I have always considered myself to be reasonable or a good sense of rough justice. A quick opinion of how things should end up. People have called me pragmatic many times during my 20 years as a lawyer. I will admit I didn’t know exactly what that meant the first couple of times I heard it.  I looked in the dictionary years ago and looking back I remember thinking that made sense. I have pasted a  current dictionary entry below.

As an attorney for more than 20 years now I can tell you there are a lot of attorneys I have dealt with who are very NOT pragmatic. Not to say they are bad attorneys but they are so difficult to deal with because they don’t deal in reality. I am sure they could write a mean brief and research the heck out of archaic laws.

I, myself, like to dig in and solve real world problems! I like nothing more than solving a dispute so that the people can get on with their lives. I thus proudly wear the pragmatic label and hope to continue to!  -John

prag·mat·ic
praɡˈmadik/
adjective
adjective: pragmatic
dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations.
“a pragmatic approach to politics”
synonyms: practical, matter-of-fact, sensible, down-to-earth, commonsensical,businesslike, having both/one’s feet on the ground, hardheaded, no-nonsense;
informalhard-nosed
“she remains pragmatic in the most emotional circumstances”
antonyms: impractical
relating to philosophical or political pragmatism.

LINGUISTICS
of or relating to pragmatics.

Origin

late 16th century (in the senses ‘busy, interfering, conceited’): via Latin from Greekpragmatikos ‘relating to fact,’ from pragma ‘deed’ (from the stem of prattein ‘do’). The current sense dates from the mid 19th century.