Professionalism: Where Has it Gone?
| Publication year | 1985 |
| Pages | 1383 |
| Citation | Vol. 14 No. 8 Pg. 1383 |
1985, August, Pg. 1383. Professionalism: Where Has it Gone?
There is an immediate need for a national debate within the legal profession regarding the question of professionalism. The American Bar Association appointed a commission under the leadership of former ABA President Justin A. Stanley, composed of very knowledgeable and able people, to make an immediate study of the entire question of professionalism. The commission is studying the issues of lawyer advertising, the cost of litigation, alternatives to dispute resolution, availability of legal services and professional ethics and discipline. The commission has been given a target date of the 1986 ABA Mid-year Meeting to make its report.
Although commissions or special task forces may often issue thorough and accurate reports, unfortunately in many cases these reports are simply disregarded by the profession and gather dust on shelves for decades.
The subject was brought into focus when American lawyers flocked to India after the Bhopal accident last year; by comments made by the Chief Justice of the United States at the ABA Mid-year Meeting in Detroit last February; and by the apparent eagerness on the part of the media to publicize actions by lawyers which the media believes are not in the public interest.
There are undoubtedly many articles on the subject of professionalism,(fn1) and I am sure that people have given speeches concerning professionalism throughout the United States. The conclusion of many of these writers, with which I agree, is that in recent years those in the profession have become less professional than they used to be, and the public and the media can see it readily.
Many of those who speak on the subject of professionalism like to use the word "image." Those who are familiar with Plato's allegory of the cave realize that the word "image" is not an appropriate term in this context. Image is different from and sometimes directly opposed to reality. I propose to discuss the realities of our problems rather than our image. An image can change as frequently as the headlines, and the legal profession should not be concerned about its "image." It should be more concerned with being professionals in the true sense of the word. If we are professionals in reality, then image becomes either immaterial or improves on its own.
Webster's dictionary(fn2) is of some help in giving us the following definitions of "learned profession" and "professionalism":
learned professionn: One of the three professions, theology, law and medicine, traditionally associated with extensive learning or erudition.
professionalismn: The conduct, aims or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person (a moral code is the basis of).
The genesis of the learned profession appears to be based on the fact that, for centuries, people thought that theology and the ministry were learned professions because it was important to save the soul. Medicine fell into that category because individuals' health and life and death decisions regarding their bodies were traditionally considered of high importance. Law was considered important because it dealt with the rights...
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