On the advice of my attorney…

Some­time dur­ing my first year of law school I received, as a gift, a sweat­shirt that says across the front of it, “On the advice of my attor­ney, my shirt has no com­ment at this time.” It’s a com­mon sen­ti­ment. Just about any time that a per­son is accused of a crime or involved in a sit­u­a­tion in which they might be the tar­get of a law­suit, they tell the media that they would really, really like to answer ques­tions, but their legal coun­sel has advised them not to. It hap­pens so fre­quently that it has acquired a slang name– ‘lawyer­ing up.’