Here’s a quote from Carl Sandburg: “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell”. I think a lot of lawyers can empathize with this mentality; you have a duty to your client and if you’ve run out of rope, theatrics might help win a case. Now, more often than not, the theatrics aren’t what makes the difference, because it is, in fact, the law and facts that matter. It’s worth asking ourselves whether or not the theatrics are worth it. Who are they for? The client, to show we’re fighting hard? The judge and courthouse staff? The jury? Theatrics could help influence all of the above groups, but the influence isn’t necessarily positive.

Attorneys get a bad rap, we all know it. An article by the Canadian Bar Association (turns out not just American lawyers get a bad rap) highlights the reasons why people don’t like their attorneys. Among the reasons is a perceived lack of ethics and good manners and what’s seen as an inflated sense of ego. This hurts us all, as individuals and as a profession. At a time when rust in the judiciary is falling, it’s worth considering how we can shore up faith in attorneys, judges, and all the cogs in the judicial machine.

One simple option is to stop banging the table and yelling when we don’t have facts and the law on our side. When attorneys are calm, collected, and arguing in good faith with one another, it can lead to an increase in the public’s confidence in the profession. When an inflated sense of ego is one of the things that turns people off of attorneys, throwing what could be perceived as a temper tantrum is probably detrimental to the profession as a whole. What’s more, there’s the notion of treating others how you want to be treated; very basic, but worth remembering. Have you ever had an opposing attorney yell at you, pound the table and make your blood boil? They might not have won the case but they did hurt their professional relationship with you.

Theatrics, then, hurt your professional relationship and the profession as a whole. It should be noted that this isn’t true of all theatrics and there are no hard and fast parameters for what going too far looks like, but to reference another famous quote from the courts, “I know it when I see it”. You probably do, too. Think before you react. How much is your reaction going to help the case and how much is it going to hurt the profession? More often than not, the math isn’t hard.

Doing everything you can to hold legal professionals up to the highest standard can help restore confidence in the law and that, in turn, could lead to a more trusting society. These ambitions may be lofty but change always starts with the individual. Here at Attorneys on Demand, we have court appearance professionals who believe firmly in these very standards. Should you need our help, we’ll be there for you.