Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Abstract

Earlier, I wrote that in my risk-ignoring, highly optimistic dive into solo Manhattan practice only four years out of law school, I told myself that hard work and concern and respect for clients would ensure success. I can’t teach hard work, but I do make it a point to emphasize the importance of treating clients with concern and respect. Far too often, lawyers don’t do that. (Oh, I could tell you stories!) I ask students to put themselves in the role of a medical patient and appreciate the dependency of the relationship and the need for communication. The more serious the problem, the greater the patient’s anxiety, and therefore the need to be able to reach the doctor and to feel secure in his or her concern. I emphasize that a lawyer does not have to like a client as a person—some clients are really awful people—but having assumed the work, a lawyer must be professionally devoted to the client as a client. If you can’t do that, step aside. “Eat your spinach,” is the perennial parental injunction. “You may not like the taste, but it’s good for you. You’ll thank me later.” Is that what I sound like? Have I made legal ethics the spinach of the law school curriculum? Unappetizing but required? I hope not. I strive, as we all do, to make the meal as satisfying as possible. I fiddle with the recipe and play with the presentation. But if it doesn’t quite work, if the dish will never be as tempting as Title VII Tiramisu or First Amendment Profiterole, what can I say except “Eat your spinach?” Experience tells me students need this. It’s good for them. They’ll thank me later. I hope.

First Page

1215

Volume

51

Publication Date

2007

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