The Essential Element of Soul

Time magazine recently profiled Bill Gates, the word's wealthiest man and today's most noted example of the quintessential computer technocrat.

Based on the article, it is obvious that, despite Gates being the son of a well-known Seattle lawyer, Gates himself does not have the makeup to succeed as a lawyer.

The Time piece portrayed Gates as possessing a narrow view of a world which operates through digital signals or binary impulses and which largely is devoid of emotion, soul and spirit, elements that most of us understand are surely as much a part of our human makeup as neurons, nerves, bones and flesh.

The article noted that Gates sees nothing unique about human intelligence and firmly believes that someday we can replicate the brain. He is unable to fathom that there is anything special or divine about the human soul. "I don't have any evidence of that," he says.

Unlike Gates' view of the world, where countless binary impulses properly sorted and directed by the logic of software can unfailingly convert input into correct answers, the law is not so simple or predictable.

Law is not a software program. You cannot just plug in the facts and each time automatically get the right and only answer.

Take, for example, the client who comes into the lawyer's office with a complex estate problem. The client has a small but successful solely-owned business. He is approaching retirement age. He has three children, two sons and a daughter. None of his children have worked full time in the business. One son is an account executive for a paper supply business. The daughter is a manager in a large accounting firm. The other son is in law school. The client would like to interest all of his children in filling the top management roles in his business. The son and daughter have shown some interest, but at the moment the law student has shown no inclination to get involved in the business.

There are several key employees who have been with the business for years, who have been instrumental in its success, and who would like to acquire an ownership interest in the business. There is a risk that if the client's children were elevated over these key employees to run the company and the employees were not allowed to own the stock, they may leave. Without them the business may decline in worth, resulting in a less valuable estate for the client to pass on to his children.

The client wants advice on a succession plan for his business and an estate plan.

To provide the best counsel, the lawyer, among other things, will need an understanding of the talents, interests and personalities of the children, the client's own desires, and the feelings and circumstances of his key employees, as well as a thorough understanding of the business and its projections.

Regardless how fast or powerful it is or how sophisticated its software, a computer cannot exercise the wisdom and judgment needed to properly counsel and advise the client on such a matter. That role is uniquely the lawyer's.

Legal counseling, the solution of legal problems and the resolution of conflicts are far too complex and intuitive for computerized outputs. Computers cannot feel, experience emotion, act on faith, hope and believe. While reason is basic to resolving conflicts and problems, we must have a fundamental awareness that reason is tempered and influenced by prejudices, passions, interests and beliefs.

To be a wise lawyer or judge, we must have an appreciation of the soul, that inner, spiritual element which separates human beings from animals and machines.

The element of humanity is an essential part of the process of forming answers and resolving conflicts in our system of values, laws and jurisprudence. Disputes are decided by human beings, not computers.

Certainly lawyers and judges need all the relevant information bearing on the problem at hand, and the more information and knowledge we have, the better we will be able to resolve the conflict or solve the problem. To that extent, Gates is right. A soul-less machine can assemble, store and process more knowledge and information than the human mind and engage in flawless logic. But, in contrast to Bill Gates' mindset, we lawyers and judges need something more than mere knowledge, information and logic.

Just as importantly, we need compassion. We need wisdom on top of knowledge. We need a soul more than a powerful microchip.