Anne Reed at Deliberations posts about the impact of appearances.

These studies keep coming up, probably because it’s so hard for us to accept what they teach us.  It matters what you look like, and what your client and witnesses look like.  It matters so much that both children and adults can accurately pick the winners of real elections – in countries other than their own where they know nothing about the candidates – just by looking at the candidates’ pictures.

The point is clear.  You can argue until you’re blue in the face that the fellow who looks like a killer is innocent, that his appearance is irrelevant to the question of whether he committed the crime, that there is no rational connection between the way a person appears and the credibility of the person.  And you will still be wrong.

This is where harsh reality bites lawyers hard.  People (meaning jurors) attribute qualities to people based on appearance, no matter how wrong and superficial it may be.  And it’s not merely the defendant or witnesses who are at risk for the way they look, but us as well.

Some may recall my post on The Lawyer Look.  This post has been the subject of some of the harshest criticism and disagreement of any I’ve written.  And none has changed the fact that the way we look impacts on our ability to perform.  No matter how vehemently one wants to pretend that their appearance doesn’t matter, the notion is absolutely wrong.  Commenters screamed, yelled, stamped their feet and insisted that they will look any darn way they please, and anybody who disagrees should go to a flying leap.  And they are wrong.  Read the comments.  They really are quite funny.

For some, the impact of appearance is problematic.  There are some things one can change about their appearance, and some things one can’t.  No one forces you to dress in mod clothing, but your bug eyes are yours forever.  Does this matter.  Yes, it does, whether you like it or not.  No matter how much control you wish to assert over your own appearance, you can’t make someone else look at you and think, “No, he’s not as much of a jerk as he looks.”  They will see you whatever they chose, and you don’t get a vote.  Are they “wrong” in some existential world?  You betcha.  Does it change the outcome?  Not an iota.

So let me add my voice to Anne’s; when it comes to being a lawyer, and when your obligation is to provide effective representation of another human being, looks matter.  It may not be fair.  It may not be “right”.  It may not be fun.  But looks still matter.  Get over it.  If you insist they don’t, and that you have the “right” to be the “real you,” no matter how that “real you” comes off to others, find another job.  This one isn’t for you.