What do lawyers do? • Hacker News Board

Re: What do lawyers do?

#21

Post by s1artibartfast » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:50 PM UTC

berberous wrote: post #7

pigtailgirl wrote: post #3

-- having been through a fair share of business lawyers over the years - i've finally figured out what I like about the guy I settled on - risk assumption & mitigation - my lawyer explains the risks of different approaches - as well as the potential costs - many lawyers I've used in the past are expensive & cause a lot of issues - I'm not a lawyer - I understand business law at a basic level - if my lawyer says: do i…

Do you have some sort of personal dislike for the period?

Excuse me - I'm still talking...

Re: What do lawyers do?

#22

Post by quacked » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:50 PM UTC

I believe Law is one of the fundamental industries of civilization, along with Textiles, War, Food, Medicine, and Shelter. Without a way for disputes to be settled in a (theoretically) predictable and well-documented manner, the other "fundamental industries" will suffer output and availability problems.

Re: What do lawyers do?

#23

Post by groestl » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:50 PM UTC

AlbertCory wrote: post #10

One story about India. I didn't go there for the patent case I was on, too bad (I'm not Indian, so please pardon and correct my ignorance if you are). They have barristers and solicitors, like the UK. The barrister is the one who goes to court for you. What I found interesting is, you meet your barrister for about half an hour before he goes to court. That's the extent of your contact with him. His main job is to kno…

I've witnessed that, in Ireland though, which has a similar system. On a very technical case. The barrister failed to set up WIFI in the meeting room 60 min before going to the court, not even reading the error messages. Which scared me, but then he proceeded to explain the most complicated details in front of the judge. I was stunned.

Re: What do lawyers do?

#24

Post by fleetwoodsnack » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:50 PM UTC

voisin wrote: post #9

fleetwoodsnack wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s just a set of observations about legal realism using the generic term. You really expected someone to write everything a legal professional does?

My point is that the vast majority of what lawyers do has nothing to do with judges. It has to do with drafting contracts and interpreting legislation and legal precedent. Talking about good lawyers sometimes being able to communicate and coming prepared is limited to a small subset of barrister work. [edit for clarity]: I overstated the first sentence. I should have said that the vast majority of what lawyers do doe…

Incorrect, especially the statement that “the vast majority of what lawyers do has nothing to do with judges. It has to do with drafting contracts and interpreting legislation and legal precedent.”

I think you’re confusing arbitration or litigation as the aspects of lawyering which involve judges. In fact, just about all actions undertaken by lawyers are with an eventual audience of a courtroom and a judge in mind. Yes, you review contracts, yes, you interpret legislation: In order to achieve some goal, with an eye toward how it might be interpreted by a judge or opposing counsel. A lawyer that is not proactive about future defense is not fulfilling their duty as counsel and that necessarily means thinking about and considering judges and the courtroom, to one degree or another.

Re: What do lawyers do?

#25

Post by eointierney » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:51 PM UTC

YLYvYkHeB2NRNT wrote: post #11

the jury has absolute power in a courtroom. The judge only conducts.

Eh nope. At least not in common law jurisdictions. I recently sat on a jury (murder trial) in a common law jurisdiction (Republic of Ireland) and the sitting Judge is the judge of Law, and the Jury is the judge of Fact. Apart from that the jury does what it's bloody well told.

Re: What do lawyers do?

#26

Post by Hendrikto » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:51 PM UTC

quacked wrote: post #22

I believe Law is one of the fundamental industries of civilization, along with Textiles, War, Food, Medicine, and Shelter. Without a way for disputes to be settled in a (theoretically) predictable and well-documented manner, the other "fundamental industries" will suffer output and availability problems.

> […] Law is one of the fundamental industries of civilization, along with Textiles, War, Food, Medicine, and Shelter.

I think Entertainment is missing from that list.

Re: What do lawyers do?

#27

Post by johndhi » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:53 PM UTC

YLYvYkHeB2NRNT wrote: post #11

the jury has absolute power in a courtroom. The judge only conducts.

Kinda. The jury is the "fact finder" so only they can decide someone is or isn't guilty. However, a judge has the power to dismiss a case before sending it to a jury. They can say, essentially, this case is easy to decide so we don't need a jury. I'll just decide it now.

Re: What do lawyers do?

#28

Post by briantakita » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:54 PM UTC

groffee wrote: post #2

Keep me out of jail hopefully.

Or putting you in jail...unless you can make it worthwhile for a skillful & determined one to represent you.

Re: What do lawyers do?

#29

Post by pixl97 » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:56 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #14

> In societies somewhere in between, with a flawed rule of law, like India, these predictions are impossibly hard to make. I think this is overselling the stability of the judicial process in the UK, US and other countries with a strong grounding in the rule of law. Without getting to political, sometimes judicial controversies spring up in the US. The issue is there are centuries of norms to fall back on. India does…

> sometimes judicial controversies spring up in the US.

I think you are massively understating the instability the SCOTUS has presented in the past few weeks by overturning existing case law.

Re: What do lawyers do?

#30

Post by IncRnd » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 3:57 PM UTC

voisin wrote: post #9

fleetwoodsnack wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s just a set of observations about legal realism using the generic term. You really expected someone to write everything a legal professional does?

My point is that the vast majority of what lawyers do has nothing to do with judges. It has to do with drafting contracts and interpreting legislation and legal precedent. Talking about good lawyers sometimes being able to communicate and coming prepared is limited to a small subset of barrister work. [edit for clarity]: I overstated the first sentence. I should have said that the vast majority of what lawyers do doe…

If people would never need to go before a judge for any type of action, there would be no need for a lawyer. A contract, when presumably violated, gets adjudicated by a judge. Everything a lawyer does is judge centric. Ultimately, the law is meaningless without a judge to decide its meaning.