Lawyers weave stories that spell life, liberty or death

“Ladies and Gentlemen
of the Jury”
Michael Lief, H, Mitchell Caldwell &
Ben Bycel Simon and Schuster
(Touchstone Edition), 2000


The impeachment proceedings against former President Joseph Estrada gave us a ringside view of how lawyers argue, refute or prove a point – and even how they fumble, grope for words and commit verbal slips (like that atrocious mispronunciation of “your witness,” of you know what I mean).

We applauded when irrepressible Joker Arroyo reminded a distinguished senator that, as a matter of policy, he did not relish arguing with no-lawyers. Was it an act of kindness, implying that Joker wanted to spare the “uninitiated” the weapon only lawyers know that would surely demolish the poor guy? Was in intellectual hubris?

We had grudging respect (although short-lived) for one defense lawyer with his effective (not brilliant, as others put it) use rhetoric and storytelling to buttress his case. This same lawyer always found himself on the wrong side of justice or political fence, and we were not impressed.

As we watched and listened to these legal gladiators, we asked: Have they really been gifted with an extraordinary ability for logic, and woe to those who dare cross their paths? Do lawyers always argue till we all faint in boredom or sheer exhaustion?

I have food news for you. Not all lawyers go into fits arguing endlessly or into scoring debating points without let up. Some of them tell inspiring stories that touch our hearts, move us to tears, and stir in us something true and noble.

Or they give us gripping narratives that awaken our commitment to justice and jolt us into the realization that if good men do nothing, as the saying goes, evil will triumph.

The book, “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury,” will make us and our children fall in love again with the legal profession.

In the book, subtitled “Greatest Closing Arguments in Modern Law,” tem masterpieces of outstanding lawyers moved juries and tribunals to send criminals to the gallows, free the innocent, save an outstanding lawyer from the ignominy of disbarment, bring justice to a defenseless victim, uphold crusading Davids and bring down haughty Goliaths.

The books starts with the moving account on how a multi-country tribunal tried and judged the Nazi criminal s. Read it, and you will come away thanking God that there are indeed lawyers – who may argue from legal points – but who win the case because they give a heart-wrenching or soul-stirring narrative about the unrelenting quest of the human heart for what is right and what is just.

The book is not only a collection of outstanding summation pieces; it gives readers a background for every piece, including a short biography of every featured legal luminary. The reader, therefore, understands the piece even more and places it within its historical context.

What emerges, though, is one compelling truth. The world has not changed. There are lawyers who twist or conceal the truth, or who conceal lies under the tapestry of truth,

And there are lawyers, thank God, “who weave throughout their closing arguments a thread of justice and righteous conviction” – and who therefore catch these liars in the ignoble act of lying.

This is a heartwarming book. Instead of cold legal points, we read masterpieces in rhetoric, facts woven into a moving story, and legal points subsumed in the higher laws that non-lawyers can understand,

Read the summation of Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson who filed charges against Adolf Hitler’s fellow architects of genocide. After being appalled by the enormity of their crimes and the ferocity of their campaigns, be inspired by Jackson’s assertion that justice be done, appropriately couched in these concluding lines:

“If you were to say of these men that they are not guilty, it would be as true to say there had been no war, there are no slain, there has been no crime.”

(How we wish our Ombudsman would read up on Jackson, and in due time, finally deliver the same lines on a celebrated case of presidential plunder, whatever the verdict!)

You will read the piece of legendary trial lawyer Clarence Darrow who was threatened with disbarment due to jury tampering (a term that refers to an attempt to bribe or influence the jury).

His spirited defense is instructive for lawyers and non-lawyers about sidestepping weak points and concentrating on strong points. You have to read the book to know if the acquitted himself well.

The summation of lady lawyer Clara Shortridge Foltz is a must-read for women’s movement. She fought all her life to allow women to have the right to be lawyers and to have legal education.

Remember Gerry Spence, who had the fame or notoriety of defending Imelda Marcos? You will understand why he won – with that “bird in the hand” analogy – with this “mesmerizing summation.”

This book gives the reader a ringside view of history in courtroom drama and storytelling at its finest – with a difference: “There is one vital difference between yesterday’s storytellers and today’s advocates,” the authors say.

“Where the bard sat at the foot of the king and entertained, the lawyers’ storytelling has the power to put evil men to death, to free the innocent, and to make whole the injured.” Take a bow, attorneys at law!