Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Heads or Tails #97 -- tool

Barb, our guru, who created Heads or Tails without using any hand tools whatsoever, with the arguable exceptions of a keyboard and a mouse, asks us to write today about "tools."

In HoT 66, I wrote about my disastrous experiences in junior high shop class, a subject I'd alluded to in an earlier post wherein I confessed that I don't particularly like to hang out in hardware stores.

So I've beaten that subject to death... or, more to the point, hammered it home already. So, without further preface, I'll write about the most important tool of the lawyer's trade.


I am not referring to lawsuits.

Although, as has been oft observed, when the only tool on your belt is a hammer, you may try and make all of your problems into some kind of nail.

This observation segues nicely into the short, short (but sufficient unto itself) course in legal ethics, taught me by my late father (also a lawyer). He asked me once if I thought a carpenter's most important tool was a hammer.

"I suppose so," I answered.

"Well, if a carpenter breaks his hammer, he goes to the hardware store and gets a new one. But as a lawyer, your most important tool is your word. If you break your word, there's no store in the world that can sell you a new one."

7 comments:

Grace said...

Good point... about lawyers and their tools.
My HOTS is up now... come visit.

Barb said...

This post has brought up some things I need to work on. And I will look into "why" a bit more after I have more coffee. This hasn't been one of your longest HoT posts, but perhaps the most meaningful to me and my current (private) situation.

Anna said...

That could be true for everyone, not just lawyers.

i beati said...

wise words

Karen said...

Very wise words to live by.

Dave said...

Amen. I could write more; but, amen.

Lesley said...

hmm ... a lawyer with a sense of humor, and a sense of honor ... I seem to have stumbled into an alternate universe. But I like it here. I think I will visit again.