How To Succeed in the Practice of Law, part II

From the movie Amistad, regarding the 1839 incident where the "human cargo" took over a slave ship and the subsequent court cases, culminating in the 1841 Supreme Court decision in the matter, the following (irreverent) exchange gets to the heart of things, namely, doing what you can to meet your client's goals, and getting paid to do it.

Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) : If the court awards them to Spain, they'll be taken to Cuba and executed. If the two lieutenants prevail, they're most likely to sell them to Spain. . . And they'll be executed. If Montes and Ruiz are successful in their campaign ---

Roger Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey) : I'm a little confused. What are they worth to you?

Lewis Tappan (Stellan Skarsgård) : We're discussing the case, not its expense.

Baldwin : Oh, of course. Well, the case is much simpler than you think, Mr. Tappan. It's like anything, land, livestock, heirlooms, what have you.

Tappan : Livestock.

Baldwin : Yes. Consider: the only way one may sell or purchase slaves is if they are born slaves, as on the plantation. I'm right, aren't I?

Joadson : Yes.

Baldwin : So, are they?

Tappan : Are they?

Baldwin : Yes. Born slaves, as on a plantation.

Joadson : No, we're not certain, but we very much doubt it.

Baldwin : Let's say they are, and if they are, then they are possessions, and no more deserving of a criminal trial than a bookcase or a plow.

Then we can all go home, can't we? On the other hand, let's say they aren't slaves. If they aren't slaves, then they were illegally acquired, weren't they? Forget mutiny, piracy, murder and all the rest. Those are subsequent, irrelevant occurrences.

Ignore everything but the preeminent issue at hand. The wrongful transfer of stolen goods. Either way, we win.

Tappan : Sir, this war must be waged on the battlefield of righteousness.

Baldwin : The what ?

Tappan : It would be against everything I stand for to let this deteriorate. . . Into an exercise in the vagaries of legal minutia.

Baldwin : Well, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm talking about the heart of the matter.

Tappan : As am I. It is our destiny. . . as abolitionists and as Christians to save these people. These are people, Mr. Baldwin. Not livestock. Did Christ hire a lawyer to get him off on technicalities? He went to the cross nobly. You know why? To make a statement. To make a statement, as must we.

Baldwin : But Christ lost. You, I think----

Tappan : No, sir,he did not.

Baldwin : Or, at least you, Mr. Joadson, want to win, don't you?

Joadson : Yes.

Baldwin : I certainly do. Hell, sometimes I don't get paid unless I do. Which brings us back to the earlier question of worth. In order to do a better job than the attorney who represented the son of God, I'll require two and a half dollars a day.