points out, so the attorneys are able to get

points out, so the attorneys are able to get along with each other while still discharging their professional duties.

Because attorneys in a rural area have to face not only each other everyday on the street but also judges, Reynolds thinks the practice of law here is more genteel. According to him, that is helpful. “As a general rule, confrontation is not the best way to settle disputes.”

One reason people distrust lawyers, Reynolds explains, is because lawyers often appear to be doing things in secret. It looks questionable, he says, when lawyers are seen in court discussing issues with the opposing counsel. “People think deals are being made between the lawyers and the judge.” In reality though the lawyers “are just applying their craft.”

Is it Reynolds’ job to defend only innocent people? Not so, he says. He, concurring with Luke, explains that its his job to represent as best he can his client. Reynolds points out that he does not necessarily try to get a guilty person off the hook. He acts as the advocate for a defendant, which means he “insists that the government meets its constitutional and legal burdens” before convicting a person.

By ensuring that the government meets these burdens before punishing a person, Reynolds claims that he, and lawyers in general, uphold the standards of the U.S. judicial system. Built into that system, he says, is the presumption of innocence.

“Most lawyers I know take seriously their job as an officer of the court.” That job, according to Reynolds, is to see that the system of justice continues to work.

Another lawyer in the county, Maurice Biddle, is a native of Missouri who graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1951. In 1936 Biddle joined “the old Air Corps,” which was the forerunner of the Ai£ Force. While working as a court re