For this Harvard professor it is the lawyers that whole the justice system together and helps those victims fight injustice. In order for lawyers to fulfill their role in society it is important that they remain independent from public opinion, their clients, and the government. People have to not that out system of government is sensitive to rights of individuals and ensuring a fair process, and for lawyers to do their work; they must be independent in thought and action.

Gaining independence is needed because without it we would not only degrade ourselves professionally and impair our ability to discharge our duties to clients, but we also would not be able to engage in various types of socially desirable work whether it is aiding the disadvantaged or participating in the policy issues of the day. It is best to take note of that there are four major types of independence that lawyers must adhere to. Independence in the practice of law, independence from public opinion, independence from clients, and independence from government are the four types. With most lawyers do not fit the old pattern of the free professional, implying the independent attorney working in a rural or small community, Independence in the practice of law is harder to come by now.

With that, lawyers worked for themselves and had the freedom to decide what cases they would work on. Lawyers who work for law firms and corporations have less freedom in terms of decision making and with the work they do. Usually lawyers are now facing a lot of pressures from the work that they are doing.

Obscuring what it means to be a professional what is happening now that the practice of law has become a business. These days, a lot of people want to reduce costs and delays, which often leads to a preference for avoiding trials at all costs. Too often the trial lawyer is dominated by the pre-trial lawyer who is dominated by the settling lawyer or dominated by the risk adverse lawyer, and all of them are in turn dominated by judicial pressure or client pressure.

A lot of times, both parties can benefit going to trial even if reaching a compromise is what is really needed. Despite the fact that people rule society, it is important for lawyers to remain independent from public opinion. What you want to remember is that our society gives high respect to the rights of unpopular individuals and groups and ideas, and it is the lawyer who must strive to protect them.

It is important to note that in the colonial period, the press helped whip the public into frenzy over what was termed the Boston Massacre, where British troops fired into ruckus a mob killing five colonists. The lawyer, who went on to help write the Declaration of Independence and served as the nation's second president, defended the soldiers, an unpopular choice for him. Yet it was this lawyer's belief that no person in a free society should be denied the right to counsel or denied a fair trial. More people respected him after his representation of the British and it increased his public standing. In this case, from the six soldiers convicted, four were acquitted and two were convicted only of manslaughter.

The lawyer later wrote that it was one of the most gallant, generous, manly, and disinterested actions of his whole life and one of the best pieces of service he ever rendered to his country. Sometimes listening to what the public has to say is not the best way to get a great payoff. What lawyers need to keep in heart is that they have an adversarial system in which fairness depends on spirited advocacy on both sides. He also says that it is best for lawyers to stay away from the desire to be liked, to compromise their independence, their willingness to stand up for their clients.