Joel Dillard & Associates

Representing Working People



A Lawyer's Prayer

There is a famous lawyer's prayer that I love. It captures much of the unique ethical obligation of the attorney, and I thought I'd share just one small part of it with you today. We pray that:

For the glory of God an in the pursuit of His justice,
I may be trustworthy with confidences,
keen in study, accurate in analysis,
correct in conclusion, able in argument,
loyal to clients, honest with all,
courteous to adversaries, and ever attentive to conscience.

These are modest, basic qualities that every lawyer must have. In fact, they match up closely with the ethical rules governing the profession:

Where the prayer falls short is in leaving out the duty of every attorney under Rule 6 to represent persons of limited means either directly or through representation of organizations in matters that are designed primarily to address the needs of persons of limited means. This is one way in which the lawyer lives out the preferential option for the poor. In fact, lawyers have a special role in every aspect of Christian social teaching. But that is a topic for another day.

Pursuant to MRPC 7.4(a)(2) FREE BACKGROUND INFORMATION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

This site is for general information only, and creates no attorney-client relationship. Sending inquiries to the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship. By calling or emailing the firm, you are consenting to receive return calls, emails, mailings and text messages from the firm.

To get legal advice about an employment law, labor law, federal employee law, whistleblower protection, labor unions, worker cooperatives, immigration, discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, severance, or any related question, you must first have a conflicts check by the firm. We represent exclusively workers, worker cooperatives and unions, but we still must check for potential conflicts of interest, for example, between a supervisor and employee.

First provide the firm with your name, and the name of the person you are making claims against. This allows the firm to check for such conflicts of interest. Until you receive confirmation that there is NO CONFLICT, none of the information you provide will be considered confidential. Do NOT provide any confidential information before we have asked you to do so.

Once we have confirmed there is no conflict, you may discuss your matter with staff in a little more detail, and, if requested, make an appointment. If at your appointment the firm accepts you as a client in writing, then the attorney will be able to provide you with employment law advice.

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