Forgive me, Solicitor
Gillis, Lawrence J.
FORGIVE ICE, SOLICITOR Lawrence j. Gulls H ow many times in the past fifty-five years have I uttered those timeless words: "Bless me, Father, fort have sinned" I remember having to make up sins...
...Do us both a favor: Take your confession to the priest, or at ]east give him a ten-day option or the right of first refusal...
...So, why do the clients-who would have cheerfully offered theirconfessions up the street a decade or so ago--now come to me...
...Nowadays thechurch can call it rreoncitiation if it wants, but I work in a criminal context...
...There was a time when I considered the whole day wasted if I hadn't felt guilty at least once...
...A lawyer might be able to keep you out of jail, at least for a while, but the priest on behalf of the church can offer you what no lawyer can possibly provide: Forgiveness of sins, love, and eternal life...
...It occurs to me that there is a basic asymmetry in all this, because many of my clients are barely able to afford my services...
...Out here, in the real world, we call it confession...
...Since then I have handled a lot of cases having to do with drunk driving, shoplifting, assault and battery, probation violations, and driving-license hearings...
...I wasn't mature enough to know that making them up is a sin in itself, a fraud on the very sacrament of reconciliation...
...Most people from these whereabouts don't think much of my clients...
...That's why I'm qualified to tell you this: Don't you believe what all these people are saying, not for one Catholic minute...
...You'll never see "forgiveness of sins, love,and eternal life" inaretaineragreement with a lawyer...
...And I have come to know real guilt, too...
...Over the past fifty-five years I have known many other sins, too...
...I've been inside that church on many Saturday afternoons to offer my own confession, and the place is practically deserted...
...The reality is simple: The law is where it's at...
...Sometimes I think that judgesdo not live in the real world...
...Trailer trash" isone of the kinder phrases that comes to their minds...
...The courts may decide that my clients make too much money and can pay for their own lawyers, but my clients and I know better...
...And if you start out your confession to me with the words, "Bless me, lawyer, for I have sinned," then we are both in deep trouble...
...Clients do that, you know-confess to their lawyers...
...The asymmetrv is this: Why should clients pay me money they don't have, so I'll hear their confessions, when an honest-to-C,od alternative-so tospeakis just up the street, at the parish church where 1, and several other criminal lawyers whom I know, go to confession...
...The priest inside the confessional is sort of like the -Maytag repairman, the loneliest guy in town...
...I've heard at least 2,5Q0 confessions over the past twenty-five years and offered my own numerous times, so it's fair to say that I am a connoisseurof fine confessions...
...And they have paid me serious money to listen to their confessions...
...I'll tell you why in one sim Commonu''rrl 3 1 •rptembrr2b, 1997 ple phrase: It's the cult of the legal...
...FORGIVE ICE, SOLICITOR Lawrence j. Gulls H ow many times in the past fifty-five years have I uttered those timeless words: "Bless me, Father, fort have sinned" I remember having to make up sins at first in order to have some to confess...
...It sometimes seemed that, by the time I learned that one thing was sinful, I had already moved onto another sin, bigger and better...
...And since "everybody says it, it must be true...
...In fact, the church he represents is 2,000 years old and has been hearing confessions much of that time...
...If that doesn't work, then give me a call, r? Laurence J. Gillis practice's lau, in Exeter, Ne a, Ifmsrrt1slilrc...
...Confession toa lawyer doesn't hold a candle to confession to a priest...
...For that matter, when was the last time you heard your la%vrer say " rahsoh'o te" ? As a lawyer, I've been terribly tempted numerous times to use that Latin phraseafter hearing a client's confession, but that would be a sin, wouldn't it...
...Frankly, most of my clients don't think much of my clients, either...
...In a time of happy memory, the church had a near monopoly on earthly mystery and power, leaving people slackjawed in awe and wonder...
...About twenty-five years ago I became a criminal trial lawyer...
...Today, there is another church-the law-and, as a criminal trial lawyer, l am one of its most visible priests...
...As I said, I have come to know guilt and not only by my own acts but by the acts of my clients also Not that I was there while they were committing their defalcations (I was toobusy committing my own sins, thank you), but because often my clients confess to me afterwards...
...How cute," people may have said of me, but it was still a sin to have done that...
...Like most of us, I didn't intend to grow up knowing sin, but it worked out that way...
...If you are caught up by the wickedness and snares of the devil, everyone says you should go see your lawyer, not your priest...
...Let me put i t to you this way: The chu rch is better at confessions than I am, and its services cost nothing...
...He's eager and experienced and doesn't cost anything...
Vol. 124 • September 1997 • No. 16
