2002-2005 Chair, Coordinating Council
ABA Center for Professional Responsibility
Dear Law Students:
As former chair of the Coordinating Council of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility it was both enlightening and a privilege to benefit from the viewpoint of one of your colleagues, Matthew T. Christensen of Duke University School of Law, in his role as the Center's liaison from the ABA Law Student Division.
When I began teaching as an adjunct professor at N.Y.U. Law School many years ago, legal ethics was not on the radar. Only general courses on the legal profession even mentioned ethics. The Canons of Professional Ethics did exist, but few lawyers read them and fewer could tell you what was in them. About all they knew was that if you stole from a client or chased ambulances too overtly the Grievance Committee was going to go after your license.
After the ABA adopted the Model Code of Professional Responsibility in 1969, and virtually every state followed suit, our law schools began to teach legal ethics. But the added class work was perceived as a burden imposed by the multi-state exam and teaching was almost always assigned to the most junior professor. The only lawyers who practiced in the "legal ethics" field were those who prosecuted and defended respondents in disciplinary proceedings or professors who taught the subject and were asked to appear as expert witnesses or assist a law firm that perceived it had an ethics problem.
What a different world! Today, the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, adopted in 1983 to replace the Model Code, together with the Rules in each jurisdiction are a staple of every law firm's library, no matter how small. Every mid-to large-sized law firm has a lawyer who acts as ethics counsel for the firm. Practitioners in the ethics/professional responsibility field, including many professors, have nationalreputations. What most of them have in common is membership in the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, which helps them keep current and maintain their expertise.
As you graduate, pass the bar exam and enter the profession, you will come to realize how valuable a keen awareness of ethics and professional responsibility issues is, no matter your practice area. This knowledge will help protect you and your firm from inadvertent ethics violations and aid in your professional progress.
Whether you're starting your first year or about to graduate, I encourage you to keep abreast of developments in the area of professional responsibility by joining the Center for Professional Responsibility. I also encourage you to become active in the ABA Law Student Division now and the Young Lawyers Division after graduation, as I did in 1964. That involvement led to personal friendships I still treasure today and on a path to wonderful opportunities to serve the profession and the public, including chairing an ABA Section, working on and chairing a variety of ABA committees, and serving in the ABA House of Delegates and on the ABA Board of Governors.
Best wishes and good luck to you in your studies now and your practice of law in the future.
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