"I no longer teach law. But when I did I advised my students that they should never accept a case if it meant that by doing so you couldn't sleep at night"
About this Quote
A courtroom career is built on the premise that everyone deserves representation; Darden’s line quietly admits the psychological cost of taking that premise seriously. He’s not giving a civics-lesson abstraction about justice. He’s offering a working rule for survival: if the case hijacks your conscience so thoroughly that you lose sleep, you’re already compromised, no matter how “professionally” you try to proceed.
The specific intent is mentorship with a warning label. Darden frames ethics as a bodily metric, not a bar-association checklist. “Couldn’t sleep at night” is deliberately plain language, the kind students actually remember, because it translates moral conflict into a daily, unavoidable symptom. He’s also drawing a boundary around the lawyer-as-hired-gun myth: yes, advocacy is a craft, but the advocate is not a machine. The job follows you home.
The subtext, especially coming from Darden, is about public scrutiny and self-reckoning. As a prosecutor best known for the O.J. Simpson trial, he lived the reality that a “case” isn’t just facts and filings; it becomes identity, narrative, and reputational weather. The line reads like hard-won counsel from someone who has seen how legal work can turn into an all-consuming moral referendum.
Contextually, it pushes against law school’s tendency to treat ambition as neutral. Darden suggests the real professional skill isn’t only arguing well; it’s choosing what you’re willing to become in order to win.
The specific intent is mentorship with a warning label. Darden frames ethics as a bodily metric, not a bar-association checklist. “Couldn’t sleep at night” is deliberately plain language, the kind students actually remember, because it translates moral conflict into a daily, unavoidable symptom. He’s also drawing a boundary around the lawyer-as-hired-gun myth: yes, advocacy is a craft, but the advocate is not a machine. The job follows you home.
The subtext, especially coming from Darden, is about public scrutiny and self-reckoning. As a prosecutor best known for the O.J. Simpson trial, he lived the reality that a “case” isn’t just facts and filings; it becomes identity, narrative, and reputational weather. The line reads like hard-won counsel from someone who has seen how legal work can turn into an all-consuming moral referendum.
Contextually, it pushes against law school’s tendency to treat ambition as neutral. Darden suggests the real professional skill isn’t only arguing well; it’s choosing what you’re willing to become in order to win.
Quote Details
| Topic | Honesty & Integrity |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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