You have seen clients lie...you have defended
clients that
lie...yet you still have your moral ethics intact.
Yes, no, yes.
Yes, I have seen clients lie. To me, to others.
But I have never gone into court with a client who was then still willing to tell lies, or to leave on the record things which I later found out were untrue. I have withdrawn from some representations; in others, I have demanded, and my client has agreed, that the record be corrected when I have found out that lies had been told to the court.
I am not special. Many -- in my own state, I believe most -- are every bit as ethical as I am, if not more. I personally know only one lawyer who knowingly allowed his client to lie under oath. He is no longer practicing. For all the jokes about lawyers, most of the lawyers I know are decent, honest and honorable people. (That said, I will add that I don't personally know very many lawyers who practice in Washington, D.C.)
I ask no special credit for this, any more than I give special credit to a pilot who flies to the right airport, or a mailman who delivers the mail correctly. It is simply the right way to do my job. The court system which admits me as an officer of the court expects ethical and honest behavior, and they get it. From me, from most of my colleagues.
Unfortunately, not from the President. Which is the issue, pure and simple. |
