I’m not asking about the ethics of lying, or whether lawyers may be justified in lying. That is beside the point. I am just asking: hypothetically, would it be possible for a lawyer to have a successful career while never uttering so much as a white lie?
Like, let’s say the lawyer had some sort of spell cast on them, so they could never lie. If someone were to ask them a question, they’d either need to find a way to avoid answering or answer honestly. Would it be possible for a lawyer in such circumstances to still go on and have a successful career?
Define lie.
Knowingly saying something false. I wouldn’t consider omitting information to be lying. Maybe in some contexts it is but for a lawyer that seems too stringent
Found the successful lawyer.
Deceit through misinformation or hiding information.
How do you define hiding information?
If you constantly hide the fact you hate your boss from him, does that count because that’d be a problem in most jobs.
Only if hiding it is an attempt to deceive. So simply not telling your boss you hate them would not be a lie by itself. Being truthful does not require you to go out of your way to offer information.
The real summary here for an answer to OP is “no, its not really possible to be a successful lawyer without lying” because even small lies are kind of important to social etiquette as others have noted. People often say lies of omission dont count as lies, so I wanted to address that angle. A lie of omission requires deception. For example if you hate the flavor of bananas, but dont go around telling everyone you hate the taste of bananas, that is not a lie.
If omitting information is a lie, then no, you can’t be a successful lawyer without that.
Your job is to help your client. Informing the opposition of something they missed and that would help their case hurts your client who pays and relies on you.
But then you can’t be a successful business owner, politician, Union rep or even parent without lying either. Unlimited honesty and transparency isn’t really something society values.
But if there is no intention to deceive (and I would add no obligation to reveal that information,) then there’s no lie.
You just don’t provide information.
If my mom asks “where were you?” And I refuse to answer, I’m not lying, I’m just not answering, right?
Exactly
I would argue that hiding information is not always lying.
There are lies of omission, but it depends on if you are asked about the things you are omitting or not.
And even if you are, it is possible to steer the conversation away from the thing without actually telling a lie.
Politicians do it all of the time.
Thats why the requirement for omission to be a lie is that there is an intent to deceive.