Is the modest lawyer a myth? That’s the conventional wisdom. Yet once or twice each year, rumors begin to circulate of yet another sighting of this silent and mysterious man. Three years ago, he was spotted emerging from a portable restroom at a county fair. Another time he was seen helping a small child unhook a bluegill at a lake in Mississippi. Once he was seen high on a mountain in Colorado, searching for a pass during a thunderstorm.
Despite the frequency of the sightings, only three details remain consistent: the modest lawyer vanishes quickly, leaves no trace, and always remains nameless. Yet it’s possible to speculate about some of his other defining characteristics, and many have done so. There was a theory put forward by a professor at Harvard Law School that the modest lawyer probably graduated from that esteemed institution. Another theory held that the modest lawyer most likely hailed from Texas. Both of these theories were obviously flawed, but others have been less controversial: that the modest lawyer has never appeared on a cable TV news program, for example, or that he most certainly doesn’t have a blog.
More enduring than any other mystery, though, is this: What is it about the modest lawyer that makes him so notably modest? Could it be that he failed to receive an adequate helping of love from his parents, such that he regards it as normal to downplay his own accomplishments? Could his personality defects be the result of a sudden and unexpected blow to the head? Has he been possessed by demons?
Only calamitous events like these can explain how the modest lawyer, even if he were to have the good fortune of owning the latest model of BMW’s largest sedan, wouldn’t find it necessary to work this news into every conversation. A mystery, indeed! It’s such a mystery, in fact, that the modest lawyer is doomed to remain the circus freak of the legal profession. If he’s ever identified, tranquilized, and bagged, he’ll be exhibited far and wide, a living testament to the unusual oxymoron that gives him his name: the modest lawyer.
But the modest lawyer will never be identified. If he’s invisible, he’s invisible by choice. It shouldn’t surprise you, in fact, that the modest lawyer might be standing right next to you at this very moment, waiting to initiate a conference call, hand in an assignment, or accompany you to lunch. If this describes you, consider yourself lucky. Most don’t ever get so close to the modest lawyer. Introduce yourself if you must, but don’t blow his cover. That's the way he'd want it.
[Like this post? It's one of many included in my book How to Feed a Lawyer (And Other Irreverent Oberservations from the Legal Underground). Details here.]
Related posts:
1. Types of Lawyers #5--The Lawyer Who Brings Her Breast Pump to the Office
2. Types of Lawyers #3--The Lawyer Who Advertises on TV
3. The "Types of Lawyers" Category--all 17 "types of lawyers" posts
Did you say "Modesto Lawyer"?
I'd say the "modest" lawyer, like most modest folk, got a great amount of parental love and simply doesn't need to impress anyone. Let's all thank his or her parents.
Posted by: David Giacalone | July 21, 2004 at 02:15 PM
As a life-long Texas resident and member of the Texas bar since 1980, I have no personal sightings to report. In fact, I'm not sure I've yet seen a modest Texan. I think we're talking multiple oxymoronic dimensions with this "obviously flawed" theory.
Posted by: Beldar | July 21, 2004 at 08:08 PM
I know a modest lawyer. He's a pure legal researcher. The best goddamned legal researcher I ever saw, though being modest, he'd deny that. I once asked him about an abstention question. He wandered over to ALR Fed., pulled volume 5 (I think), and opened it to the exact page discussing that particular aspect of abstention. Didn't need no stinking index.
He took early retirement. Being modest, he had banked most of his paychecks for years, I think. Today he does pretty much whatever he feels like doing.
Posted by: Rain Man | August 26, 2004 at 07:58 PM
The arrogant lawyer takes all the attention and the "modest lawyer" is often overlooked.
Both can succeed/fail in his own way. One is not better than the other, I guess.
Posted by: Steve Pearson | February 10, 2013 at 07:43 PM