Francis H. Hare, Sr., in 1976 described a trial lawyer this way:

There is something different and special about the trial lawyer. You can tell it whenever you go in a courtroom and see any lawyer, old or young, good or bad, when his time comes to stand up and speak on behalf of his client, white or black, right or wrong. Then, something happens that's unlike anything else on earth; it is like the touch of Midas that turns dust into gold, or the miracle of electricity that turns a few strips of metal into a glowing flame of light. There is a touch of everything wonderful in the advocacy of a lawyer for his client, in his effort to defend the right. There is a dash of love in it, and there is a little sex appeal, and more than a little magic. I have seen a shabby old lawyer that almost literally slept in the street come to court unshaved and disheveled and rise before a jury that came to scoff and remained to pray. Every man who has lived the life of a lawyer knows what I mean and knows that there must be a source of this transformation of personality and power that touches an ordinary man with the Pentecostal fire of an advocate.