Over the last 25 plus years, I have been representing clients in Courts around the United States. As an attorney, I have to speak on behalf of my clients. My job is to represent their interests and put my own views to the side. I have known some excellent attorneys over the course of my career who do an excellent job of putting their clients forward without letting anyone know what they themselves are thinking. This ability to separate themselves as a professional from the views of their clients is admirable. This can be so difficult when it feels like you the attorney is being attacked. (And sometimes you are.)
I grew up in a small town in Delaware that did not have a lot of attorneys. When I told my Sunday School Teacher when I was growing up that I wanted to be an attorney, he asked me how I was going to separate myself from my clients’ views. I remember him looking at me genuinely concerned that I was going to lose my soul in the practice of law.
I think that’s a concern that almost every attorney with a moral compass has: how do you split yourself from your clients’ worldview to represent those who cannot speak for themselves?
It’s really complicated as an attorney. We have ethical duties of candor to the Court and to the legal system as a whole. We also have duties to represent our clients’ zealously, but well within the bounds of the law and our ethical duties.
I have taken on some very difficult matters over the course of my career, sometimes representing people that either unpopular or do not have the resources to pay for my work. I believe everyone is entitled to representation. Our system needs to have real representation for everyone. I can honestly say that I have stayed within the bounds of my ethical duties, saying “no” when I had to say no, but pushing as hard as I can for my clients within the system.
This blog is chance to speak for myself. After 25+ years of advocating for others, I want to share some of the thoughts that I have being an attorney who has strived to live by and work within the system. In the back of my mind, I have remembered my Sunday School Teacher’s concern, and that has kept me on the right track.
I am not concerned if this gets read or not. For me, it’s a chance to use my words to work through some of the issues that have been on my mind recently. If it’s a help to anyone, I would be happy to know about it. In some ways, this is me advocating for myself.
Ted Kittila, Attorney at Law 