THE SEVEN LAMPS OF ADVOCACY

There seven lamps of advocacy by Edward Abbott Parry are:

1. THE LAMP OF HONESTY
The great advocate is like the great actor: he fills the stage for his span of life, succeeds, gains
our applause, makes his last bow, and the curtain falls. Nothing is as elusive as the art of acting,
unless indeed it be the sister art of advocacy.
The young student of acting or advocacy is eager to believe that there are no methods and no
technique to learn, and no school in which to graduate. Youth is at all times prone to act on the
principle that there are no principles, that there is no one from whom it can learn, and nothing to
teach. Any one, it seems, can don a wig and gown, and thereby become an advocate. Yet there
are principles of advocacy; and if a few generations were to forget to practise these, it would
indeed be a lost art. The student of advocacy can draw inspiration and hope from the stored-up
experience of his elders. He can trace in the plans and life-charts of the ancients the paths along
which they strode, journeyed. They can be seen pacing the ancient halls with their clients, proud
of the traditions of their great profession advocates advocates all.
Without a free and honourable race of advocates the world will hear little of the message of
justice. Advocacy is the outward and visible appeal for the spiritual gift of justice. The advocate
is the priest in the temple of justice, trained in the mysteries of the creed, active in its exercises.
Advocacy connotes justice. Upon the altars of justice the advocate must keep his seven lamps
clean and burning rightly. In the centre of these must ever be the lamp of honesty.
The order of advocates is, in D’Aguesseau’s famous phrase, “as noble as virtue.” Far back in
the Capitularies of Charlemagne it was ordained of the profession of advocates “that nobody
should be admitted therein but men mild, pacific, fearing God, and loving justice, upon pain of
elimination.” So may it continue, world without end.
From the earliest, Englishmen have understood that advocacy is necessary to justice, and honesty
is essential to advocacy. Every pleader who acts in the business of another should have regard to
four things:
a. First, that he be a person receivable in court, that he be no heretic, nor excommunicate,
nor criminal, nor man of religion, nor woman, nor ordained clerk above the order of sub-
deacon, nor beneficed clerk with the cure of souls, nor infant under twenty-one years of
age, nor judge in the same cause, nor open leper, nor man attainted of falsification against
the law of his office.
b. Secondly, that every pleader is bound by oath that he will not knowingly maintain or
defend wrong or falsehood, but will abandon his client immediately that he perceives his
wrong-doing.
c. Thirdly, that he will never have recourse to false delays or false witnesses, and never
allege, proffer, or consent to any corruption, deceit, lie, or falsified law, but loyally will
maintain the right of his client, so that he may not fail through his folly or negligence, nor
by default of him, nor by default of any argument that he could urge; and that he will not
 by blow, contumely, brawl, threat, noise, or villain conduct disturb any judge, party,
serjeant, or other in court, nor impede the hearing or the course of justice.
d. Fourthly, there is the salary, concerning which four points must be regarded the amount
of the matter in dispute, the labour of the serjeant, his value as a pleader in respect of his
(learning), eloquence, and repute, and
e. lastly the usage of the court.
Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, set forth his views of an advocate's duty, concluding with these
memorable words: “The arms which an advocate wields he ought to use as a warrior, not as an
assassin. He ought to uphold the interests of his client per fas, and not per nefas. He ought to
know how to reconcile the interests of his clients with the eternal interests of truth and justice.”
If an advocate knows the law to be X, it is not honest to lead the court to believe that it is Y.
Whether the advocate does this by directly misstating the law, or by deliberately omitting to state
it fully within the means of his knowledge, it is equally without excuse, and dims the lamp of
honesty.
For the advocate must remember that he is not only the servant of the client, but the friend of the
court, and honesty is as essential to true friendship as it is to sound advocacy.
2. THE LAMP OF COURAGE
Advocacy needs the “king-becoming graces: devotion, patience, courage, fortitude.” Advocacy
is a form of combat where courage in danger is half the battle. Courage is as good a weapon in
the forum as in the camp. The advocate, like Julius Caesar, must stand upon his mound facing
the enemy, worthy to be feared, and fearing no man. Unless a man has the spirit to encounter
difficulties with firmness and pluck, he had best leave advocacy alone.
3. THE LAMP OF INDUSTRY
The first task of the advocate is to learn to labour and to wait. There never was a successful
advocate who did not owe some of his prowess to industry. From the biographies of our
ancestors we may learn that the eminent successful ones of each generation practiced at least
enough industry in their day to preach its virtues to aspiring juniors. Work soon becomes a habit.
It may not be altogether a good habit, but it is better to wear out than to rust out. Nothing, we are
told, is impossible to industry. Certainly without industry the armory of the advocate will lack
weapons on the day of battle.
There must be years of what Charles Lamb described with graceful alliteration as “the dry
drudgery of the desk’s dead wood” before the young advocate can hope to dazzle juries with
eloquent perorations, confound dishonest witnesses by skillful cross-examination, and lead the
steps of erring judges into the paths of precedent.
All great advocates tell us that they have had either steady habits of industry or grand outbursts
of work. Abraham Lincoln owed his sound knowledge of law to grim, zealous industry. In
after-life to every student who came near him his advice was, “Work ! work !work !”
Advocacy is indeed a life of industry.
4. THE LAMP OF WIT
At the back of this little word “wit” lays the idea of knowledge, understanding, sense. In its
manifestation we look for a keen perception of some incongruity of the moment. The murky
atmosphere of the court is illuminated by a flash of thought, quick, happy, and even amusing.
Wit, wisely used, bridges over a difficulty, smooth away annoyance, or perhaps turns aside
anger, dissolving embarrassment in a second's laughter.
Good advocacy displays the highest form of wit in an instinct for brevity. The healthy appetite of
judge and advocate alike is shown in a keenness to “get through the rind of the orange and reach
the pulp as soon as possible.”
5. THE LAMP OF ELOQUENCE
The eloquence of advocates of the past must largely be taken on trust. There is no evidence of it
that is not hearsay. For, though we have the accounts of ear witnesses of the eloquence of
Erskine, Scarlett, Choate, or Lincoln, and can ourselves read their speeches, the effect of their
eloquence does not remain. We are told about it by those who experienced it, and can believe or
not as we choose. It is the same with actors. It requires genius to describe acting, so that the
reader captures some of the experience of the witness.
6. THE LAMP OF JUDGMENT
Judgment inspires a man to translate good sense into right action. I would not quarrel with the
philosopher who describes judgment as an instinct, but I would bid him remember that even an
instinct is acquired by “cunning” rather than luck. Let no one think that he can attain to sound
judgment without hard work. The judgment of the advocate must be based on the maxim, “He
that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable cannot acquit himself of
judging amiss.”
7. THE LAMP OF FELLOWSHIP
An advocate lacking in fellowship, careless of the sacred traditions of brotherhood which have
kept the lamp of fellowship burning brightly for the English Bar through many centuries, a man
who joins the Bar merely as a trade or business, and does not understand that it is also a
professional community with public ideals, misses the heart of the thing, and he and his clients
will suffer accordingly.