Legal Question in Legal Ethics in California
Do attorneys really drink alcohol beverages during the day time in their offices as in some TV shows? If so, it really looks like a reflection of outdated partnership mentality. Is it considered ethical? How about judges in their chambers?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Actually, everyone with a law degree gets totally liquored up as soon as they get to the office and stay that way all day, because of course lawyers are not individual people; they are just cookie-cutter clones who all do the same thing.
Everyone knows about attorneys, and none of us here on LawGuru are going to rat out the judges, but if you really want to see fall-down drunks in suits at lunchtime, go to Washington, D.C. and check out the watering holes of Capitol Hill.
I worked for an attorney once who had a full wet bar in his office. I remember a deposition extending long into the afternoon, and he got up and started making a drink. Opposing counsel was shocked, but his attitude was that it was his office. On the other hand, I never saw him drunk, and his Christmas parties always had a bartender serving drinks, but it is probably more rare now than it was years ago.