Daily Inspiration Quote by Warren E. Burger

Burger’s line lands because it treats “free” not as generosity but as strategy, and it does so with a courtroom-savvy kind of folksy menace. The fox-and-chickens image isn’t just decorative; it’s a compressed argument about asymmetric power. A lawyer advertising a free first visit isn’t merely offering access, Burger implies, but setting a trap where the client’s vulnerability is the product. The threshold matters: once you step inside, you’re no longer an audience member to an ad; you’re a potential revenue stream, emotionally primed, already invested, and less able to walk away cleanly.

The specific intent is to distinguish between pro bono help as a professional virtue and “free” as a marketing lure. Burger concedes that unpaid advice can be ethical, even admirable. What he distrusts is the spectacle of the promise, the way it frames the relationship before it begins. Advertising turns counsel into commerce in the most literal sense: it manufactures need, then offers a soothing entry point.

Context matters. Burger spoke from a mid-century legal culture that prized restraint and feared the profession sliding into salesmanship. Even as rules on lawyer advertising loosened in the late 20th century, the anxiety remained: legal services aren’t like detergent, because the consumer often can’t evaluate quality and is shopping under stress. The subtext is paternalistic but not frivolous: when trust is the currency, a “free consult” can function less like a gift and more like bait.