How far would you go for a client?

This is one of the basic question of my profession. We are always have been labelled as liars. We have countless jokes made for us just how far we are ready to go for a client. We have been immortalised in movies such as Liar, Liar to show that a lawyer are never far from uttering lies and more lies. According to that movie, you need a child to wish that  you will not be able to lie for the character played by Jim Carrie to stop lying. It was also sobering the extent of him being successful and his ability to lie. If we looked at all the television series from L.A. Law to Ally McBeal to the Practice to Boston Legal, lawyers are never known to be a goody two shoe. If you find one, like that one lawyer in Boston Legal, boy, is he in the wrong profession.

How far would one go for his or her client? Lie? Hmm...all lawyers do that to a certain extent. There are cases where lawyers were willing to be imprisoned and prosecuted for his client. Compare to these, lying is the least that a lawyer would do for a client. You do know that lawyers are actually glorified agents. We acted only on instruction. We start all our letters with, "Under instruction of our client" or "Our client has instructed us to...." or "We are instructed to...". It shows that being able to do what was us, as long as the law allow for it is what all lawyers have been trained for.

When in court, we are no better. All the sentences above are said over and over again by lawyers either they represent a criminal, a suspected criminal (note the different), a corporation, a bank, an individual or even if situation warrants it, whatever can pay us. Whatever as in if it is a parrot which has inherited millions smart enough to direct us to act for it, we would. There are other profession too which will only start work after the instruction is given but for us, we don't actually follow the instruction. It is just a word that we hide behind because if we do really follow our client instruction, then they won't be needing us.

Don't get me wrong. Without us, there would be no innocent people being protected. There will be no one who is willing to help those who are downtrodden. In Malaysia, the lawyers association called the Bar Council finance its own legal aid initiative. Last weekend, we auctioned memorabilia signed by the like of Roger Federer and Daniel Craig which goes to our fund to help those who can't afford lawyers of their own. We are also there when those who are denied their rights couldn't speak for themselves. We are too much everywhere that our government said we should be a political party.

That is my profession. Well known for its 'instruction' laden wordings.

How far would YOU go for a client?