The Modern Eclectic Lawyer

The Modern Eclectic Lawyer

During the times of the Roman Jurists a legal practitioner was a  just that, a legal practitioner. Moreover, the Roman Jurists did not voluntarily charge for the services that they rendered to people. In contrast, today's attorneys generally bill approximately R1500 by the hour and this amount may vary depending on the type of matter that they are being called upon to deal with. Notwithstanding the different economic climates, this is possibly because the modern lawyer is prepared quite differently for the profession than the Roman jurist. An aspiring Roman jurist had to engage in a very practical apprenticeship programme where he(only males were allowed to practice law) would 'shadow', so to speak, a practicing jurist for a prescribed period.

  The modern lawyer, however, is truly an eclectic creature in every sense of the word. He is a philosopher, an economist, a politician, an academic, an administrator, a businessman or woman, an artist and an entertainer, just to name but a few. If one takes a gander at the judgements that are written by many modern judicial officers, particularly those of the Constitutional Court judges, there are conspicuous nuances of, inter alia, philosphical and political reasoning. This is not to say that there is a lack of legal reasoning but there is a mastery blend of elements from various academic fields including the legal professon.

The legal profession provides one with the mandatory skills which one would need to be a practicing lawyer but the world class lawyer is one who has, in addition to the skills that he or she has acquired from the legal profession, skills from other academic, sporting, social and philanthropic disciplines.
Such a lawyer is: a leader, linguistically impeccable(both orally and in written form), disciplined, visionary, innovative, luminary, meticulous and persistent. This is what many would call a 'well polished diamond', as it were, that has been meticulously prepared for the legal profession. This is likely to continue as time goes on because in South Africa, nevermind the world, the legal profession is saturated. By this I mean that there is an overflow of legal practitioners and this makes for stiff competition amongst aspirant jurists.

If I know how to draft a contract but you know how to draft a contract and how to run a business successfully, then I shall surely come last in our race for suitable employment. This is the same if I know the law to the letter and you sufficiently know the law and some African philosophy. The bottom line is that the better, or rather the more flexible and dynamic one is from both a knowledge and skill perspective the more suitable or better-placed he or she becomes as a lawyer.

Frank Talk