Lawyer's Role Quotes

The main business of a lawyer is to take the romance, the mystery, the irony, the ambiguity out of everything he touches.

I realized the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder. The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby -- not even money, certainly not my soul.

There are higher things than mere professional success as a lawyer, and one of them is usefulness in a situation like that of New York, the great National problem of America.

Lawyers are for only what is right.

True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures—unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.

Each lawyer makes somebody unhappy either by beating him, embarrassing him or tying him in knots.

For me, being a lawyer means to help those in need.

I get paid for seeing that my clients have every break the law allows. I have knowingly defended a number of guilty men. But the guilty never escape unscathed. My fees are sufficient punishment for anyone.

It doesn't make sense for me to be a lawyer in a place where there is no law.

Every lawyer, no matter whom they represent, is trying to help someone, whether it's a person, a corporation, a government entity, or a small or big business. To me, lawyering is the height of service - and being involved in this profession is a gift.

Everyone wants to be paid well - I know that I certainly do. But there are lots of other satisfactions that we get from our work. To feel needed. To feel accomplishment. To believe that our work matters. Being a lawyer gives you a rare chance to experience that kind of success.

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.

Being a lawyer, it's like holding a key card to a parallel dimension of rule sets in the world, and it's lovely to make sure that key continues to work and to continue to brush up on the law every so often.

It was my idea to keep the [Justice] Department purely a law office and not have it engage in the administration of legislation. This was based on my view that the best quality in a lawyer’s advice is disinterestedness.

It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.

Besides, you want the unvarnished and ungarnished truth, and I'm no hand for that. I'm a lawyer.

Sir, it is wrong to stir up law-suits; but when once it is certain that a law-suit is to go on, there is nothing wrong in a lawyer's endeavouring that he shall have the benefit, rather than another.

It's every lawyer's dream to help shape the law, not just react to it.

A lawyer's duty is to read the law well himself, then tell the people what it is, and let them act upon it.

To me a lawyer is basically the person that knows the rules of the country. We're all throwing the dice, playing the game, moving our pieces around the board, but if there's a problem, the lawyer is the only person that has actually read the inside of the top of the box.

A lawyer’s place is in the fray.

If you are a lawyer, and you want to take on easier cases, you can prosecute traffic violations or something. You'd have a very high rate of success, and you probably could sleep more easily at night. But that's not what drives me.