“THE LAWYER: OBLIGATED BEYOND GRAVE”

One of the important duties of a Lawyer is the duty to his client which mainly involves the
duty to keep all information rendered to him by his client confidential. But up to what point?
Did the Law ever tell us for how long should we do this? Should we carry these information until
the day we die? Should we bury this with us in our grave? These are answered by the audio that
we listened to.

According to Attorney James Hamilton, we should take this duty as important as anything in
our life because this speaks about the reputation of one person who is behind those information
as well as the personality of the person who either keeps or discloses of such information. He
mentioned about an instance where he was asked to disclose some information from the white
house, from here, we could think that the information could be such a big deal for him not to
agree and not to disclose it. But he said with all his might that it was not that big of a deal. It
was just a small information that does not really involve a lot of issue. But he didn’t disclose it
for the reason that he believes that the duty of the Lawyer does not stop once the attorney-
client relationship ceased. He believes that no matter what happens, once such information was
said in confidence by the client to his lawyer, he should hold on to that information even after
the day a lawyer dies. He believes and want us to always remember that a reputation of a person
is bigger than any money, more valuable than any jewelry and more precious than any benefits
that could be offered to you. I believe in that because for me once an information is disclosed
by the Lawyer without the consent of the client, two reputations are ruined. One is the
reputation of the client and one is the reputation of the Lawyer. Imagine being a Lawyer and
holding a degree yet no one respects you because who would ever respect a snitch? Or
someone you can never trust? No one. And that speaks so much for the personality of a person,
much of a Lawyer who could be trusted and who could always uphold his duty to his client and
preserves the attorney-client privilege. For me, that would earn a lot of respect because when
a relationship is built on trust and such is not broken, I believe that a that kind of relationship
will always succeed in many aspect. So, in agreeing with Attorney James Hamilton, I would do
the same and uphold that duty even beyond my grave. So for me, when I become a Lawyer,
such confidential information would be kept even if we are not married (pun intended).

ADRIANE GABRIELLE M. PUNDAVELA

3E