Trust and law's facilitating role.

INTRODUCTION

In Should We Trust in Trust? Professor Koehn has succeeded in her goal: "to open up some areas for further research by persons in a variety of disciplines."(1) She challenges us to realize that only by reflecting more deeply upon

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In keeping with this special issue's purpose of fostering dialogue between legal scholars and philosophers, I would like to raise comments from the perspectives of legal practice, legal philosophy, and legal doctrine. I begin by relating three vignettes involving trust from my practice of law. Turning to legal philosophy, I raise a cautionary note regarding the ambiguity of "shared values" in the concept of trust. I then demonstrate some ways in which legal doctrines can assist us in fostering trust.

TRUST AND LEGAL PRACTICE

In legal practice the risks and opportunities of trust are readily apparent. To illustrate this, permit me to relate three short vignettes.(2)

Case One: An elderly woman, a thirty-five-year client of my

three-person law office, called just a few weeks into my career. Her sister

had been seriously injured in a car accident and was on life-support

systems. In the absence of the senior partner (my father), she asked

me if she should remove the life-support systems. She assured me

she would do whatever I recommended.

Case Two: In my ethics classes, no person is viewed as more

untrustworthy than a car dealer. But "Earl," a car dealer in my

hometown of 800 residents, was one of the most trusted persons in

the community. Earl did not negotiate price. You told Earl what

you wanted and he told you the price for which he could sell it.

End of negotiation. Earl had every reason to be trustworthy. That

is the kind of person he wanted to be. More cynically, if he did

start cheating people, the news would be the talk of the local greasy

spoon located one hundred yards away and his reputation would be

lost. No doubt there was a connection between these two motivations,

but the point is that Earl would not be dishonest and therefore

people reposed tremendous trust in him.