Is s/he one who:
- never admits that s/he could have made an error
- never admits any prejudice played a role in his/her reasoning
- ends every debate with something along the lines of:
- you are an idiot
- why can you not see my simple point
- I cannot believe how you can be so dense
- And I thought you were smart.
... and other similar "compliments"?
In my life, I have met lawyers like those. They think they are better if they know how to put down their opponent, by any means fair or foul. They define being good - in effect - as always having the last word in anything like a dispute - whether it is a friendly debate or a more high-stakes contract negotiation or appearance in court.
So! In my by now quite long life, I have even been criticised by opponents as someone who should change his diapers - but they themselves do not seem to realise the stupidity of telling someone to change his diapers, because anyone old enough to change his own diapers has to be smarter than the baby that the opponent telling him to change his diapers wants him to be.
But also in my by now quite long life, I have learnt that there is no need to respond in kind.
A good lawyer - indeed, a good person, whether also a lawyer or not - is one who knows his own worth before God. I need no mere human - least of all any member of this "2nd oldest profession" - to decide my own worth. And that goes for various aspects of my own worth, such as my own intellect and sense of values. When you have been around long enough, achieved enough, helped enough, built enough - you realise that when others mount such attacks upon you, they tell you more about them than about yourself.
And so, a good lawyer is one who is confident enough in himself to simply ignore, for being beneath his dignity to respond, ad hominem attacks mounted by the desperate and the insecure.
In the end, res ipsa loquitur. My record needs no defence or embellishment; my facts tell their own story. Let attackers insult; for that is all they know how to do. That is why, in fact, they insult; they can do no better.
A good lawyer is one who does not behave like many lawyers. Let them be "lawyers" and use their "lawyerly" (shark-like) debating instincts, their abilities to use words to harm. Let them believe that words do break bones. I prefer to use my training and talents for other, higher purposes. Let the ad hominem wordsmiths gasp for air in the dust storm that life shall leave, especially, for them.
