The Gazette 1992

GAZETTE

JULY/AUGUST 1992

many courts when those disputes have no place in court whatsoever? The cost in terms of money, and more seriously, emotion, is too high to litigants and to society. "Solicitation, of the Bhopal strain, is only one malady which has infected our profession. Another . . . is advertising, which . . . creates hucksters, not lawyers." Access to legal services in my country has become too costly, partly as a direct result of the timesheet mind-set, and diminishing attention to the quality of one's work. In America, many law firms assign annual mandatory quotas for hours billed. Lawyers who do not meet such quotas face reduced careers, at best. How often do senior lawyers take the time to tutor a firm's young associate? To nurture their sense of professional pride? To recall that law firms were once and should still be institutions of continued learning and scholarship? To look upon themselves as mentors, not bosses? The sceptic's predictable reaction to these comments is going to be to feel uncomfortable; to want to disregard them and say to yourselves, "It won't happen here" or "Well, all he is is a former lawyer who is now a Federal Judge in America telling us not to do those very things which he himself did before he was appointed by the President of the United States". But, before you reject these comments,

let me ask you to measure them by a simple test: How many of you could actually afford your own services, if you ever needed a lawyer and were on the losing side of the case? I have a hunch that secretly most of you know that you could not. In America many cannot even afford their own lawyer! Legal fees have become a symbol of the lawyer's greed. Access to legal services of our citizens, has become seriously obstructed; the financial ability to afford today's lawyer has largely become a sport of kings. Delays in resolving disputes cripple the system and serve only to impede justice. I need not tell you that the effect of all this on professional ethics can be devastating. All lawyers must agree to that. I think that is what Dean Griswold meant when he said that we have a profession, if we can keep it. In a recent U.S. survey, 86% of the American people questioned said that they have encountered unethical lawyers. Now, the accuracy of that statistic is not what is significant in my mind. What is significant is the fact that 86% of people surveyed believe and have the perception that they have encountered unethical lawyers. 88% said that they encountered unqualified lawyers. I am concerned about the erosion of the professional status of lawyers in the public mind, and about our own professionalism toward our work ethic. I would remind you that this occurs, ironically, at a time when our profession is getting new importance and dignity in Eastern Europe, where the focus on freedom is now intense.

Simply stated, we are not keeping our profession. We are becoming just another variety of business. The Law should be a market place for ideas, in all countries, not an assembly line for the disposition of client files to meet some annual arbitrarily established income expectation.

" The Law should be a market- place for ideas in all conutries, not an assembly line for the disposition of client files. . . . "

It looks to me as though the focus of our profession has shifted away from client concerns and has moved more to profit motives. The fire of our zeal for the client's welfare is out. Worse, really worse, I find that today more and more lawyers, in my country at least, have let themselves personal turbulence between their advocates). Let me stress that I can think of nothing more demeaning to the profession or diminishing of our precious system, whose only goal is the search for truth and the administration of fairness to all. Lawyers, in short, must be problem solvers . . . not problem creators. The deterioration of our sense of become the combatants in the dispute, not the clients (whose problems then get lost in the

professional self has contributed largely to the growing surliness among lawyers, in court and at the conference table. (Continued on page 223) DUBLIN LEGAL AGENCY Established 1957 Confidential Legal Outdoor Service 27 Bridge Street Lower, City Gate, Dublin 8. Telephone: 01 - 6790166 Fax: 01 - 6790168 DDE No. 98

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