Until recently, when asked to present a webinar for DRI’s LPEC and an ethics portion of a local “Last Chance Seminar,” I thought I was reasonably up-to-speed on my rules of professional conduct. As I began researching the various topics, though, it occurred to me that, while I could find rule 26 of the Rules of Civil Procedure just by looking at the dog-eared pages of my rule book, I had to go to the index to find the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct.
As a profession, we are facing historically poor public perception. [Fortunately, politicians as a whole seem to be catching up to us.] As a profession, it is hard to fight that perception when many of us have the same perception of other attorneys. While the defense bar complains about those “evil plaintiffs’ lawyers,” [all apologies to my sister] asking intrusive discovery questions, those same “evil plaintiffs’ lawyers” complain that the “evil defense counsel” refuse to provide properly-requested, completely relevant documents.
A renewed sense among attorneys that ethics are just as much a “practice area” as any other part of our practices ought to help restore some sense of confidence in the public and the profession that we are not “Doowe, Cheatem and How.” I challenge you – the next time you object to discovery on the basis of the attorney-client privilege, cite to the location of that attorney-client privilege. If you believe an attorney has acted unethically, read your rules. Determine whether a violation of your rules of professional conduct (or Canons, whichever your jurisdiction has adopted) has taken place and, if so, call the attorney on it.
We may not be able to cure public perception, but maybe we can begin to cure our own perception of who we are.