[textbook]Traversing the Ethical Minefield Problems, Law, and Professional Responsibility by Susan R. Martyn (z-lib.org)(1) (1)

I might sum it up in this way: Of course the lawyer usually knows more than his client about the law, and in
some sense has thus already thought about the issue his client presents; but there is always, or almost always,
something new and distinctive and problematic about what the client brings him that requires further thought,
and often thought of a deep and uncertain kind. . . .
One way to think about the law, in fact, is as an intervention into a world that works largely in nonlegal terms,
and for the most part well enough, but that has now suffered a crisis or breakdown calling for its help. . . .
In each case we begin with the life of the world that precedes the lawyer’s involvement, where the parties are
competent at shaping their own existences; there is then an event that leads one, then the other, to go to a lawyer;
there then ensues a lot of activity, mainly in language — followed by an action, or a refusal to act, by the court or
by the lawyers in negotiation, and a return to the world of ordinary life, either changed by what has happened, or
unchanged. . . .
In the courtroom and negotiation alike other languages and voices are regularly translated into the law, always
with some distortion. . . Sometimes the law itself changes as a result, but in the end it systematically excludes
voices, narratives, languages — ways of thinking and talking that it finds irrelevant to its concerns or of which it
does not approve. . . .
The object of law is justice; but the law teaches us, over and over again, that we do not have unmediated access
to the pure idea of justice in the heavens, which we can apply directly and with confidence, but rather live in a
world in which everything has to be thought about, argued out, and reimagined afresh. It is a lesson in the
difficulty of imagining the world, and the self and others within it, in such a way as to make possible coherent
speech and meaningful action. 5
In most cases, lawyers can help clients achieve their legal goals. In some instances, they
must inform clients that certain actions cannot be taken, or even that certain goals cannot
be realized. In each case, they are not only translating the clients’ desires to the legal system
and back again, but they are also acting as private lawmakers, who both influence and are
influenced by the law and legal system in which they function.
In the end, if you hope to develop the ability to serve clients’ interests well, to invent
and articulate plans for them, or to grease the bearings of social justice by translating their
stories into the language of the law, you will need to develop and maintain the ability to
mediate between the ordinary world of everyday life and the legal system. If you want to
find guidance for the exercise of your own professional discretion, you also will need to
mediate between your personal self and the legal world you work in. 6 As you do this, we
invite you to see the benefit of a life that allows you to integrate your personal and
professional self. The lawyers able to discover this connection will be most capable of
practicing what they advise their clients: moving on with their lives, perhaps with a
renewed sense of vision, influenced both by the ordinary world and the lessons of the law
that support it.
1. Section 18-5-113, 6 C.R.S. (1997), provides in part:
18-5-113. Criminal impersonation. (1) A person commits criminal impersonation if he knowingly assumes a
false or fictitious identity or capacity, and in such identity or capacity he:
(d) Does an act which if done by the person falsely impersonated, might subject such person to an action or
special proceeding, civil or criminal, or to liability, charge, forfeiture, or penalty; or
(e) Does any other act with intent to unlawfully gain a benefit for himself or another or to injure or defraud
another.
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