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| | Introduction |
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< | The role that truthfulness plays in one’s legal practice is great. Throughout the course truthfulness operates in two different spheres. These two modes of operation impact how successful and fulfilling someone can make their legal practice. The first way that truthfulness comes into play is how honest someone is with themselves. The second is how truthful someone is to others. |
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> | Truthfulness plays a crucial role in one’s legal career. Throughout the course we learned that truthfulness operates in two different spheres: honesty to yourself and honesty to others. These two modes of operation impact how successful and fulfilling someone can make their legal practice. |
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< | Being Truthful to Oneself: |
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< | It is necessary for lawyers to be truthful to themselves. Based on the swindling reading, many people are swindled by the job market into thinking that money is the sole purpose for running a legal practice. While this is an important component of it, I think that many people, as seen in Lawyer Land, convince and lie to themselves that money is the sole thing that makes them happy. Like the reading suggest, people are able to be swindled when they are tricked into thinking that they are receiving something of great value (job security, money etc.) for a low cost, that benefits themselves as compared to others. However, this internal dishonesty results in them not being truthful about the subjective value (moral compromises) that they trade in for the economic benefits of performing certain tasks. |
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> | Being Truthful to Oneself:
It is necessary for lawyers to be truthful to themselves. According to Swindling and Selling, many people are swindled by the job market into thinking that money is the sole purpose for running a legal practice. Similarly, as seen in Lawyer Land, many people convince and lie to themselves that money is the only thing that brings them joy. This results in many lawyers taking jobs for the wrong reasons. We have spoken in class that a legal practice’s ability to provide for those who work under it is important. But, as referenced by the audio, this must be balanced with the overall mission and interest of those that the organization must help. |
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< | In the Carrie reading both lawyers got extremely angry when the other would describe their job. However, while they did express anger towards the other lawyer, they were truly angry about the truth of both their jobs. A similar situation was described in Lawyer Land in regards to “splitting”. This led the lawyer to not see the truth about the impact that their job had on others. This splitting leads to people not seeing the truth about the impact of their actions. |
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> | In the Carrie chapter of the Lawyer Land reading, two lawyers became extremely angry when the other would describe their job. However, what they were truly upset about was that their jobs were negatively impacting others. One might claim that these lawyers were experiencing “splitting”, a notion examined in another section of Lawyer Land, which is when people distance themselves from the reality that their jobs are causing harm. This cognitive dissonance can ultimately lead to mental breakdowns. |
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< | Additionally, truthfulness to yourself is needed to understand and develop a practice that coincides with a person’s beliefs. A person who is not honest with themselves, does not truly know themselves, and a person who does not know themselves cannot develop a successful law practice. John Brown was extremely adamant about his beliefs and what he believed in. John Brown’s honesty about his position on slavery, and about how horrible it was, allowed him to gain wide spread support that led to the raid. In part this influence was because he was so set in what he believed in and the truth surrounding his social cause. Similarly, a lawyer is more influential when they are honest with themselves on what is important, wrong, and right in the legal system. This allows them to build a more influential, impactful, and satisfying legal practice that people actually want to join. |
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> | In the The Trial of John Brown reading, we discussed how John Browne led a raid on Harpers Ferry to protest slavery. Throughout the trial it was evident that John Browne was honest with himself about his contributions to slavery. Unlike most, he realized that if he did not do anything to actively combat the atrocities that were occurring, he, as a white citizen, would be complicit in the act. Just as John Browne was honest with himself about his inaction as a passive bystander, lawyers must also be truthful with themselves about their role in society and their impact on others. On a larger scale, the effects of personal dishonesty that lawyers and others engage in, help to support systematic oppression and violence against others. From slavery to more recent hate crimes, many people continue to be untruthful with themselves about how their actions relate to these issues. As part of a collective society or system, each person plays a role in either fighting or dismantling the mechanisms that allow violence and discrimination, nobody is ever truly neutral. |
| | Being Truthful to Others: |
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< | Additionally, lying to others is also detrimental to one’s practice. It has been emphasized that lawyers need to be trustworthy people. Without a lawyer having the trust of others there is no way that they can build a successful legal practice. Other lawyers will not trust the person to help them, and clients will not trust the lawyer with their important legal business. This has been exemplified in our reading on swindling. The reading emphasizes how some layer of trust is necessary in order for any business transaction to occur. This is showcased in how most people do not trust someone who commits a deal solely for the benefit of the other party without receiving anything in exchange. |
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> | Additionally, lying to others is also detrimental to one’s practice. It has been emphasized that lawyers need to be honest and reliable people; they cannot build successful legal practices without earning the trust of others.
Thoreau, in A Plea for the Captain John Brown, mentions that the press was printing inaccuracies about the John Brown case and concealing the truth from the general public about what really happened during the raid. This emphasizes how the truth is not always profitable. Publishing the truth about Brown would have troubled readers and caused the publishers to lose money.
However, as mentioned earlier, money should not be the sole source of satisfaction or motivation for lawyers and their legal practice. The most crucial time for truth to be spoken is when there are no immediate monetary benefits. While doing so may be difficult and come without reward during such situations, it is imperative to do so as the advancement of justice and one’s future reputation relies on it. |
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< | Thoreau mentions that the press was printing inaccuracies about the John Brown case, concealing the truth from the general public on what really happened during the raid. This emphasizes how the truth is not always profitable. Publishing the truth of Brown would have troubled readers and caused the publishers to lose money. However, as mentioned above, money is not the sole source of satisfaction for lawyers and their legal practice. Speaking the truth even when there are no immediate monetary benefits, is the most crucial time when the truth should be spoken. Speaking the truth to others during these situations may be difficult and without reward. However, there is benefits to one’s future reputation and the advancement of justice. |
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> | In our own legal practice, there will be numerous times where telling the truth to others will not be easy or profitable in that moment. John Brown has shown that those that stay true to their beliefs may be punished. Lawyers have the same duty as John Brown. A practice must be based in truth, even unpopular truths. |
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< | In our own legal practice, there will be numerous times where telling the truth to others will not be easy or profitable in that moment. John Brown has shown that those that stay true to their beliefs may be punished. Lawyers have the same duty as John Brown. A practice must be based in truth, even unpopular truths. Practices that claim to help people but in actuality do not are nothing more than the prisoner who swindles. |
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> | Moreover, unconscious thought, as explained by Transcendental Nonsense is necessary in order for a successful, efficient system to operate. As such, trust between lawyers working in a practice must also exist for unconscious efficient thought to occur. If lawyers have to constantly vet whether what others are saying is true, the whole practice suffers. |
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< | In order for a successful efficient system to operate there must be some level of unconscious thought. Trust in between lawyers working in a practice is necessary for unconscious efficient thought. If lawyers have to constantly vet whether what others are saying is the truth the whole practice suffers. As a result, trust amongst lawyers to others in the legal practice is necessary. |
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> | Trust between others in a law practice is paramount since law is a group effort. Based on the reading Transcendental Nonsense, we see that the law is the result of judicial decisions that are shaped by societal forces. By its very nature, law is a collection of others' thoughts and opinions. In order for the law to be properly analyzed and understood, judges and lawyers alike must be honest about their opinions and what led them to their legal decisions. It is necessary for lawyers to receive accurate and honest opinions from judges on how their legal decisions were formed. Without honestly relaying one’s legal decisions, legal precedent could not be developed and expanded upon properly. |
| | Conclusion: |
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< | In the legal practice it is important to be truthful to oneself as well as others. In order to do this a lawyer must center a legal practice around their own passions and beliefs. Both these aspects of truthfulness influence each other. Once one is more truthful to themselves, they are able to be more truthful to others. A person who distorts reality and lies to themselves, cannot then go and tell the truth to someone else. In this way being truthful to oneself is the first step in being truthful to another. Both of these aspects of truthfulness are necessary for a legal practice. |
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> | In order to develop a successful legal practice, those who work in the legal practice must be passionate about the issue(s) the practice is working to solve. Both forms of honesty discussed above are necessary to build a practice with strong supporters and a clear mission. Additionally, dishonesty allows people - including lawyers - to refuse responsibility for their actions. This results in legal systems that especially harm minorities and low-income communities. Lawyers’ inability to be honest with themselves and others results in widespread complicity. In order for modern day issues and conflicts to be resolved, those in the legal system must become more like John Brown and lead their lives with integrity. |
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The most important route to improvement is hard editing to remove repetitions. The present draft is thick with unnecessary verbiage. Your conclusion, where lucidity should be most prized, says everything twice, and in doing so merely puts variations on themes already sounded multiple times before. |
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< | The material of the existing draft can be stated simply in less than 200 words. The remainder of the next draft can then do something more with the two ideas you have put forward. |
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