Qualities of the Lawyer

Qualities of the Lawyer

Machiavelli’s essay, “The qualities of the prince,” is mostly put under the category as virtuous; though his points may be harsh they make very good sense. This connects to the question of whether a leader should be armed. Machiavelli says a leader should be armed or else faces the possibility that someone will take over the government. When I hear this statement I think of it to be very true even in modern times, but I don’t think Machiavelli is talking about being armed with weapons. I reviewed the essay many times and found no where when Machiavelli says “a leader should be armed with weapons.” A good and well respected leader need not be armed with weapons, but with knowledge, particularly in terms of how a lawyer should be armed. I found Machiavelli’s position very much equal to my own.

First, I want to discuss the question of being armed. If you are very well educated, then that is the most powerful weapon you can be armed with. In Machiavelli’s time, the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, it was common for men to walk in the streets of Florence and be uneducated. The educated were the ones who were born in rich families, who had the money to pay for education. If a prince is in a time of war and has to make a decision from where to attack, or how to set the formation of his troops then he will go back to the knowledge he has when he studied the terrain. In our time, it is important for lawyers to be ready for what is to come, he must know both sides.

In recent years there have been many attempts to prosecute the wrong for something they did not do. On September 2, 2006 there was a case where a police officer was being prosecuted by Heroin addict Dean Lyons for murdering Sylvia Sheils and Mary Callinan. The lawyer was ready for what to come; he mapped out all the possibilities of what could come up, he had knowledge of both sides, he knew what the prosecutor could say and had counter attacks for everything. Because the lawyer was so ready for practically every thing, he was armed with so much knowledge he won the case and his client was free of all charges.

For one thing, if a lawyer was armed with no knowledge he couldn’t win any case. Many great people such as, presidents, judges, kings, queens, lawyers, politicians, anyone who has any power has knowledge. If you have a president who doesn’t know what major states to campaign in most likely he won’t get enough state votes and will lose the election. Judges who are constantly deciding life or death decisions, if they don’t know the meaning of just then he or she won’t