Professionalism Page

• Publication year: 2021
• Pages: 0062

Professionalism Page Nos. Vol. 26, No. 5, Pg. 62 Georgia Bar Journal April, 2021

Honestly

Join with me in reflecting on and considering how the promises we made in the Attorney Oath of Admission should guide our professional and personal conduct as Georgia lawyers who act with professionalism and-honestly.

BY KARLISE Y. GRIER

It did not occur to me to think much about my attorney oath of admission until recently, after I read an article in the Daily Report that talked about a Texas judge who led attorneys in retaking their oath of office.^[1] It prompted me to look for and more carefully consider the wording of the oath of admission I took when I became a Georgia lawyer. In doing some research on the attorney oath of admission, I learned that the oath I took, and the oath that is currently in use, were created as part of Georgia's professionalism movement.

On March 31, 1988, Chief Justice Thomas O. Marshall, along with State Bar of Georgia President A. James Elliott, gathered 120 prominent judges and lawyers from around the state to attend a "Consultation on Professionalism and The Practice of Law" hosted by Emory University's President James T. Laney at Emory's Houston Mill House. At the conclusion of the consultation, Hon. Griffin B. Bell, who had served as the 72nd attorney general of the United States,^[2] made closing remarks that were captured in a transcript of the consultation.^[3] In speaking about the attorney oath of admission, Bell said: "[W]hen we were admitted to the bar, we all made certain promises through the oath we took. We would do well, I think, to recall the original oath for attorneys and solicitors in the State of Georgia. That oath, taken from an English statute dated 1729 and used in our state until 1823, required that both attorneys and solicitors swear "˜to truly and honestly demean themselves.' Many years later the wording of the oath was changed to require that lawyers "˜justly and uprightly demean themselves.' Perhaps we should have stayed with the old oath. The words "˜truly and honestly' just seem to be stronger. And therefore, it might be a good idea to readopt the old oath as a part of our new emphasis on professionalism."^[4] The Supreme Court of Georgia did readopt some of the wording of the 1729 oath, and in particular, the words "that I will truly and honestly demean myself. ..."

The oath used after the consultation until 2002 read as follows: "I, _____, swear that I will truly and honestly...