President’s Page, 0717 ALBJ, 78 The Alabama Lawyer 248 (2017)
| Author | J. Cole Portis, J. |
J. Cole Portis, J.
Listening is difficult.
Maybe because we get bored. Maybe we are more interested in ourselves than about the person speaking to us. I have caught myself playing with my iPhone as someone speaks to me. How rude is that? We are accustomed to listening on our own terms. Typically, we prefer speaking to listening. However, quite often it is best for us to close our mouths and resist the urge to immediately respond.
During my term as state bar president, while I certainly wanted to inspire and set a course for the state bar that would impact a generation of lawyers, I thought the most important thing I could do this year was to listen to you. Fortunately, you were willing to speak to me–either on the phone, in person or by email. A great number of the projects we pursued this year were because you told me what was important to you. I hope that I listened well.
I listened to a renewed desire to emphasize professionalism among our bar. There were some passionate emails and phone calls sent to me about this subject. As I considered professionalism in the bar, I read the Preamble to the Rules of Professional Conduct which included these words: “A lawyer’s conduct should conform to the requirements of the law, both in professional service to clients and in the lawyer’s business and personal affairs. A lawyer should use the law’s procedures only for legitimate purposes and not to harass or intimidate others. A lawyer should demonstrate respect for the legal system and for those who serve it, including judges, other lawyers and public officials. While it is a lawyer’s duty, when necessary, to challenge the & nbsp; rectitude of official action, it is also a lawyer's duty to uphold the legal process."
I doubt too many of you have read these words before, but, even if you have, external rules, while valuable, only point us to the standard. For this rule to take hold, though, we must believe it internally so that it naturally flows externally toothers. I suppose this is one of the reasons I pointed our bar to "love your neighbor." I believe that someone who is inclined to love others will more often than not display integrity, kindness and empathy toward others. On the other hand, someone who is inclined to be apathetic toward others will be easily offended when they engage with lawyers and the...
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