Dignity in law: Eleanor Roosevelt, when asked about overcoming insurmountable obstacles in her life in the face of adversity, said, "sometimes you must do the thing you cannot do!"(President's Page).

• Author: Aronovitz, Tod

Do you want to make a difference? Do you really want to make a difference? I enlist your support. Most lawyers and judges are proud of our profession and are dismayed by unwarranted attacks. It's time to draw a line in the sand and to state that we comprise a unique profession and that we won't accept unjustified criticism any longer.

As I write this article, I envision you as a cross-section of our profession from the young lawyer to the most distinguished, seasoned trial judge. From the sole practitioner, the assistant public defender, the tenured law professor, the corporate practitioner, and the tax lawyer to the associate seeking partner status.

We have the talent and the ability to express our message that The Florida Bar seeks to return and heighten the dignity and the stature associated with being a respected counselor at law.

Immediately, the nay sayers and the downtrodden of our profession express their dismay, sigh, shrug their shoulders, and say that lawyers have been the scapegoats of society and refer us to the time of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and feudalism. Not true? The Code of the Babylonian King Hammurabi was thought to be the first and most important codification of law. The Code, established between 1792-1750 B.C., was respected and revered by the citizens of the Babylonian Empire, and all attorneys and prophets were admired for their enforcement of rules including: 1) if a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye; 2) if he breaks a man's bone, they shall break his bone; and 3) if a man hire an ox and cause its death through neglect or abuse, he shall restore ox for ox to the owner of the ox.

Thereafter, in the Byzantine State, all the civil magistrates were drawn from the profession of the law. The celebrated Institutes of Justinian devoted themselves to the study of Roman jurisprudence and were respected throughout the Roman Empire. Commencing in biblical times through the rise and fall of the Greek and Roman societies, the most respected, the most honored, and those held in the highest esteem were the intelligent, fair-minded rulemakers, whether they be judges, lawyers, or articulate lawyer members of the Senate.

Most practitioners of more than 25 years have seen an erosion of respect for our profession that coincides with its commercialization, promotion by advertisement, emphasis on profit and financial gain, as well as fast-paced competition with clients' demands and the pursuit of legal...