{"id":12873,"date":"2011-02-21T00:51:31","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T05:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=12873"},"modified":"2011-02-21T11:50:02","modified_gmt":"2011-02-21T16:50:02","slug":"the-power-of-one-part-three-lawyer-as-advocate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2011\/02\/the-power-of-one-part-three-lawyer-as-advocate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of One, Part Three: Lawyer as Advocate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Note: This is the third installment in a four-part series of blog posts; you’ll find part one here<\/a>, and part two here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>Popular media most frequently depict lawyers in an advocate role.\u00a0\u00a0 Specifically, the media shows a lawyer parading in front of a jury, pounding on a lectern and giving a grand oratory performance.\u00a0 These, incidentally, are things that appealed to me about being a lawyer.\u00a0 \u00a0I like theater, and I like competition.<\/p>\n

I started my law firm clerkship with a bang with all the theatre and gamesmanship I could have wanted.\u00a0\u00a0 In the summer of 1999, I participated daily in a six-week jury trial that led to a $100 million verdict.\u00a0 We were thrilled because the jury assigned no liability to our client, a third-party defendant.\u00a0 \u00a0The plaintiff, of course, was ecstatic.\u00a0 I found the experience thrilling.\u00a0 More so, because I hadn\u2019t been part of the three years leading up to that six weeks.\u00a0 And I didn\u2019t play much of a role in the years of appellate proceedings that followed.\u00a0 The pace of litigation takes years to learn, and a good while longer to figure out how to explain to a client.<\/p>\n

But even at that nubile stage I could see that a trial \u201cvictory\u201d comes at great expense.\u00a0 \u00a0The plaintiff-municipality had incurred enormous costs, not the least of which was diversion from present endeavors, that redressing the past requires.\u00a0\u00a0 And our client, while clearly a winner at trial, had incurred heavy costs as well.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The longer I practiced the more I learned that most civil cases boast no definitive victor.\u00a0 More than 90% of cases settle before trial, typically requiring compromise on all sides.\u00a0\u00a0 Because of all the incentives to resolution, the rare case that doesn\u2019t settle often has circumstances suggesting blame cannot be assigned so neatly.<\/p>\n

The criminal realm is not so different.\u00a0 Ninety-plus percent of criminal cases are resolved by plea bargaining.\u00a0 The media portraits of the defense lawyer sweeping in and \u201cgetting the defendant off\u201d or the prosecutor triumphantly \u201cputting the bad guy away\u201d after a hard-fought jury trial, are largely caricatures.<\/p>\n

Thus, contrary to popular belief, nearly every lawyer\u2019s role as advocate lies mostly outside of trial proceedings.\u00a0\u00a0 Unfortunately, while the trial has fallen into disuse (without going into why, or whether that\u2019s a good thing), theater and competition persist.<\/p>\n

There is no place for theatre in advocacy.\u00a0 The hurt, pain or problem causing someone to seek legal redress, furnishes drama enough.\u00a0 Nor is advocacy a game, and any lawyer who perceives it so cavalierly ought not be one.\u00a0 The responsibility of speaking on behalf of another person is sobering.\u00a0 In this lawyer\u2019s experience, it is far easier to advocate for a cause or theory – even an unpopular one – than a person or group of people.\u00a0 Unlike theories, people are frighteningly complex.\u00a0 It is a deeply personal matter to ask someone to speak for you, and it is a deeply personal matter to undertake the work.<\/p>\n

Herein lies the Power of One as advocate, which I understood most acutely when hiring a lawyer for myself, four years ago.\u00a0 I believe in marriage and strive to keep my word. I never thought I would divorce; really, who does?\u00a0 Yet there I found myself, broken and bereft and just trying to stay collected, in Karen Zimmerman\u2019s office.\u00a0 I remember her telling me, as any good lawyer would have, \u201cyou know, kiddo, you could do this paperwork yourself.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The reality was that I needed a champion because I couldn\u2019t be one for myself just then.\u00a0 My divorce, while fairly routine from a legal perspective, was not ordinary to me.\u00a0 Karen and her staff treated me respectfully, and with patience.\u00a0 Most importantly, Karen spoke on my behalf at a time when sorrow had silenced me.<\/p>\n

No matter the practice, all lawyers take on the grave responsibility of speaking for someone other than themselves.\u00a0 \u00a0The clients who seek an estate plan need us to articulate in legal terms what they feel in their hearts.\u00a0 The multimillion dollar corporation our firm represents is, after all, made up of human beings who depend on us to speak for the company.\u00a0\u00a0 The criminal defendant who stole for drugs, one amongst a pile of 300 files that year, risked his life for his country not so long ago.<\/p>\n

As a legal advocate for others, I can tell you it is profoundly satisfying to serve someone well in this way.\u00a0 Sometimes we know the footprint our work has left on someone\u2019s life; often, we don\u2019t. \u00a0We ought merely to be grateful for the opportunity, and mindful of the tracks we lay down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: This is the third installment in a four-part series of blog posts; you’ll find part one here, and part two here. Popular media most frequently depict lawyers in an advocate role.\u00a0\u00a0 Specifically, the media shows a lawyer parading in front of a jury, pounding on a lectern and giving a grand oratory performance.\u00a0 These, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-practice","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}