I'm sure he meant life in general, in court or elsewhere.
If you think my guy could not qualify as 'honorable,' think about all the oaths to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States' sworn to at presidential inaugurations or investitures of Supreme Court justices, by people who are routinely referred to thereafter as 'the honorable' so-and-so. What happens subsequent to these oath-swearings is these honorable people go on to 'do what they have to do.'