Professionalism Page
| Publication year | 2009 |
| Pages | 0074 |
20 Years of Professionalism:
The Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism Celebrates with a Historic Roundtable CLE and Other Events
by Avarita L. Hanson
After 20 years of institutionalized professionalism, is there a discernable difference in Georgia lawyers' interactions with each other, our clients, the courts and the public? This issue was debated at the historic CLE roundtable discussion in March, presented by the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism (the Commission) in celebration of its 20th anniversary.
In March of 1988, the Supreme Court of Georgia signed the order creating the Commission, the first entity of its kind. In partnership with the Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Georgia (ICLE), the Commission presented its 20th anniversary commemorative CLE. With more than 100 bench and bar members in attendance at a grand luncheon, the following topic was addressed: "20 Years of Professionalism: Raising the Bar on Lawyer Conduct." To share the Commission's history and reflect on its effects over two decades, American Bar Association President W. Thomas "Tommy" Wells Jr. joined Commission founders Harold G. Clarke, retired Supreme Court justice,
and A. James Elliott, Emory Law School associate dean, along with past and present executive directors of the Commission, Hulett "Bucky" Askew, Sally Evans Lockwood and Avarita Hanson.
Founders of the Commission included the late Supreme Court of Georgia Justice Charles Weltner and former Emory University President James Laney, two extraordinary men who were both philosophers and theologians, joined by Justices Thomas O. Marshall and Harold Clarke, and past State Bar President A. James Elliott. Justice Weltner is credited with being the philosopher and moral authority behind the Commission's creation. As related by Askew, Justice Weltner would say, "The law is always the servant, but the client's not the master." As Askew explains, "You are responsible to your client, but you have other duties as well."
The primary purpose for the Commission was to address the then growing concerns with the increase in incivil approaches to the practice of law within the stresses of the recessionary economic climate of the late 1980s. According to Justice Clarke, the founders decided that the Commission "ought to be a product of the Supreme Court, and that it needs to be institutionalized." Was that a good decision? It was, according to ABA President Wells who said, "I can't tell you how important...
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