October 1999

Step Up to the Plate and Smack a Home Run for Your Profession

It is an honor, a high honor, to be the 109th President of the Washington State Bar Association. It being rodeo season, I am reminded that I have felt like the Brahma bull waiting for that gate to open. Having now been officially sworn in, the gate is open, so let’s get started.

Nearly all of us have been proud to be attorneys, as we should be. Numerous surveys indicate that clients like and respect their own lawyer. And according to a University of Chicago survey of 700 job categories, attorneys ranked fifth in the most respected of occupations.

Nevertheless, bashing of lawyers, judges and the entire profession abounds. In these days of news as entertainment, radio talk-show hosts, in a frenzy for ratings and all of the other sensational reporting, often paint our legal profession, including judges and attorneys, in a distorted bad light. It is ironic that lawyers led the fight to eliminate the cheap laughs, jokes and outright racism that ethnic minorities, women and gays endured and still endure. Ironic, indeed, that it is now lawyers who are the target of these below-the-belt punch lines, cheap laughs, unjustified attacks and criticism.

It has been, and it is, time for lawyers and judges to stand up and be heard when unfair criticism is cast at our noble profession. This is a battle that we must REFUSE TO LOSE!

The source of hostility has always been there — lawyers represent parties in contested cases — and we must expect that some litigants will bear grudges against their opponent’s counsel. It is simply an inherent occupational reality. But in these times, when cynicism is a popular recreation, too many in society have lost sight of the lawyer’s pivotal role in bringing out the best that America has to offer.

We, as lawyers, courageously represent both unpopular and popular parties in all types of court cases. We are the lawyers who breathe life into the Bill of Rights. We are the judges and justices who make the difficult legal rulings. We are the prosecutors in all of the federal and state criminal cases who protect the public. We are often the lonely advocates for citizens’ civil rights. Our criminal and civil justice system and, indeed, our form of American democracy, are the most respected in the world. It is the lawyers and judges who are among the most important guarantors of the inalienable right to democratic freedom. And ironically, it is the lawyers who toil the longest and the hardest to ensure that citizens are free to ridicule all authority figures, including ourselves. Each of us endures the disgust and humiliation of the distortion, unfair accusation and unwarranted attacks.

Personally, I am particularly sick and tired of radio talk-show hosts with pea-brain mentalities who brainwash listeners into thinking that lawyers and judges are all bad, always greedy, often deceitful, and the like. Every major metropolitan area has one or more of these blathering radio jocks who put their "ratings" above all ethics in commentary, opinion and fact. A good example is a radio host in Spokane who twice daily is allowed by a once-proud TV/radio news station to carry out vicious and sometimes cruel personal attacks on all kinds of people, lawyers being the highest on his hit list. There are many more in this state who could qualify as his clones.

It is time to take these media tyrants to task and the TV/radio owner cowards who hide behind their despicable disclaimers.

Another source of unjustified criticism of lawyers and judges is the insurance industry. Some insurance companies are honorable, but a majority of them would have the public believe that all cases filed against their insured are frivolous, brought by ambulance-chasing lawyers. Whereas they lobby for the regulation of big business in a free market, they are quick to seek protection for their immense profits. In every legislature in the land, they ask for regulation and protection from victims who seek damages from the wrongdoing of their insured. This one-sided concept of responsibility projected in advertisements pollutes the jury pool, pollutes justice itself, and exacerbates the anti-lawyer tilt to negative public perception. It is much easier for them to sell the notion that lawyers must be blamed because without lawyers, victims would not be able to bring their lawsuits. Here again, the truth itself becomes a victim because no one is critically examining the allegation. It seems the public is now conditioned to accept whatever bad things are said about lawyers, judges and our system of justice.

Lawyers and judges alike must do a much better job of explaining their roles in resolving conflicts in our complex society. We must explain that conflict resolution is our stock in trade and that we produce solutions to seemingly insolvable problems and conflicts in everyday life. We must convey that we negotiate all of the treaties and all of the settlements among all of the interest groups and individuals in American society. We must educate the victims of misinformation that we take thousands of cases without pay, that lawyers and judges alike work long hours and still find time to support our schools, churches and many community civic and charitable projects and organizations.

We need to say good things about our profession to our friends, our clients, our fellow professionals (real estate and investment brokers, bankers, doctors, builders, educators, etc.). We need to speak to students at all levels and emphasize public legal education.

In the face of all the jokes, ridicule and misinformation about lawyers, judges and juries, we need to step up to the plate and smack a few home runs for our profession. We need to remind the public and the media of all the things that work because lawyers applied their expertise, their courage, their sweat and their caring to make them work. We should do this because we have respect for ourselves and for all lawyers who zealously serve the needs of their clients day by day (and often night by night), year in and year out. We must remind everyone that our self-regulating and discipline does not mean monopoly or protectionism. It means extremely high ethical standards. It means that we methodically weed out our bad lawyers and thrive on our good ones. It means that we should rise with one voice and say that we are proud to be in a noble profession and put our mindless critics on notice that enough is enough — back off — get a life!

• Goals for the Year

• Celebration 2000

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