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make them laugh and they’ll be reconciled. It’s both diffi-
cult and hard at the same time to deal with them, and there’s
hardly any reason for it. It’s sometimes quite astonishing
that a single, average life is enough to encompass so much
that it’s at all possible ever to have any success in one’s work
here. On the other hand, there are also dark moments, such
as everyone has, when you think you’ve achieved nothing at
all, when it seems that the only trials to come to a good end
are those that were determined to have a good end from the
start and would do so without any help, while all the others
are lost despite all the running to and fro, all the effort, all
the little, apparent successes that gave such joy. Then you no
longer feel very sure of anything and, if asked about a trial
that was doing well by its own nature but which was turned
for the worse because you assisted in it, would not even dare
deny that. And even that is a kind of selfconfidence, but
then it’s the only one that’s left. Lawyers are especially vul-
nerable to fits of depression of that sort and they are no
more than fits of depression of course when a case is sud-
denly taken out of their hands after they’ve been conducting
it satisfactorily for some time. That’s probably the worst that
can happen to a lawyer. It’s not that the accused takes the
case away from him, that hardly ever happens, once a defen-
dant has taken on a certain lawyer he has to stay with him
whatever happens. How could he ever carry on by himself
after he’s taken on help from a lawyer? No, that just doesn’t
happen, but what does sometimes happen is that the trial
takes on a course where the lawyer may not go along with it.
Client and trial are both simply taken away from the lawyer;

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