Lesson 1: A Trial Lawyer’s Creed

When I left the prosecutor’s office for the first time way back, my colleagues gave me the multi-volume set of Sandburg’s biography of Abraham Lincoln. They knew he was my role model for being a lawyer. He still is.

In this bicentennial year of Lincoln’s birth, we can still learn from his trial lawyer’s creed:

“I am not bound to win.
But I am bound to be true.
I am not bound to succeed.
But, I am bound to live up to what light I have.
I must stand by anyone that stands right.
Stand with him while he is right,
And part with him when he goes wrong.”

Abraham Lincoln