Abstract
Greatness is a greatly discussed yet highly misunderstood virtue. Greatness means different things to different people, for an investment banker it might represent financial success, to a politician, power and to a student it may mean academic excellence. It is said more often than not that great men are born that way, that greatness is a consequence of possessing innate gifts and inborn virtues. Yet as lawyers we know that there are no great men, good men or bad men, men are known merely by the deeds they do. As the great American naval officer, Admiral William Frederick Halsey Jr. (Bull) once said, “There are no great men. Just great challenges which ordinary men, out of necessity, are forced by circumstance to meet.” This paper seeks to discuss the characteristics of a great lawyer, and how any ordinary lawyer may achieve this distinction by adding value to his clients, colleagues and community by following the time tested path of lawyerly virtue. Being a great lawyer has a lot to do with adding value; one may add value through Sustained superior performance, through the fulfillment of one’s purpose and by inculcating the lawyerly virtues of wisdom, diligence, discretion, loyalty, passion and an overriding respect for justice. Neither organisms nor organizations evolve slowly and surely into something better, but drift until some small change occurs which has immediate and overwhelming significance. The special role of the human being is not to wait for these favorable accidents but deliberately to introduce the small change that will have great significance. Most Great Lawyers are people who introduce these small changes, changes which catalyse progress and make Law the agent of social transformation that it is.
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