{"id":3609,"date":"2005-02-12T19:03:13","date_gmt":"2005-02-12T23:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2005\/02\/12\/dont-forget-lawyer-abe\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:57:59","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:57:59","slug":"dont-forget-lawyer-abe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2005\/02\/12\/dont-forget-lawyer-abe\/","title":{"rendered":"don’t forget Lawyer Abe"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My priorities today were badly skewed.  I spent the entire sunny part of the day  \"topHatAbe\"<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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indoors working on weblog matters, and most of that time fretting over the <\/FONT>Valentine<\/FONT><\/A><\/DIV>
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Divorce Lawyer<\/FONT><\/A>.   It was almost sunset when I first realized that today is the<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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birthday of a lawyer I’d much prefer thinking and talking about: Abraham Lincoln<\/EM>.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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A year ago, I wrote asking how Abe Lincoln, Esq. would have defined the fiduciary <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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duties of a lawyer when setting fees, and <\/FONT>stated<\/FONT><\/A>:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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I’m afraid that many lawyers never consider fiduciary principles in the <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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context of fees.  That oversight goes a long way toward explaining how <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the legal profession managed to squander the goodwill that was its legacy <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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from honest Abraham Lincoln. <\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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That post led to one of my favorite pieces on this weblog, “<\/FONT>A Lincolnesque Law Practice?<\/FONT><\/A>“,<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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which describes Mr. Lincoln’s practice and concludes with some of <\/FONT>his advice<\/FONT><\/A> to young<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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lawyers, including:<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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\"tiny “The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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diligence.<\/EM>“
 
\"tiny “Discourage litigation<\/EM>. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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you can.   Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser — in fees, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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being a good man.  There will still be business enough.”  
 
\"tiny  “Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular
belief  [that lawyers are dishonest] — resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your
own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a
lawyer<\/EM>.  Choose some other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which you
do, in advance, consent to be a knave.”<\/FONT>                        <\/FONT> <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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\"penny  Those posts were soon followed by Lawyer Lincoln Was a Bargain<\/FONT><\/A> and, during the 2004  <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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election campaign, <\/FONT>ATLA, Lincoln and Tort Reform<\/FONT><\/A>.    I’m glad I remembered to take some<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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time and space for Lawyer Abe Lincoln today.   The public would have a lot more respect<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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for his profession if today’s lawyers stopped more frequently to think about his example —<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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diligence, competence, honesty, and fees that are professional, not princely.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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by <\/FONT>dagosan<\/FONT><\/A>:<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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honest Abe  —<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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no one wears his hat<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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or fills his shoes<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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                                 [Feb. 12, 2005]<\/EM>  \"penny<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT><\/EM> <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My priorities today were badly skewed.  I spent the entire sunny part of the day  indoors working on weblog matters, and most of that time fretting over the Valentine Divorce Lawyer.   It was almost sunset when I first realized that today is the birthday of a lawyer I’d much prefer thinking and talking about: Abraham Lincoln.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-Wd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13373,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609\/revisions\/13373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}