Lawyer Quotes

“It is not, what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice, tell me I ought to do.”
― Edmund Burke, Speech on Conciliation with America

“Jen and I were accustomed to our father's last-will-and-testament diction, and were at times free to interrupt Atticus for a translation when it was beyond our understanding.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“Lawyer: one who protects us against robbery by taking away the temptation.”
― H. L. Mencken

“I’m seventeen years old, my name is Juan García Madero, and I’m in my first semester of law school. I wanted to study literature, not law, but my uncle insisted, and in the end I gave in. I’m an orphan, and someday I’ll be a lawyer. That’s what I told my aunt and uncle, and then I shut myself in my room and cried all night.”
― Roberto Bolaño, The Savage Detectives

“That made love—not grace—the magic ingredient. Then a
new thought hit her. Perhaps love was grace. A shiver went
up her spine. What did that make anger? The antithesis of
grace?”
― Penelope Marzec, A Rush of Light

“A good lawyer, just like a good poker player, must always keep his cards close to his chest.”
― Mallika Nawal, I'm a Woman & I'm on SALE

“I remember when I was twenty-five,” he said. “No client comes to you when you’re twenty-five. It’s like when you are looking for a doctor. You don’t want the new one that just graduated. You don’t want the very old one, the one shaking, the one twenty years past his prime. You want the seasoned one who has done it so many times he can do it in his sleep though. Same thing with attorneys.”
― Daniel Amory, Minor Snobs

“During the years of struggling to make partner, he had sometimes entertained the comical notion that making partner would imbue him with new powers, like a budding superhero who had been bitten by a radioactive spider. It appeared that any superpowers he had gained did not include the ability to pick up women in bars.”
― Reece Hirsch, The Insider

“The facts were strongly behind his client. But the legal battle could be drawn out for months; no one stood to gain except the lawyers. Ghandi was not interested in making a profit out of legal briefs and empty arguments. He was determined to serve the best interests of both sides. Dada Abdulla and his opponent were blood relations, and every day the case dragged on only drove in deeper the wedge that was splitting their family in two. With much talking Ghandi persuaded both sides to submit to arbitration and settle out of court. Even more talking was necessary to get Dada Abdulla to agree on terms which would not bankrupt the loser, but in the end both sides were satisfied. Ghandi was ecstatic. "I had learnt," he exclaimed, "the true practice of law. I had learnt to find out the better side of human nature and to enter men's hearts. I realized that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder.”
― Ghandi Palanithurai

“Is it really 'pro bono' if a lawyer takes your case in exchange for explosives?
-Captain Hartung”
― Howard Tayler, Emperor Pius Dei

“The sun don't shine on the same dog's tail all the time; either the sun moves or the dog moves!”
― Murray M. Silver

“I cross-examined him and he double-crossed me but that's fine; I'll prosecute him one day and he'll be sentenced to life without parole…with me.”
― Natalya Vorobyova, Better to be able to love than to be loveable

“Forget the garden rake. Remember that time you dived over the desk at that guy in moot court? Had him by the throat in two seconds flat, that's what I heard."
"You heard wrong."
"And they suspended you for how long?" Antonia innocently asked.
"A day. And I apologized. Actually I crawled like a slug and ate dirt," Bree said ruefully. "But that was years ago, and have I pulled a stunt like that again? No, I have not.”
― Mary Stanton, Defending Angels

“You know, sometimes I think this is just not it,” he said, his glasses flashing from the early night’s light.
He turned toward me in a thoughtful pause.
“You know what I mean, Tom?” he asked. “It’s just not.”
― Daniel Amory, Minor Snobs

“He aimed at the lawyer's heart but missed it. It was a mistrial.”
― Natalya Vorobyova, Better to be able to love than to be loveable

“Effective advocacy is about confronting the weaknesses in your case and overcoming them, which involves a combination of humility and rigour.”
― Marie Henein, Nothing But the Truth

“I’m going to be a lawyer. Power heels are essential for stomping all over the opposition.”
― Ana Huang, Twisted Games

“When I pass the bar, you'll be barred from bars but put behind them.”
― Natalya Vorobyova, Better to be able to love than to be loveable

“The true purpose of the articling process is a lesson in humility, something not normally associated with twenty-somethings. The first five years of any lawyer's career after articling are focused on breaking down the novice and building up a real lawyer in their place. You cannot start learning how to practise law until you've come to terms with how little you know.”
― Marie Henein, Nothing But the Truth

“In a nutshell, cross-examination, this great engine of truth, is the ability to ask questions and to control the wording and order of those questions. That is all. The theory is that through cross-examination, the truth will be magically revealed.”
― Marie Henein, Nothing But the Truth

“My so-called career strategy is based on my temperament, my personality, and the things that I prioritize. I will do numerous things I dislike over and over if I believe that the result will be worth the effort, but if I don't buy it, then I can't get behind it. And I didn't buy the trite play-it-safe, don't-be-yourself, appeal-to-everyone business-lunching wisdom of the blue-suit crowd. I didn't think the result was worth it, so I gave up whatever small attempt I'd made at trying to be someone I was not. That was not how I wanted to build my career or my firm.”
― Marie Henein, Nothing But the Truth

“Everything was just as he had expected; everything was done just as it always is. The doctor’s pretentious self-importance was familiar—he had seen the same in himself at court —and the sounding, and listening, the needless questions with obvious answers, and a heavy look that seemed to say, Listen, just leave it to us, we’ll take care of everything—we know precisely how to
make the arrangements, it’s the same for anybody. It was exactly the same as at court.”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych

“In my long life, I have seen many changes. Changes for the better. The most important is that we are not using the talent of all the people, not just half of them.”
― Jeffrey Rosen, Conversations with RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law

“After many years of couples therapy, it emerged my girlfriend was using the sessions to document my illnesses so she could obtain full custody of our child. Her lawyer had advised her to do so.”
― Steven Magee

“Be careful who you are breaking bread with. They may appear to have it all. Things are going great for them. They have money, power, status, influence and their sins are unseen. They seem to be immortal, escaping well deserved prosecution for their crimes and instead, receiving a life of power and riches. Gods Favor and the devils diabolical favours are sometimes wrapped up in a similar bow tie.”
― Niedria D. Kenny, Order in the Courtroom: The Tale of The Texas Poker Player

“I hope that my story is never told by the ones who never knew me.”
― Niedria D. Kenny, Order in the Courtroom: The Tale of The Texas Poker Player

“Life as a bankruptcy lawyer was anything but melodic, warm, and inviting sometimes. Her chosen field. Ain’t life a bitch.”
― Mark Shaiken, Fresh Start

“The police chief was refusing to hand over police body camera videos I was in. He was told the next day to hand them over by his lawyer after I informed them I was filing a police complaint regarding the incident!”
― Steven Magee

“The rule of law could not apply abroad; the first thing a lawyer learns, or ought to learn, is that there can be no law without government. And the UN was not conceived as, nor would it ever be, a world government.”
― T.R. Fehrenbach, This kind of peace

“There's an increased domestic violence during Mercury Retrograde periods. My research findings show this.”
― Mitta Xinindlu