Foreword

• Publication year: 2003
• Pages: 13
• Citation: Vol. 32 No. 10 Pg. 13

32 Colo.Law. 13 Colorado Lawyer 2003.

2003, October, Pg. 13. Foreword

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13

Vol. 32, No. 10, Pg. 13

The Colorado Lawyer
October 2003
Vol. 32, No. 10 [Page 13]

Foreword
by Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr

The articles in this special issue of The Colorado Lawyer are a valuable contribution to the professional ethics of the Bar. An aspect of developing and maintaining high ethical standards is the exchange of opinions and approaches by members of the profession. It is especially appropriate that the exchanges be among practicing lawyers, as reflected in these articles. Exchanges among lawyers reflect the actual ethical issues that arise in law practice, as distinct from the theoretical issues typically addressed in academic writing on professional ethics

As these articles demonstrate, many ethical dilemmas arise because of, or in the context of the fact that, the practice of law is a vocation in which lawyers earn their livelihood In this mundane sense, the practice of law is a business. That fact does not obscure or diminish the proposition that the practice of law is a profession, of long and stalwart tradition. But practicing lawyers have always had to take into account the realities that clients are "customers" in the most practical sense. Clients ordinarily select a lawyer, pay the lawyer, and can at any time discharge the lawyer. Sometimes clients are not very good customers in that they have difficulty in providing necessary facts, refuse to take advice, and may be reluctant or recalcitrant in paying. But they are entitled to our diligent and conscientious service.

The relationship between clients and lawyers, therefore involves elements of...