Page 214 - the-trial

er lawyers. Perhaps you’ve already heard how Dr. Huld talks
about the petty lawyers, he probably made them sound very
contemptible to you, and he’s right, they are contemptible.
But when he talks about them and compares them with
himself and his colleagues there’s a small error running
through what he says, and, just for your interest, I’ll tell you
about it. When he talks about the lawyers he mixes with he
sets them apart by calling them the ‘great lawyers’. That’s
wrong, anyone can call himself ‘great’ if he wants to, of
course, but in this case only the usage of the court can make
that distinction. You see, the court says that besides the pet-
ty lawyers there are also minor lawyers and great lawyers.
This one and his colleagues are only minor lawyers, and the
difference in rank between them and the great lawyers, who
I’ve only ever heard about and never seen, is incomparably
greater than between the minor lawyers and the despised
petty lawyers.” “The great lawyers?” asked K. “Who are they
then? How do you contact them?” “You’ve never heard
about them, then?” said the businessman. “There’s hardly
anyone who’s been accused who doesn’t spend a lot of time
dreaming about the great lawyers once he’s heard about
them. It’s best if you don’t let yourself be misled in that way.
I don’t know who the great lawyers are, and there’s probably
no way of contacting them. I don’t know of any case I can
talk about with certainty where they’ve taken any part. They
do defend a lot of people, but you can’t get hold of them by
your own efforts, they only defend those who they want to
defend. And I don’t suppose they ever take on cases that
haven’t already got past the lower courts. Anyway, it’s best

1