He tells the story about Henry Ford suing the Chicago Tribune for calling him "an ignoramus". At the trial, the Trib's lawyer tried to demonstrate Ford's lack of education by asking him a bunch of trivia questions which Ford parried. Then the witness countered by telling the lawyer that on his desk lay a row of buttons which he could use to summon experts who could provide the answers to all these questions and more.
The moral that Hill teaches from this story is that
Education - let us not forget this - consists of the power with which to get everything one needs when he needs it, without violating the rights of his fellow man.
Hill is on much firmer ground when he looks at the case from the lawyer's point of view.
The successful lawyer is not one who has memorized the greatest of principles of law. On the contrary, the successful lawyer is one who knows where to find a principle of law, plus a variety of opinions supporting the principal which fit the immediate needs of a given case.
My own opinion: being an expert does not necessarily mean knowing a lot of facts (- that forms the basis of expertise!) is is knowing how to find out the facts that one does not know in a timely and efficient manner.
No comments:
Post a Comment