President's Perspective

How Can We Complain If We're Not Involved?

By Steven R. Sorenson

1) A person engaged in an occupation requiring training and specialized study and carrying a certain social prestige demanding a reverence to a line of conduct as defined by others engaged in the same vocational activity.

2) A person who by virtue of their learned position carries a responsibility to establish standards of behavior and community involvement, including the duty to train, educate and provide a higher standard of ethical behavior.

The above is a distillation of several definitions for the word "professional." These definitions often refer to the legal profession as an example of a professional. The legal community has become the standard bearer of the term. Since the mid-1980s the State Bar of Wisconsin has given special attention to the duties and responsibilities each of us holds as a member of a learned profession. A massive effort has been undertaken to improve the lawyer's image. Today's practitioner must set an example for the rest of society. The modern lawyer must define by word and action acceptable and unacceptable behavior - from both a courtesy and ethical perspective.

More than 400 young men and women have joined the Wisconsin legal community this summer. Each took an oath to maintain the high standards ascribed to the profession. Each pledged to work within their community and profession to foster an environment conducive to high standards of courtesy and ethical behavior. Each also left the Wisconsin Supreme Court chamber to seek employment, to hang out a shingle or to continue their educational pursuits. The questions are: Did they take with them their commitment? Did they find a similar commitment in the firm where they accepted employment? Were they encouraged by the governmental agency where they now practice? Did they find judges and other court personnel supportive of their efforts to maintain high ethical standards? Or, succinctly, do we as a community provide fertile soil for the growth of these young people into perennial true "professionals"?

Are we committing ourselves, our law firms and our professional associations to the goal of weaving civility, ethical behavior and mutual respect into our everyday lives? Read Wisconsin Lawyer, the ABA Journal, Lawyers Weekly or American Lawyer with an eye toward their commitment to maintaining the image of professionalism. Attend a CLE seminar, listen to a teleconference, read a legal treatise, and ask yourself, "What is said regarding professionalism? Where is the emphasis?" Do we worry so much about our image, our public perception, that we forget to make professionalism a part of our everyday life? We may well "talk the talk" but are we "walking the walk"?

We are tempted to avoid participation in our community and our professional associations. The demand to maintain appropriate levels of billable hours permits some of us to rank hours higher on our personal list of priorities than professionalism. The rewards for winning and shrewd play often must be hurdled before civility and professionalism become the finish line. Paying clients demand ruthless and mean behavior. Bookkeepers and accountants remind us that pro bono service is an expensive cost of doing business rather than a professional duty. Marketing consultants advise us that donated legal services are acceptable only as part of a marketing effort rather than a maintenance of professionalism. Partners have done their "time" and believe you have too by virtue of their contribution. Yet there are many who maintain the pledge to professionalism despite these odds.

This year the State Bar of Wisconsin, in cooperation with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, will embark upon an ambitious program to encourage lawyers to respect their commitment to the profession. Lawyers will be asked to assist their local judges and county boards in providing effective local courthouse volunteer programs. They will be asked to facilitate information delivery programs to give the public a means to evaluate their current situations and find appropriate assistance. The Wisconsin Supreme Court and Court of Appeals will open their doors to classes of high school civics students to better acquaint our future leaders with the legal process. A new legal information delivery system is being designed through the cooperation of the State Law Library, U.W. Law Library, Marquette University Law Library and the State Bar of Wisconsin. The goal of this combined legal network, which will be known as "WLIN," is to provide legal resources such as statutes, administrative codes, law reviews and case law to all law firms, university and college libraries, high school libraries and public libraries. Several local bar associations and other groups also are involved in outreach programs, such as the Dane County ADR Booklet, the Waukesha County mediation videotape, the La Crosse County Truancy Intervention Project, the Bench/Bar Committee's civility brochure, and the Professionalism Committee's public service announcements and lawyer dispute resolution program. All of these activities offer individual lawyers an avenue to pursue their commitment to professionalism.

Leaders of many outreach programs report that they cannot find sufficient numbers of lawyers to participate. Young lawyers complain that their firms' billing requirements leave no time, solo practitioners complain that their work load already exceeds the hours in a day, government lawyers complain that they have to take vacation or personal time to serve their profession, and senior lawyers assert that there are no programs that fit their abilities.

How can we continue to complain about the lack of professionalism in the practice and the public's perception of lawyers if we don't get personally involved? Our profession's image is cited consistently as one of the top concerns within the legal community today. Yet we continue to ascribe the problem to the other lawyer or to the profession as a whole.

Studies show that individual lawyers can have the most impact on improving the public's perception of the legal community as well as the lawyer's own perception of the profession. Let's start fresh. If we look at the profession in the same way we did on the day of our swearing in, we will automatically move the legal profession up the ladder of respect.

Remember our own clients base their opinion of other lawyers and the profession on our actions, comments and suggestions. The way we treat our clients is the way they perceive the legal profession treats the rest of the world.

Improving client/lawyer communications is a step we each can take to reestablish professionalism. Don't deny that each of us has to do our part. Every lawyer can improve. Practice effective listening, practice courtesy, practice communicating to your client respect for the profession. Do not criticize other lawyers or judges in front of your client; save those criticisms for the proper internal forums. Do not puff and boast in such a way that your client feels belittled or unimportant. Emphasize the positive.

Professionalism demands a higher standard of behavior than do ethical rules. Professionalism as a quality measurement has been embodied in the legal system throughout history. If we reflect on our historical basis, we find that most American statesmen were lawyers. Despite potentially adverse publicity, we lawyers have the professional duty to serve our community in leadership roles. This year the State Bar will train future leaders on how to effectively participate in local, state and federal governmental activities. If we can increase the number of lawyers running for office - on our county boards, in our Legislature and in Congress - we will increase the impact of lawyers in our communities.

Community service brings with it professional respect. We need to stop using phrases such as "pro bono" and start using words like "donated legal services." As lawyers we can appreciate that donated legal services involve more than representing the poor and the middle class. Donated legal services can mean assisting taxpayer groups, teaching in our public schools, providing counsel to flood victims, helping a child-care provider get started, serving as a legal counselor for Boys State, arbitrating a dispute between a developer and neighborhood association, and many other valuable but uncompensated activities.

Professionalism means getting involved. It means wearing your occupation on your shirt sleeve. It means never having to say you're sorry or embarrassed to be a lawyer. It means that you are part of the larger community. Professionalism means you will continue to make a difference.

Wisconsin Lawyer