The Lawyer Game has three kinds of players:

1. Honest Lawyers
2. Dishonest Lawyers
3. Clients

At the start of the game, each Client is assigned to a Lawyer and each Lawyer only serves a single Client.

The rounds of the game have three phases, an Advice Phase, a Judgement Phase, and a Hiring Phase.

During the Advice Phase, each Client asks their Lawyer a question. The questions have yes or no answers. Dishonest Lawyers always answer yes. Honest Lawyers answer yes 50% of the time and no 50% of the time.

Each time a Client receives a yes answer, the Client receives a point. Clients do not receive a point if they receive a no answer.

When the Advice Phase is complete, the game enters the Judgement Phase. During the Judgement Phase a certain percentage of the Clients who received a yes answer from a Dishonest Lawyer will be Punished. When a Client is Punished, it loses all of its points.

When the Judgement Phase is over, the game enters the Hiring Phase. During the Hiring Phase, each Client may choose to hire a different Lawyer. Clients may choose to hire any Lawyer they want, but they may only hire one Lawyer at a time. Lawyers may serve an unlimited number of Clients.

The game continues for a fixed number of rounds. The objective of Clients is to accumulate as many points as possible.

The most important variable in game play is the percentage of Clients of Dishonest Lawyers who are Punished during the Judgement Phase. The most effective Client strategy will depend on this percentage. If the risk of being Punished is high, Clients will accumulate more points over the long term by hiring Honest Lawyers. If the risk of being Punished is low, Clients will accumulate more points over the long term by hiring Dishonest Lawyers.

The game is meant to illustrate the economic incentives that influence lawyers, particularly when they are being asked questions that are open to interpretation. If the risk associated with providing bad advice is low, lawyers are rewarded for telling their clients what they want to hear. In the low Punishment scenario, Dishonest Lawyers will accumulate large numbers of Clients, and Honest Lawyers will not.

A slightly more complicated version of the game can be crafted by allowing Dishonest Lawyers to answer "no" a certain percentage of the time, in exchange for a comparable reduction in the risk that their Clients will be Punished. This variation could identify optimal strategies for Dishonest Lawyers when various levels of Punishment are occurring.

Now, imagine a real world scenario where you are a lawyer, you are being asked by your client whether or not it is legal for them to do something that they want to do, there is no risk of your client being punished for it, and your advice will never be read by anyone else. This scenario is the FISA court.