Buddhist wisdom for working with integrity

I am interested in how other cultures and value systems can help us become better lawyers. So I read with interest comments made about lawyers by Thich Nhat Hanh in his book "Answers from the Heart: Practical Responses To Life's Burning Questions." In the midst of intense litigation and trial, the challenge for lawyers is never to forget what an opposing counsel told me 25 years ago: "Once this is over, we will take off and go on to the next case, but we leave behind the litigants and witnesses. A lawyer should never forget this." Here are Hanh's thoughts on how to manage this challenge: "The lawyer can practice looking deeply with compassion and understanding, and help her clients look deeply so that transformation and healing become possible. Of course the lawyer has to protect, argue, and speak for her client; but she can also speak her heart. She can tell her clients what she sees on the opposing side and help them to understand the other side's point of view. When a lawyer expresses herself in court, she can water the seeds of understanding and compassion in the hearts of everyone, including the judge. This is very important. That kind of practice will be observed and appreciated by many people." Is this easy to do? No. But as President John F. Kennedy remarked on putting a man on the moon before the end if the 1960s, we don't want to do it because it is easy, we want to do it because it is hard.