A CNN legal commentator argues that people shouldn’t diss on Trump’s lawyers for representing him. I agree. As Harvard-educated lawyer and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig remarked, “When did we become pearl-clutchers about defense lawyers defending defendants? That’s what the job is and what our system requires.” (Read this commentary here.)
Our legal system’s legitimacy rests on fair trials, and the Supreme Court decided long ago that a fair trial isn’t possible without a lawyer. Lawyers don’t have to like their clients, or enjoy representing them, but they have an ethical obligation to do so competently and to act in the client’s best interests. Some of the best defense lawyers have represented some of the worst defendants. That holds here, too.
Which leads to this: People should not judge lawyers by the clients they represent. Lawyers are trained in law school to represent both sides of a case; and in practice, they could find themselves on either side. Their job is to provide representation for whichever side they’re on.
Lawyers can decline a request for representation, and some law firms turned Trump away because of his reputation as a difficult client (see, e.g., story here), but Trump had good lawyers at his Manhattan trial. They’ve been criticized for making mistakes, and pursued a “flawed and risky” strategy, but Trump pushed them into it (see story here), and manages to be his own worst enemy.
In a recent Wisconsin trial, the defendant’s lawyer was allowed to withdraw after she attacked him in the courtroom, but another lawyer took over representing her. This is in the finest tradition of the legal profession.
Lawyers undoubtedly will continue to represent Trump, if there are more trials, and they shouldn’t be criticized for doing so. Everyone is entitled to their day in court and, the Supreme Court ruled in the Gideon case, to be represented by a lawyer.
The lawyers do the best they can with the clients they have. As a lawyer told me long ago, “God makes my clients, and I only represent them.” Of course, the job is that much harder with a foolish client who thinks he’s God.
