Professionalism Page

• Publication year: 2022
• Pages: 0070
• Citation: Vol. 28 No. 1 Pg. 0070

Professionalism PageNo. Vol. 28, No. 1, Pg. 70Georgia Bar JournalAugust, 2022

Who Better to Lead Than Lawyers?

BY KARLISE Y. GRIER

Lawyers have a special role within society that uniquely qualifies them to lead—and they owe it to others to do so.

I often find myself drawn to a transcription of proceedings of a Consultation on Professionalism convened by Chief Justice Thomas O. Marshall and hosted by Emory University President James Laney on March 31, 1988. I think there are many words of wisdom in the transcript. The Consultation on Professionalism—which brought together a distinguished group of lawyers and judges from around the state—may have been the first gathering of its kind to discuss professionalism. Recently, after hearing Judge Dorothy Beasley speak at the 2022 annual meeting of the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers, I found myself once again rereading the 1988 transcript because Beasley posed the question, "Who better to lead than lawyers?"

Beasley’s questions reminded me of some observations made by attorney Felker Ward at the 1988 consultation. An excerpt of his remarks is as follows:

I have concluded that we as lawyers are something kind of special. First of all, I concluded that from some of the reading materials that Chief Justice Marshall sent us. As I read through them and stopped and...