Blog Topic

Telling the Client
July 06, 2009

The principle thing a lawyer does is find a way to tell the client's story so that a judge or other third party understands the client's situation, in light of the applicable law, and feels the client is entitled to the relief s/he seeks.

Many people just don't understand that lawyers are limited by the story the client brings us. We are limited by the facts that can be proven in a court of law. Our job is to take the story, apply the law that governs the situation and persuade the fact finder of our preferred solution.

For instance, let's say the client is a young man, 21 or 22 years old, who has just learned he is the father to a newborn. There are several issues that have to be addressed right away. The easy ones are what is his income and does he have health insurance. The much harder question is what will his relationship be with the child? Mothers operate as gatekeepers to their children. A healthy mother will know and understand that it is in the best interest of her child to have a healthy relationship with both parents. Children who are developing normally obtain much of their nurturance from the mother but their survival instinct comes from their fathers. Fathers introduce the child to the world - all it's excitement and dangers. From the moment a child is born it is our job as parents to gradually, with preparation, push the child into adult autonomy.

So how does a lawyer tell the subtle and complicated story of what the relationship is and can be of a very young child with his or her young father? We want our stories to be congruent and generally predictable when it comes to children. We want the child to be safe with no risk of harm. If the story we lawyers get from our client is that the child is at some risk in his/her current setting: for instance if the mother is drug addicted or disinterested, how do we convey that information to the judge? --Nancy Zalusky Berg

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