Professionalism Page
| Publication year | 2020 |
| Pages | 0060 |
| Citation | Vol. 26 No. 3 Pg. 0060 |
I Double Dare You: My Professionalism Challenge
BY KARLISE Y. GRIER
We as a legal community can get through this difficult time. You can get through this difficult time. If you need help, get help?I double dare you? and know that it is okay to do so.
Sometimes the challenge of professionalism is determining the best course of action among a sea of options in a "gray area— where there is no clear right or wrong answer. More often than not for me, however, during the month of November, professionalism entails simply doing the right thing when I know what is expected of me as a lawyer.
November is always a challenging month for me because it is the month during which my mother died—eight days before my birthday. I’ve still not quite forgiven her for that. November is the month that kicks off the holiday season, and I always have to get through the anniversary of my mother’s death before launching into Thanksgiving and all the holiday cheer that follows. Last year, 2019, was actually a good year for me, and I had a busy, guilt-free and happy holiday season from Thanksgiving through the new year. But as 2020 and the 20th anniversary of my mother’s passing dawned, I suspected that this year would be difficult for me. There is something different about those years with the zeros at the end. Grieving as a lawyer can be especially challenging. There is a statement in “A Lawyer’s Creed” and the “Aspirational Statement on Professionalism” that I quite frankly, in all complete honesty, hate. It reads: “As a lawyer, I will aspire: (a) To put fidelity to clients and, through clients, to the common good, before selfish interests.” That is a lot to live up to, and for me especially during the month of November. It seems to strip away my need as a lawyer to be simply human. And yet, I do recognize that there is a harsh truth in the statement that we as lawyers do need to try to aspire to that goal.
My mother encouraged me to open my solo law practice, which I did in February 2000.[1] A few months later she died, and I found myself struggling to nurture a fledgling law practice in the midst of grief. Whether I felt like it or not, I still had to show up for court appearances, I Double Dare You: My Professionalism Challenge We as a legal community can get through this difficult time. You can get through this difficult time. If you need help, get help—I double dare you— and...
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