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Labor & Employment Law

: Thoughts from a Management Lawyer

A Reminder about What We (Lawyers) Do

By Michael Fitzgibbon

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Patrick Lamb has been blogging for a long time and I've been following his writing for years. While I've never met him or, for that matter, spoken to him (though I'd like to), I've found his insights to be so on the money. He's a true rebel. Don't believe me? The ABA labeled him as such. Need more proof? Check out his firm Valorem.

Recently, Patrick discussed the matter of advice. It's not complicated - people pay us for our advice. Pretty straightforward. But what some lawyers give is either no advice at all (this usually starts and ends with "you can't" or by quoting law but without taking it to the next level - providing a practical opinion) or advice that is so qualified that it can barely be called advice at all. Those who do this are not living up to their side of the bargain. There's nothing easier than siting on the fence, but that's not what we get paid for we get paid to provide our advice.

Patrick puts it far more eloquently than I could:

A client has an inherent, unqualified right to know what his or her lawyer thinks, what the lawyer would decide if he or she was the "decider." Sure, it can be a close call with no sure right or wrong answer. I'm sure client's react by saying "easy decisions never make it this far north in the organization and we live with incomplete information and uncertainty every minute of every day. Welcome to my world, now get over yourself and TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK."
It is amazing that lawyers don't have their hands cut off just so they can't say "on the one hand ..."

This is a great reminder well worth taking to heart.

Full post as published by Thoughts from a Management Lawyer on August 30, 2009 (boomark / email).