Tell me how to do what I want to do

After my recent post decrying lawyers' inability to innovate along with their clients (see "Why I hate 'practicing law'," my friend Ed Wiest (@erwiest) correctly pointed out that this notion was not exactly new. In a comment to the post, Ed included a quote from the legendary J.P. Morgan:

I don't know as I want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do. I hire him to tell me how to do what I want to do.

That was over a hundred years ago. Yet I'm sure the problem is even worse today. Lawyers, acting out of fear (of being wrong) spend their time issue-spotting and telling clients about the varying risks of a client's course of action. What clients want is what Morgan wanted: help in achieving their goals. Today, many lawyers have no idea of their clients' goals and dreams, and would never consider offering something as unlawyerly as "business advice."

Some even advocate for this. Former lawyer and Inc. Magazine columnist Norm Brodsky is dead-set against lawyers giving business advice:

The attorney's role should be to advise clients of the potential legal consequences of whatever decisions they make. Period. End. I have been known to fire lawyers who insist on arguing with me about business issues.

Read more of Brodsky's misguided comments in his ironically named piece "Norm Brodsky on Finding a Good Lawyer." In his defense, he's probably right that lawyers give bad business advice, but only because they're not trained to do it.

One more thing on the Morgan quote: Ed cites to BrainyQuote for the quote, and wonders whether the lawyer Morgan was referring to was Elihu Root. In fact, it was Elbert Gary — lawyer, judge, and founder of U.S. Steel — whom Morgan admonished when he told the famous banker that he couldn't do something. See this 1927 interview with Time Magazine, which gives the context of the quote. Also see this Yale Book of Quotations entry, which has the quote in a Gary biography.

Thanks for the great quote, Ed!

What do you think? Should lawyers spend more time giving advice on how to achieve clients' business goals, or should they stick with the naysaying? Be like Ed and sound off in the comments below. (Maybe I'll get another post out of it.)