejudicial to their opponent's case, constantly looking for the chance to unload their cargo, right up until the final moments of trial.

DAVID BERG

The Trial Lawyer


Lawyers are like unrequited lovers--you give them an inch, and they go for the whole nine yards; you take off one shoe, and they pull down your pants.

ANDRES RUEDA

The Clawback


A lawyers performance in the courtroom is responsible for about 25 percent of the outcome; the remaining 75 percent depends on the facts.

MELVIN BELLI

attributed, Jar of Quotes

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How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb? How many can you afford?

BLANCHE KNOTT

Blanch Knott's Treasury of Tastelessness


No group has a greater responsibility today in helping maintain our free institutions of society than the lawyer. In fact, being a man of the law, he is uniquely equipped through training, outlook and experience to be a leader of his fellow citizens. American history confirms his tremendous contribution--helping draw up the basic documentation of our freedom, serving as a leader in local, state and national government, participating in the affairs of community life. At this hour, America especially needs the leadership of the lawyer. The moral fabric of our Nation is badly torn. Disrespect for law and order is widespread. The very principles of free government are being scorned and perverted. Flouting the law has almost become a hobby for some individuals.

J. EDGAR HOOVER

Texas Bar Journal, Feb. 22, 1964


Lawyers are the jackals of commerce.

ELBERT HUBBARD

Fra Magazine, Sep. 1911

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As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough. Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

notes for a law lecture, July 1, 1850?

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Lawyers generally know too much of law to have a very clear perception of justice.

ELIZA COOK

Diamond Dust

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