Scott Turow Quotes

The legal profession is overrun with money-makers, who regard it only as a business by which money is made, with little or no thought of the quality of the means used. We greatly need many more lawyers who regard the profession as a ministry in the temple of Justice.

There are some lawyers who think of themselves as basically instruments of whoever their clients are, and they pride themselves on their professional craft.

I will for ever, at all hazards, assert the dignity, independence, and integrity of the English bar; without which, impartial justice, the most valuable part of the English constitution, can have no existence.

I was taught that a lawyer was supposed to be a custodian of the community's legal and ethical sense.

And if these be unprincipled agents who scruple at nothing, he will be a bold man who will deny that there are always to be found men at the bar who lend their services most cordially to back and support these agents in their most desperate cases.

Lawyers have their duties as citizens, but they also have special duties as lawyers. Their obligations go far deeper than earning a living as specialists in corporation or tax law. They have a continuing responsibility to uphold the fundamental principles of justice from which the law cannot depart.

Courts love the people always, as wolves do the sheep.

I think lawyers have a fidelity to the system itself that's always got to be with them, and indeed, most of the defense lawyers I know observe that.

I think that one of the primary roles of an attorney, and certainly we try to teach it here to our students, is that you counsel compliance with the law. The lawyer, more than simply being a mouthpiece for the client and advocating at whatever cost the client's interest, is also an officer of the court in questions that appear before the court.

Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.

I derive no pleasure from prosecuting a man, even though I know he's guilty; do you think I could sleep at night or look at myself in the mirror in the morning if I hounded an innocent man?

I couldn't do that as attorney general. Why? Because they are my clients. You can't say they're not doing what they ought to be doing when you are the attorney general.

A Lawyer will do anything to win a case, sometimes he will even tell the truth.

Whatever a person's politics, lawyers have to understand that we are, for most people, the gateway for them to have access to the third branch of government.

A license to practice law is not a license to violate it.

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

Lawyers are very, very good at keeping you out of prison, but they will sacrifice your reputation and credibility to do so.

My public life is before you; and I know you will believe me when I say, that when I sit down in solitude to the labours of my profession, the only questions I ask myself are, What is right? What is just? What is for the public good?

What are you supposed to do - stop practicing law whenever one of your friends becomes president?

I think he could defend it at a bar association meeting, but not before real people.

Whenever you see me at court, understand that I will aid you without fee or reward ... the written Constitution is my client and the preservation of its protection is the only fee I asked.

A lawyer who is not a social engineer, is a social parasite.

In representing criminal defendants—especially guilty ones—it is often necessary to take the offensive against the government: to put the government on trial for its misconduct.

The role of the defense is to be an advocate for their client, regardless of whether he did it or not, within the bounds of the law.

The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.