Lawyer Quotes

“I can’t believe you would represent a killer like that Jake. I thought you were one of us.
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‘Gotta have a lawyer, Helen. You can’t put the boy in the gas chamber if he doesn’t have a lawyer. Surely, you understand.’
xxx
‘...I can’t imagine doing that for a living, representing killers and child rapists and such.’
‘How often do you read the Constitution?’
‘...the Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, says that a person accused of a serious crime must have a lawyer. And that’s the law of the land.”
― John Grisham, A Time for Mercy

“You can’t die, Roy.”
“Why?”
“I’ve got a pretty good feeling I’m going to need one kick-ass lawyer, and you’re the only one I know.”
― David Baldacci, True Blue

“He's a lawyer, he's a priest. This does not compute. - Harry Dresden”
― Jim Butcher, Proven Guilty

“Anyone can bend a judge's or jury's will with bravado, but to do it on paper--in black and white--that takes a particular kind of artistry. It's truth in poetry.”
― Rebecca Serle, In Five Years

“It was during my explanation to my young daughter that I finally realized why I had been drawn to this particular practice of law. Yes, some of my clients were just gaming the system. They were charlatans no better than the banks they were taking on. But some of mu clients were downtrodden and disadvantaged. They were true underdogs in society and I wanted to stand for them and keep them in their homes for as long as I possibly could.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“While common men grow ignorantly old,
The lawyer's brief is like the surgeon's knife,
Dissecting the whole inside of a question,
And with it all the process of digestion.”
― Lord Byron, Don Juan

“A preliminary hearing is a routine step on the way to a trial. It is one hundred percent the prosecution's show. The state is charged with presenting its case to the court and the judge then rules on whether there is sufficient evidence to take it forward to a jury trial. This isn't the reasonable doubt threshold. Not even close. The judge only has to decide if a preponderance of evidence supports the charges. If so, then the next stop is a full-blown trial.”
― Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness

“I think we must leave very soon, or else stay the winter.”
The window was open; the breeze passed over us. It was a trick of his, to set a sentence out like a plate on a table and see what you would put on it.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“In court, defense lawyers do this properly by mentioning everything their client is accused of, and all the weaknesses of their case, in the opening statement. They call this technique “taking the sting out.”
― Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

“Effective advocacy is about confronting the weaknesses in your case and overcoming them, which involves a combination of humility and rigour.”
― Marie Henein, Nothing But the Truth

“In my long life, I have seen many changes. Changes for the better. The most important is that we are not using the talent of all the people, not just half of them.”
― Jeffrey Rosen, Conversations with RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law

“He was also working the phone at the bar association’s free legal line. It was win-win. Poor folks have some of the same questions rich folks do. The more situations he had to contemplate, the better prepared he would be for whatever was coming. Besides, he began to understand that sometimes the best thing lawyers can do for people is to let them know they aren’t alone when faced with navigating the slippery slopes of the legal system. Even a rocket scientist couldn’t do it alone.”
― Marc Grossberg, The Best People: A Tale of Trials and Errors

“My workday begins at eight-thirty a.m.
Turn on computer, get coffee, log on to JEMS.
Read my emails, and respond to some.
Turn on the radio, and begin to hum…
…to the Captain on Ocean 89
Any type of music soothes this my mind.
By 9am the Magistrates begin to come
Wor. Wolffe, Warner, Tokunbo, Chin and Anderson…
…ready to give fairness, decisions, reasons and some.
I then go thru my spreadsheet of outstanding Appeals
My job to prepare them is quite a big deal.
Appeals are then sent to Chief Justice Kawaley.
Each case is met with consideration and commentary.
By 10am I attend to Plea Court
New cases range from speeders, DUI’s and all sorts…
Defendants are called by name, charges read out and defined
“Not guilty” or “guilty”…”just give me my fine”…
…then 10 minutes later Bernews reports cases online.
Never 2 days the same, in the lower Courts.
I don’t complain, I enjoy it, I’m there to support.
16 years in total in this line of work…
I love my job as a Magistrates’ Court Clerk!! ❤️”
― Nicole Hassell

“Love a Lawyer - It's totally legal.”
― Amardeep Tiwana

“He who utters falsehoods to the [lawyer] is a fool who will tell the truth to the judge.”
― Alessandro Manzoni, The Betrothed

“Win or lose, she’d still have the same billable earnings, same house, same family, whereas for Elizabeth, the trial’s outcome meant the difference between suburbia and death row.”
― Angie Kim

“The lawyer who sees the advantages in the fluidity of the story and is willing to work to find the truth beneath the surface of the story has the high ground in the battle of stories.”
― Francis P. Karam, The Truth Engine: Cross-Examination Outside the Box

“Mr. Wagstaff, the leading lawyer in Abilene, [...] believed generally speaking that women were no good at law, but he thought I had a lip firm enough, and a jaw steady enough to do it.”
― Gertrude Beasley, My First Thirty Years

“Being a "Lawyer" is tough, and being a "Christian Lawyer" isn't easy. Having priorities ironed out in my professional mischellany, till date I have marched towards my goal, with Christ. It is not always prayer, solitude, meditation, but along with it, it is to set it into action by working for justice, set the captives free, and understand the inextricable entanglement of love and justice.”
― Henrietta Newton Martin-Legal Professional & Author

“Affecting opinion greatly depends on how the case is brought forth - but much more so on the virtues of the person making the case.”
― Monaristw

“No, really. Are you a lawyer? Can I sue somebody in jail?" "You can. It wouldn't be worth much."

"Right. So are you listening? I can't sue my boyfriend, I gotta sue my landlord."
"Because your boyfriend threw you out the window?"
"Because there weren't any screens on the window.”
― Scott Turow, Personal Injuries

“You testified that your son was drafted for the NFL," Zara said, the tone of her voice changing from demanding to conversational. "Did he get his love of the sport from you?"
"I played in college," the witness said. "Wide receiver. I was a lock for a top-ten draft selection until I tore a ligament and that was the end for me."
"You must have caught some good ones in your time." Now her voice was all warmth and sympathy, tinged with awe.
The witness's eyes grew misty. "I miss those days."
Plaintiff's counsel objected on the basis of irrelevance, and the judge sustained. Zara walked back to her table and consulted her notes.
Was that it? He'd been expecting some theatrics, a smoking gun, or even a witness reduced to tears. Even without any legal training, he could see her cross-examination hadn't elicited any particularly useful information, and yet she didn't seem perturbed.
Zara bent down to grab something from her bag. "Hut!" She spun around and threw a foam football at the plaintiff, her shout echoing through the courtroom, freezing everyone in place.
The plaintiff shot out of his seat and took two steps to the side, hands in the air. "I got it. I got it." With a jump he grabbed the football and held it up, victorious. His smile faded as he stared at the stunned crowd, clearly realizing what he'd just done.
"Objection." Plaintiff's counsel glared at Zara. "What was that?"
"I believe it's called a Hail Mary pass." Zara smiled at the judge. "No further questions.”
― Sara Desai, The Singles Table

“Sometimes there's an implicit need to use the law, taking legal action and involving oneself with social action projects to bring about positive changes in society. This is one of the reasons why I love the law.”
― Monty Lord

“Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t say anything about this to anyone other than your lawyer. (By the end of the day, I had hired three lawyers: One to deal with the criminal case and a divorce lawyer. And a third lawyer for John.) Don’t answer any questions. It’s going to be difficult, but you have to resist the urge to talk to anyone.
The irony of these words would’ve been funny if it wasn’t so devastating. Not talking to anyone was a tall order for someone who has made a living encouraging others (and myself) to be more vulnerable, connected, and present in all relationships. Someone whose life’s work, and true passion, lies in talking with others about things that matter. And now, at the very moment I needed to connect with people, I was told I couldn’t talk to anyone.
I’ve never felt so alone, so shattered, and so scared for the future.”
― Darcy Luoma, Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life and Business Success

“I could have volunteered everything I had discovered during the course of The Case of the Dancing Jews at any point during the eight hours he kept me in a cold police cell without access to a lawyer or Twix...”
― Colin Bateman, Mystery Man

“The brain is like a good lawyer: given any set of interests to defend, it sets about convincing the world of their moral and logical worth, regardless of whether they in fact have any either. Like a lawyer, the human brain wants victory, not truth; and, like a lawyer, it is sometimes more admirable for skill than for virtue.”
― Robert Wright, The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are - The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology

“The true purpose of the articling process is a lesson in humility, something not normally associated with twenty-somethings. The first five years of any lawyer's career after articling are focused on breaking down the novice and building up a real lawyer in their place. You cannot start learning how to practise law until you've come to terms with how little you know.”
― Marie Henein, Nothing But the Truth

“In a nutshell, cross-examination, this great engine of truth, is the ability to ask questions and to control the wording and order of those questions. That is all. The theory is that through cross-examination, the truth will be magically revealed.”
― Marie Henein, Nothing But the Truth

“My so-called career strategy is based on my temperament, my personality, and the things that I prioritize. I will do numerous things I dislike over and over if I believe that the result will be worth the effort, but if I don't buy it, then I can't get behind it. And I didn't buy the trite play-it-safe, don't-be-yourself, appeal-to-everyone business-lunching wisdom of the blue-suit crowd. I didn't think the result was worth it, so I gave up whatever small attempt I'd made at trying to be someone I was not. That was not how I wanted to build my career or my firm.”
― Marie Henein, Nothing But the Truth

“Everything was just as he had expected; everything was done just as it always is. The doctor’s pretentious self-importance was familiar—he had seen the same in himself at court —and the sounding, and listening, the needless questions with obvious answers, and a heavy look that seemed to say, Listen, just leave it to us, we’ll take care of everything—we know precisely how to
make the arrangements, it’s the same for anybody. It was exactly the same as at court.”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych