Zealotry and Rain

When talking about lawyers you often hear about "zealous" advocacy. It's recently come up again in an email discussion I follow among Collaborative Law practitioners at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollabLaw/.

The phrase "zealous advocacy" has its roots -- if not its genesis -- in the ABA's Model Rules of Professional Conduct. In the "Preamble: A Lawyer's Responsibilities" we find the fuller context of legal zealotry:

[2] As a representative of clients, a lawyer performs various functions. As advisor, a lawyer provides a client with an informed understanding of the client's legal rights and obligations and explains their practical implications. As advocate, a lawyer zealously asserts the client's position under the rules of the adversary system.[emphasis added]

The State of Washington adopted those rules some time ago, with some few but significant revisions. Here's the Washingtonian take on legal advocacy:

[2] As a representative of clients, a lawyer performs various functions. As advisor, a lawyer provides a client with an informed understanding of the client's legal rights and obligations and explains their practical implications. As advocate, a lawyer conscientiously and ardently asserts the client's position under the rules of the adversary system.

So up here in the upper-left hand corner of the map, rather than being zealous we are called to be conscientious and ardent.

Maybe it's the grey skies and the drizzle that saps the zealotry out of us in a way our caffeine habits can't replenish.