A PROFILE IN PROFESSIONALISM

Too many lawyers have forgotten who we are and what we are supposed to be. Too many fail to remember that in becoming lawyers, we assume solemn responsibilities and obligations, which are an integral part of our calling; that we are officers of the court precisely because we are vested with important rights and authority under our system of justice. Over the years, something seriously disturbing has been happening to the legal profession. Increasingly, law has become a business rather than a profession. In too many of our firms, the computer has become the Managing Partner. We have seen an increase in technological expertise with a corresponding diminution of the human side of law practice.

Joseph D. Jamail, Jr. Jamail & Kolius

Today, many lawyers and businessmen alike have come to accept the proposition that the client is best able to judge what he needs done and the lawyer must be ready to do whatever the client asks. In acceding to this, the lawyer has, I submit, sold away what has always been his proudest characteristic – his independence. The lawyer who stands ready to do whatever the client wants deprives the client of the one thing the client is most entitled to have – the best advice the lawyer can give him as to whether what the client wants done should really be done. This is what we lawyers should be about – integrity, reverence for the law, dedication to our clients whoever they are, but always retain our independence to conduct ourselves as lawyers.
Perhaps the greatest responsibility of the bar associations is to assure the availability of legal services to those in need. If the legal profession does not stand for equal justice under the law, then it is hard to see what it does stand for. It is critical to the self-respect of the bar that every lawyer makes some contribution of time or money to the cost of approaching the goal of equal justice for all.

From the beginning of humanity, we are told that justice is the greatest concern of man on earth. Lawyers seek justice. I’m talking about real lawyers, not pencil pushers. Lawyers don’t build with steel or stone, but with sturdier stuff. We build monuments with ideas and principle, integrity, fairness and equality.

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