I don’t know how the legal profession works in other parts of the world, but if you ever need a lawyer, you’d at least want a good one. And if that good lawyer also happens to be cheap — well, that’s basically like winning the lottery.
Anyway, that’s not the point. The thing is, I’ve recently become friends with a lawyer. He’s young, good-looking, full of himself, and sometimes a bit of an idiot. I’ve gathered all that from our conversations — friendly ones, over coffee, not necessarily about legal cases.
So, during one of these chats, I mentioned that among my acquaintances there are two other lawyers. One works in human rights, somewhere in a European Commission setting, and the other one runs his own law office. A small firm, but he works hard and it shows. Because, let’s be honest — success is usually visible in prosperity.
From what I’d discussed with that second lawyer, I told the young one that he also takes on public defender cases — those assigned by the state. I assume those lawyers are paid by the government, and I don’t imagine it’s an amazing paycheck. That’s when my coffee companion said:
“I don’t think he’s a successful lawyer if he’s still doing court-appointed work.”
I didn’t really know what to say. I told him maybe the guy does it for reasons other than money.
That conversation happened a while ago. Yesterday, over another coffee, the young lawyer told me his car broke down and he didn’t have the money to fix it. It wasn’t even a big issue — maybe three or four hundred dollars — but he just didn’t have the cash.
And that’s when I remembered the “successful lawyer” who also took on public defender cases for people who couldn’t afford one.
And since I’m a troll by nature, I told him that the same thing happened to my lawyer friend who works pro bono — his Audi broke down, so he just went ahead and bought a new BMW…
