"A Lawsuit Is a Fruit Tree Planted in a Lawyer's Garden"

An Italian proverb, which I just learned yesterday.

The earliest reference I could find in a case is State of Illinois v. Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. (1972), but I found a 1944 newspaper reference as well, so it was known even then. My colleague Paola Sapienza confirms that it is indeed an Italian proverb, "Una causa è un albero da frutto piantato nel giardino di un avvocato."

Paola also pointed to another proverb, "Causa che pende, causa che rende." That translates to "A pending case makes money [for the lawyer]," but somewhat less precisely (and changing the focus from the lawyer to the client), as

A pending case is a spending case.

Comments

[Mr. Bumble]

Marc Elias's motto?

[Paladin_44]

Ken McClain?

[John F. Carr]

A web search on the proverb led to a collection of Italian language legal proverbs, most of them translated from English. The best of those not credited to foreign sources is

"Un buon avvocato conosce la legge. Un avvocato migliore conosce il giudice. Ma il miglior avvocato conosce l'amante del giudice."

A good lawyer knows the law. A better lawyer knows the judge. The best lawyer knows the judge's lover.

Unlike its French cognate the Italian word amante shares the same ending in masculine and feminine.

[apedad]

I chuckled a little that the word 'avvocato' closely resembles 'avocado.'

"Avocados originally came from Mexico and Central America, where the indigenous Nahua people found them. Back then, avocados were called the Nahuatl word āhuacatl—which also happened to mean 'testicles.' Scholars think the Nahua chose the name because of the fruit has a, uh, suggestive shape and was considered an aphrodisiac, according to NPR."

[Purple Martin]

A: Avvocato Toast

Q: What do you say when the Italian lawyer submits a brief with AI-hallucinated cites to the judge?

[Johnny-baseball]

According to the story...

A young lawyer opened his office in Victoria, Texas. He was the first lawyer in town. His practice was failing so badly that he took on odd jobs to feed himself.

Then, one day another lawyer opened his practice in Victoria, Texas.

One year later they were both millionaires.

[Mr. Bumble]

Then they went into politics and became multi-millionaires.

[IANNAL]

I am not an avocado, but this hass the ring of cynicism ...

[JimM47]

A case that looms is a case that blooms.

A case that burns is a case that earns.

A case on the docket is a case to sock it!