Some Reminiscences of the Bar — M.K Gandhi

Everyone has heard the joke that lawyers are paid to lie. Gandhi heard it as a law student, and his practice in South Africa put it to the test. In one big accounts case he found a mistake that helped his own client — and insisted on telling the court about it, even when his senior walked away. Was that foolish, or is honesty actually good lawyering? This chapter is Gandhi's answer, and the past papers add a second test: what he did when he himself stood in the dock in 1922.

In two minutes

In ‘Some Reminiscences of the Bar’, Gandhi shows through one arbitration case that a lawyer can win without ever deceiving the court — and past papers extend the same test of truthfulness to his own sedition trial of 1922, where he pleaded guilty and explained why.

The rest of this chapter

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