l influence for justice that honorable and learned members of the
law exert in the causes which they present to a court. The counsel who
argues the losing side of a case contributes quite as much to the
assistance of the court as the successful advocate. The friction of
counsel's argument against counsel's argument develops every phase of
possible error in a conclusion and thereby enables a just, intelligent,
acute and experienced court to see clearly what is the right which
should be embodied in its judgment.

The practical value of argument by paid counsel on both sides is shown
in many ways. In the first place, it is well understood in weighing
legal precedents that there is little authority in the decision of a
court which has been reached without the benefit of the argument of
counsel. In some states, courts are required to answer questions from
the legislature as to the constitutionality of proposed laws. The best
authorities hold that opinions given under such circumstances are merely
advisory, since they lack opposing arguments made by counsel whom the
spirit of professional advocacy arouses to industry in the search for
precedent. They go so far as to say that answers so given should not
conclude the same court in a litigated case arising subsequently. An
earnest and commendable desire to win leads the counsel to search not
only libraries but his own brain for the strongest reasons that he can
summon upon which to base a judgment in behalf of his client. Why is it
that a great Bar makes a great court? Though it may seem a truism, I
repeat, it is because the great Bar furnishes to the court all the
reasons that can possibly be urged in each case and enables it to select
from among all the reasons developed by the ingenuity and intense
interest of men skilled in the law.

Counsel ought to decline to conduct a civil cause or to make a defence
when convinced that it is intended merely to harass the opposite party
or to work oppression. His appearance in court should, therefore, be
deemed equivalent to an assertion on his honor that in his opinion his
client's case is a debatable one and one proper for judicial
determination. He should know that under a proper code of ethics, no
lawyer is obliged to act either as adviser or as advocate for every
person who may wish to become his client; that he has the right to
decline employment, and that each lawyer on his own responsibility must
decide what business he will acce