Trial Lawyers & Apparances

Trial Lawyers & Apparances

I’ve often told lawyers at legal seminars how important it is they eliminate pretense and present the real Aul person at all times. Appearances are not determinative of great lawyers. Genuine sincere and honest conduct results in credibility. I was reminded of this in William Barclay commentaries about scripture. He was discussing a passage suggesting the Corinthians had actually taunted Paul about his personal appearance causing Paul to respond. Barclay cites a very early book dating back to about A.D. 200 which contained a description of the great St Paul. He says it describes him as:

"A man of little stature, thin haired, crooked in the legs, of good state of body, with eyebrows meeting, and with a nose somewhat crooked…"

As Barclay observes, he sounds like a small, slightly balding, bandy-legged man with a crooked nose and shaggy eyebrows. But, Barclay notes that out of his man came powerful thoughts and the conversion of hundreds of thousands of people. He notes that William Wilberforce, who was instrumental in the movement to freeing slaves in the British Empire was so small and frail he looked like a wind would blow him down. However, Boswell once heard him speak and said afterward:

"I saw what seemed to me a shrimp mount upon the table, but, as I listened, he grew and grew until the shrimp became a whale."

We don’t have to look like move star to be persuasive and great trial lawyers. What we have to be is ourselves. Who we really are without pretense or false appearances trying to impress others.

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