TFP BLOG: March 2008

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Welcome to the First Post -- We want your Input

Fostering a sense of professionalism is something lawyers and their bar associations have always done. One of NYCLA's core purposes at its founding roughly a hundred years ago was "to elevate the standards of integrity, honor, and courtesy in the legal profession."

With the increased public attention on lawyers these days--and often with an emphasis on their frailties and excesses--it seems especially important, now, to take stock.

What does it mean to be a lawyer in New York City?
Has that meaning changed and if so, for the better or worse?
To the extent professional values can be defined and are widely shared, what can be done to instill and promote them?
What can the various segments of the profession (courts, law schools, bar associations, law firms and other law offices) realistically accomplish, and are they doing enough?
What can be done to improve the public perception of lawyers and the role they play in society?

This blog was put together in conjunction with NYCLA and the special task force it created under the aegis of its Justice Center and its Ethics Committee to bring focus to these issues.

Jim Kobak (the chair of the NYCLA Task Force) and I welcome your answers to the questions posted above and any other comments you may have.

Keep checking in with us as we will regularly bring you interesting updates as well as our professionalism questionnaire (once we figure out how to allow you to download it from this blog). But in the meantime, give us your comments on the questions above and it will be practice for when the questionnaire is available.

Thanks and regards,

NYCLA DRAFT DEFINITION OF PROFESSIONALISM

By professionalism we mean a group pursuing a learned art as a higher calling in a spirit that it is performing a public service, a service that is indispensible in a democratic nation founded on the rule of law. This calling is no less a public service because it may also be a means of livelihood. Pursuit of a learned art in the spirit of a public service is the essence of being a lawyer. It implies obligations of dignity, integrity, self-respect and respect for others.

The essence of professionalism is a commitment to develop one's skills to the fullest and to apply them responsibly and with the utmost diligence to the problem at hand. Professionalism requires adherence to the highest standards of integrity and a willingness to subordinate narrow self-interest in pursuit of the more fundamental goal of client service. Because of the tremendous power they wield in our system, lawyers must never forget that their duty to serve their clients fairly and skillfully takes priority over the personal accumulation of wealth. Lawyers must be willing and prepared to undertake zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients while retaining enough perspective to provide those clients with considered, well-informed and objective advice.

Although duties to their clients in particular matters are paramount, lawyers must throughout their careers remain conscious of and committed to the goal of improving the profession and the system of justice. This commitment includes taking personal and professional measures to increase the availability of legal services and abet even-handed and efficient application and administration of the legal system for all segments of society.