The Business Dispute Law Blog by Bill Garrison

Read these words of wisdom passed from father to son in How to Succeed as a Lawyer. Written by lawyer Roland Boyd to his son forty years ago, the letter is timeless. From the State Bar of Texas web site:

11. Remember, to be a good lawyer you must first be a good man.

Your sole ambition should be to be a good husband, a good father, a good neighbor, a good citizen, and a good lawyer. If you achieve this, you will have achieved all the success there is. The pressure of life. In the space age, it is very easy for a young man to get the idea that he must be a dynamic individual, he must break all records, he must set the world on fire. If he gets this idea, he starts life with a handicap. The papers are full of such cases at this time.

12. Remember, don’t ever put your interest in the fee ahead of your interest in the case.

Your future depends more on the manner in which you handle the case than on the amount of the fee you collect.

13. Remember, the primary purpose of the legal profession is to find, recognize, interpret, and preserve the truth.

The quicker you can learn the truth about any situation, the better off you will be. After you learn it, don’t join issue against it.

At the end of the letter, Boyd says that the law is the “greatest profession there is.”  I don’t know about that — I’d rather be a professional athlete — but its got its moments.