Future Lawyers and the Importance of Prudence

This guest post is from Christopher Mateer, Regent Law 3L, and current student in Wills, Trusts, & Estates, who is completing his Juris Doctor from Washington, D.C. :

The central theme underlying our Wills, Trusts & Estates course is that individuals have the freedom of disposition: the right to dispose of his or her property as he or she sees fit. While this freedom is embedded in our law and culture, it does not provide for how an individual should dispose of his or her property.

The “how” of estate planning is really subject to the virtue of prudence, which is a lost virtue according to Forsythe and Kohm, in their piece Restoring the Lost Virtue of Prudential Justice to the Life Debate,22 Regent U. L. Rev. 191 (2009-2010).  Prudence should not simply relate to estate planning, but it should relate to all aspects of a lawyer’s practice.  Prudence is practical wisdom, or, put more succinctly, wisdom in practice.

A clear a lack of prudence was obvious in the debacle surrounding the Johnson & Johnson fortune, which was highlighted in The Latest Twist on the Rich Girl Dilemma: My Partner Wants My Money and My Child, 3 Texas Tech. Est. Plan. & Comm. Prop. L. Rev. 1 (2011).

Was it prudent that the family completely cut off Casey Johnson instead of building her up within the family? Probably not; however, it was also imprudent that Casey did not have a proper estate plan that clearly named what her intentions were for her child, as well as her assets.

Clearly, there was a lack of prudence when a supposed pro-life activist killed the abortionist George Tiller. If effectuating real change was the intention of that individual, he would have known how damaging the murder of Tiller would be for the pro-life movement. Additionally, what he did was no better than what Tiller did to the babies that he murdered.

A third article we read, Women and Assisted Suicide: Exposing the Gender Vulnerability to Acquiescent Death, 4 Cardozo Women’s L. J.241 (1997), highlighted the prudence needed in considering how to help people who think they have no escape from their problems except through death, asking someone else to assist them in that death. Attorneys must be prudent in all their actions when they come into contact with someone who is seeking help, whether that is physical, emotional, financial, or psychological help.

The call to prudence, which undergirds all three of the articles we read this week, ought to inspire attorneys to go beyond the law. Attorneys should focus on advising people in what they should do; not just what they can do. This does not mean, however, that attorneys should go against their client’s wishes. If there is a huge conflict, they should go their separate ways: another area where prudence is important.

Learning as future lawyers the importance of prudence in our practice of law encourages us to place the highest priority on the value of service to clients who need our help.