Bashed but Unabashed—Redux

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Publication year: 2022

Bashed but Unabashed—Redux

My November 1993 "President's Page" in Around the Bar was entitled "Bashed, but Unabashed." Back in 1993 the media were constantly bashing lawyers and I couldn't take it any more. So I wrote a well-received editorial about why we should be proud to be lawyers.

So here we are, ten years later. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

The mantra for our last governor's campaign was to bash the lawyers again. The recent campaign for (place name of political office here) focused on the fact that one candidate was a "small businessman" who should win because his opponent is a "trial lawyer." Lower case. Not a member of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association nor a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. A trial lawyer. One of us. A person who has the audacity to go to court and try a case for a client. How reprehensible. Not worthy of office.

We get bashed every day. One day last month the Baton Rouge daily newspaper, The Advocate, ran two articles about lawyers. The large editorial of the day ran the headline "Supreme Court Gets Tough on Lawyers and Judges," regaling the much-publicized disciplinary cases removing a district judge from New Orleans and disbarring a local lawyer. Tucked back in the middle of the paper was a small 2" x 2" spot with the headline "Baton Rouge Bar Association Opens Food Drive," recognizing our fifth annual food drive for the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. This juxtaposition in The Advocate shows why we have such an image problem.

So what do we do when the lawyer bashing begins? Are we aware of the good things that we have done? How do we respond? Do we respond?

What follows is an excerpt from an address by Roxanne Conlin, who was president of the ATLA in 1992. Her words still ring true today.

We have reason to be proud of our contribution as attorneys to the public good. Lost in the uninformed debate is the honorable and noble history of the legal profession. If you think about those who have been part of our professional heritage, your thoughts would turn to some of these:

A Philadelphian in New York, the first Philadelphia lawyer, who undertook the defense of John Peter Zenger to protect his right to publish what he chose, free from censorship or interference. His name was Andrew Hamilton, and he was a lawyer.
You would see him at the trial of Captain Preston, another political trial. A trial that arose out of the Boston Massacre. His name was John Adams, and he was a

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