Seven Lamps of Advocacy

 

Vande Matram! In this article, I am discussing the seven lamps of advocacy in simple words persona a lawyer should possess to become successful. All over the world, these qualities are making a lawyer a successful advocate. Let’s begin.

 

Advocacy is an honourable profession and it is developed for good of human society. Efforts of advocates solve the conflicts in society. Advocates defend the rights and liabilities. In the case of J S Jadhav V. Mustafa, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India observed that; “Advocacy is not a craft but a calling; a profession wherein devotion to duty constitutes the hallmark.”

The legal profession is regarded to be a noble one. A good advocate should possess some essential qualities and equipment. Judge Abbot parry in his book “The Seven Lamps of Advocacy” called these important characteristics of advocacy as “seven lamps of advocacy” and listed them like honesty, courage, industry, wit, eloquence, judgment, and fellowship. Let’s discuss these seven lamps of advocacy which are enlightening the world also.

1) Honesty:

Honesty is the best policy. Honesty means the quality of straightforwardness; freedom from deceit, cheating, or stealing, and not telling lies. The best advocates of all generations have been devotees of honesty. The nobleness of the legal profession lies in honesty itself. An advocate should not do illegal practices. He should not do any act which will lead to professional misconduct. He should disclose the real facts and legal profession to his clients frankly. His thoughts, words, and deeds should have a sincere correlation to each other with genuineness. An Advocate should be dependable and reliable to everyone who seeks his advice and services. The uprightness, integrity, and honesty of the Advocate will increase his reputation and respect in society.

2) Courage:

Courage is the colour of the heart which leads all of the other emotions in the right direction of truthfulness. Courage is the quality that enables a person to control fear in the face of danger, pain, misfortune, etc. An advocate must possess courage. He should face the pressures from outside with courage. He must perform his duty to safeguard the interests of his client by all fair means without fear of any unpleasant consequences to himself or any other person. Advocacy is a form of combat, where courage in times of danger is half won battle. Courage is as good as a weapon in the forum as in the war camp. It is the knowledge and the skill of the Advocate that gives him the necessary courage and confidence to present the case fearlessly and to uphold the interest of the client. The knowledge and the skill can be acquired and developed by mastery of facts, mastery of laws, mastery in drafting, and presentations of convincing arguments.

3) Industry

It means hard work. There is no option for hard work. Hard work is absolutely necessary for an Advocate. Success in advocacy is not arrived at by intuition but through the industry. The industry is the quality of being hard-working; being always employed usefully. Lord Eldon Says, “An advocate must live like a hermit and work like a horse”. Intelligence and knowledge will be sharpened with hard work and strenuous efforts. Advocacy is the profession that requires ‘Study’ and ‘Study’ throughout the career. Law changes day-to-day. To acquire up-to-date knowledge an advocate must refer to the international and national journals, reference books of his library, and the bar library. He has to work hard like a spider to the benefit of his client.

4) Wit

Judges and lawyers have to deal with a variety of serious and important matters affecting the life and liberty of the people. So constant clash between them is common. Anxiety for a favourable verdict on the part of the lawyers; and perpetual worry for the pursuit of the truth on the part of the judges generate strain and tension. Occasional wit and humour, provoking a smile or laughter will help them to ease the tension and refresh themselves to sharpen their brain for the effective discharges of the duties. Wit means the clever and humorous expression of ideas; the liveliness of spirit. Wit flows from intelligence; understanding and quickness of mind. Wit lessens the workload of an advocate. It relaxes his mental strain. The lamp of wit is needed to lighten the darkness of advocacy.

5) Eloquence

The success of an advocate depends upon his eloquence. Eloquence means fluent speaking and skillful use of language to persuade or to appeal to the feelings of others. Fluent speaking impresses the listener. An advocate must be fluent, skillful in using appropriate words to impress the Court. Eloquence attracts the attention of the listener. Eloquence is related to the art of oratory. A strong vocabulary is one of the powerful weapons which an Advocate should possess. Words are his keys to thoughts. Strong vocabulary gives him assurance, builds his self-confidence, and builds his personality. Words must be employed with eloquence. The art of persuasive and impressive speaking will give the desired result in his favour.

6) Judgment

Judge Abbot Parry has referred to judgment as one of the seven lamps, but he refers to it essentially as an intellectual capacity, ‘the inspiration’ which enables a means to translate good sense into right action e.g. ‘seeing the right point of his case’ and the like. In judgment, one has to estimate, consider, and form an opinion about the issues with good sense and ability. Here judgment is not ‘giving the decision of the case by the Judge in the Court’. Judgment means the study of the case in deep by considering all shades of the consequences. It means the ability to come to a sensible conclusion and make wise decisions at the relevant time in the proper way. It is based on these conclusions he should employ the necessary facts and the techniques in the case in which he is engaged. This quality is necessary from the beginning of filing the case till its final disposal. An advocate could be in a position to judge the merits and demerits of the case on hearing the brief and seeing the document. He should inform his client about the legal position openly after judging the issues. An Advocate must always anticipate all the possible moves of the other side and must develop the necessary presence of mind, alertness, and tact to cope with any awkward situation of difficulty that may arise in the case.

7) Fellowship

In the legal profession, one advocate fights with another advocate for justice before the learned judge. There may be controversies and contradictions in their contention relating to the case, but that shall never affect the fellowship. Because the two advocates are just opponents and not enemies so they should treat each other as ‘learned friends’ and the judge as ‘learned judge’. Their conflict ends as they come out of the doorsteps of the Court.  Fellowship means membership in a friendly association or companionship. Fellowship is exactly like great public schools, the boys of which have grown older and have exchanged boyish for manly objects. Daniel Webster says, “Lawyers on opposite sides of a case are like the two parts of shears, they cut what comes between them, but not each other”. There is no discrimination of age, ability, experience, and riches, etc. between the advocates. All are equal. Courts give them all equal respect. Among advocates, there is just the same rough familiarly, the general ardor of character, the same kind of public opinion expressed in exactly the same blunt, unmistakable manner. By keeping the lamp of fellowship burning, advocates encourage each other by sharing the knowledge to walk in the light of the seven lamps of advocacy. In order, to maintain the fellowship, the Bar Council of India has laid down certain rules to be observed as the duty to colleagues. To facilitate this interest, after having obtained a certificate of enrollment under Section 22 of the Advocates’ Act 1961, advocates are made required to obtain membership in the bar association.

8) Tact:

All these are the main lamps of advocacy that are observed and enlightened across the world. But there is one more lamp known as ‘tact’ and discovered by Indian jurist K. V. Krishnaswamy Aiyer, in his book “Professional Conduct and Advocacy”. So let’s discuss it.

Tact means handling people and situations skillfully and without causing offense. Advocacy is a profession of communication because an advocate has to communicate with the client, witness, opponents, opponent’s advocate, judge, and after that media waiting for him outside the courtroom. He must have proper tact for communicating with such a large variety of people. An advocate must be in a position to tackle and win his client, opponent party, opponent advocate in a smoother way. An advocate should not quarrel with Court or lose temper over trifle things in the Court and outside.

So these are the seven lamps of advocacy with one bonus from an Indian writer. If you want some one-liner notes from the book “Professional Conduct and Advocacy” by K. V. Krishnaswamy Aiyer then let me know in the comments below.

To know the references and to read more articles related to Professional ethics and professional accounting system please visit this page Legal Profession: Professional Ethics and Professional accounting system.

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