Professionalism Page
| Citation | Vol. 28 No. 1 Pg. 0070 |
| Pages | 0070 |
| Publication year | 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 thought about it, I said, you know, we are special. We have a lot of influence over what happens in this society. Then I was reminded of my days in law school here at Emory. We had one of the outstanding lawyers of our country, Melvin Belli, come out here and talk to us. I will never forget it. He gave us some statistics showing that if you take the education and income of a lawyer and compare them to the rest of the country, we are almost a pinpoint. We are such a small class by so many measures that it constitutes almost an imperceptible percentage in our society. When I combined Mr. Belli’s point with the perception that people have of us out there in the world and with the genuine influence we have, I was forced to conclude again that we are a special lot. ... I suggest to you that if we are special, as I’ve been led to believe that we are, then we have a responsibility to do something. The best way to do something is to teach by example. While our words may pass away, we can, by our actions, set lasting examples and enduring standards for society as a whole.1
The fact that lawyers should lead and act in various...
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