In my new book “Minority Viewpoint – my experience, as a person of color, with the American Justice System”, I have put in some discussions about what should a client expect from his or her lawyer. One of the things I discuss is about lawyers taking some responsibility for the outcome of a case.
So, what does taking responsibility really mean – well, it means that a lawyer needs to be the leader (more so when a client is someone who had never brought a lawsuit before), a lawyer needs to have an overall plan of attack (considering all possible moves by the other side), must leave no stones unturned, be aggressive about pursuing all possible angles, and be a fighter to the end. And if the outcome is negative, then as the leader, the lawyer needs to sit together with the team and discuss what could have been done differently to possibly get to a positive outcome.
I think it should be okay for a lawyer to admit that he or she might have made a mistake or two; or that the results might have been positive if a different approach were taken. This is one of the greatest things in our country – we are allowed to make mistakes, but we are also expected to take responsibility for our mistakes and learn from them. That is what “experience” is all about.
No one can go back and undo what has already been done, but a lawyer can still do something to show that he or she is taking some responsibility. One way to do that would be to pay some money back since there might have been some mistakes made. That would certainly improve the trustworthiness of the legal community.