THE GOOD LAWYER
Seeking Quality in the Practice of Law
by DOUGLAS O. LINDER and NANCY LEVIT (Oxford University Press, 2013)

The Good Lawyer

About The Good Lawyer

Preface

Introductory Note

The Good Lawyer is Courageous

The Good Lawyer is Empathetic

The Good Lawyer Has a Passion for Justice

The Good Lawyer Values Others in the Legal Community

The Good Lawyer Uses Both Intuition and Deliberative Thinking

The Good Lawyer Thinks realistically About the Future

The Good Lawyer Serves the True Interests of Clients

The Good Lawyer Has Ample Willpower

The Good Lawyer is Persuasive

Seeking Quality

Random Facts

The Happy Lawyer

"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. . . . As a peace maker, the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good [person]. There will still be business enough.” —Abraham Lincoln

“As we know, there are known knowns; there are things that we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say there are things we know we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”—Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield

“True, we build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures—unless as amateurs for our own amusement. There is little that we do that 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 lives of men in a peaceful state.”—John W. Davis

In a lawyer, courage is a muscle.  You develop courage by exercising it.  Sitting on the fence is not practice for standing up. ---Professor Pamela S. Karlan

“I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.”—Ecclesiastes 3:12

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view….until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.” – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (Atticus Finch, explaining life to his daughter, Scout)

What we really experienced in law school was a lobotomy of sorts, one that anesthetizes the law student against his emotions and attempts to reduce law to some sort of science.” –Gerry Spence

“Justice, justice you shall pursue."—Deuteronomy 16:20

“The best that we can do is to be kindly and helpful toward our friends and fellow passengers who are clinging to the same speck of dirt while we are drifting side by side to our common doom.”—Clarence Darrow

“At the heart of any code of professional ethics is the injunction to put the client’s interests first.”

“What people want to hear is the truth—it is the exciting thing—to speak the truth.” —Winston Churchill

“Whatever you do, do it well, as well as you can, and be aware of what you are doing.”—Janwillem Van De Wetering