A few words on why lawyers still admire an Illinois lawyer named Abraham

No lawyer remains as popular with Illinois lawyers as Abraham Lincoln, even though Lincoln last appeared in a courtroom nearly 160 years ago.

We admire that Lincoln built a life from nothing. That he exuded an unrivaled work ethic. That he loved to read and learn. And that he treated everyone with good faith, truthfulness, and respect. As Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer has noted, “He rose from obscurity through hard work, self-education[,] and honesty.”

Lincoln never pretended to be somebody he wasn’t. Leonard Swett, a lawyer who rode the Eighth Judicial Circuit with Lincoln, recalled: “The way he became educated was by never being ashamed to confess his ignorance of what in fact he did not know, by always asking questions where he could probably elicit information, and by studying all his life. I have seen him repeatedly around upon the circuit with school books.”

He wasn’t just out for himself; Lincoln always sympathized with those of little means. Though he represented large corporations and individuals of privilege, the vast majority of his clients were ordinary people with ordinary problems. He would help people in need. According to William Herndon, his law biographer and law partner, Lincoln could “never say ‘No’ to any one who puts up a poor mouth [pleads poverty]” and “will hand out the dollar he has sometimes when he needs it himself and needs it badly.”

And, a more civil and courteous lawyer would be hard to imagine. Affable in public, gracious, and genuine, Lincoln amassed friendships with people of all walks of life, and, based on their recollections, practically every lawyer who ever came in contact with him. Lincoln was likeable and congenial, including to opposing counsel, and nary a bad word has been recorded about his interactions with judges, lawyers, parties, or witnesses. For Lincoln, personal character mattered, “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”

Then there is Lincoln’s legal skills, which in the intervening decades have become legendary. Whether he was a good lawyer or a great lawyer can be debated; his preparedness, professionalism, brutal honesty, and self-confidence cannot.

I could go on, but I think you can sense that he was a lawyer everybody respected, trusted, and listened to. Abraham Lincoln is the model of the heroic lawyer. Our own superhero.

After more than a century-and-a-half, Lincoln still challenges “the better angels of our nature,” still moves us to practice with grace and decency. 