Two judgments have been circulating this week which reflect very badly on lawyers, or at any rate on two individual lawyers. I’ve been thinking a lot about them. They are uncomfortable reading for any lawyer and for any person who cares about justice. Because justice depends upon competence and ethics of lawyers and these judgments remind us that neither is a given. Though my 20 plus years of experience reassures me that the vast majority of lawyers are both good at what they do and trustworthy, there are exceptions and it’s simply no good to pretend otherwise. I speak from recent, depressing experience.
Sometimes a lawyer is a perfectly good lawyer but just out of their depth in the particular case, or overburdened and overwhelmed through no fault of their own – these lawyers need more support and more experience. That support might be from line managers or from other more experienced colleagues, it might involve formal training, mentoring, support to help manage workloads, to help maintain boundaries or to know their own limits, or just a quiet word with a tip, or some moral support. They may need support from other lawyers in the courtroom when unrealistic expectations are placed upon them, or when they trip up, to remind them of what they did do well and to reassure them that we’ve all been there and made that mistake once.
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