SThere is only one left, he will be the one. Henri Leclerc had become the mascot of the bar, proving that one can be both mascot and legend, that one can be the greatest, the most uncompromising with respect to the rights of defence and the freedoms of men, and also inspire tenderness, this feeling that he magically managed to combine with greatness. He carried that humanity about him, the air of a good man, an expression that one would like to write in two separate words to emphasise it. He loved to laugh, to cook, to drink and to eat, in short, to live. He put people above all else and considered it his job to make them love him. This love was accompanied by an extraordinary capacity for indignation that he described as “angry” and an enthusiastic, almost boyish depth. He was definitely a man who could be described with oxymorons.
He loved human beings but he passionately loved lawyers. During a conference at the Maison du bar, in our house, in his house, where he participated in a round table during which a magistrate, and not just any magistrate, the president of the Paris court at the time, was violently arrested by him “to the lawyers” In general, they accuse us of being those who prevent the proper functioning of justice, something that should have been praised, because, in fact, it is our task. We prevent the machine from passing thoughtlessly, from crushing instead of punishing or condemning an innocent person.
The courtroom had mocked the judge, the oil paintings had tried to oil each one in their excesses and Henri Leclerc had wished “respond even if it is not so[était] No [s]Let’s talk”. He had had enough of this ridiculous war between lawyers and judges and had warned the judge: “Don’t cut the branch you’re sitting on”reminding us that lawyers defend everyone. He saw us as the branches of law on which society is based, he could also have said old branches, those that make young shoots grow. He was fighting “against justice when it dishonors itself” and only honored him.
Foot in the door
The first argument I heard, when I was still a student, was his, in the Paris Court, where he defended a young woman of my age. We are generations of lawyers who can testify to the driving force that Henri Leclerc was in our careers. He remained so, it was his words, his ideas, his actions, his explosive sincerity that revived us in moments of discouragement, a driving force that became a compass for the big questions when we were in doubt.
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