October 2000

Proud to Be a Lawyer

by Jan Eric Peterson
WSBA President

"Kill all the lawyers." Are you sick and tired of that misquote? Lawyer-bashing takes its toll. It’s demoralizing and depressing.

When I was a small child in Pasco, Washington, the adjacent cartoon ran in the local paper. I was proud my dad was a lawyer. It was a respected profession. Today, even though you know you do the right thing — you’re honest, you practice law with integrity — it hurts to be accused daily on television programs, in newspapers and in jokes of being everything from greedy to downright crooked. It’s time to speak up, and it starts with each of us. I am campaigning for a proud profession.

What Shakespeare really said was, "If it is anarchy we want, the first thing to do is to kill all the lawyers." (Henry VI, Act II, Scene 2.) In a civilized society, might does not make right. The rule of law is paramount to power and we lawyers are the difference. We see that people play by the rules. We insist on fairness and justice. Lawyers resolve conflict and differences, not by fists but by a system of justice blind to the differences between the powerful and the powerless, equal to all. Lawyers are the enforcers of rights and responsibilities.

As a lawyer, you have a great tradition to be proud of:

•  He drafted the Declaration of Independence, the most revolutionary document of democracy for more than 200 years. His name was Thomas Jefferson, and he was a student of the law.

• He was at the miracle in Philadelphia, the Constitutional Convention, fighting for the inclusion of the Bill of Rights, a model for freedom the world over. His name was James Madison, and he was a lawyer.

• He stood in the rain at Gettysburg, tears in his eyes, gaunt, exhausted, and rededicated our country to equality, saving the Union. His name was Abraham Lincoln, and he was a lawyer.

• Speaking to us from a wheelchair, he lifted us up from despair and led the free world in the fight to save democracy with the words, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." His name was Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he was a lawyer.

• By self-sacrificing examples of passive resistance, he threw off the shackles of empire and brought forth an independent democracy in India. He was known as Mahatma Gandhi, and he was a lawyer.

• He drove a stake through the heart of Jim Crow by bringing Brown v. Board of Education to the U.S. Supreme Court, and laid the legal foundation for the civil rights movement. His name was Thurgood Marshall, and he was a lawyer.

• He wrote a book that forced our most powerful industry to make safety a priority and has fired up the consumer movement ever since. His name is Ralph Nader, and he is a lawyer.

• She reluctantly and bravely faced a hostile Congress under the hot light of media scrutiny to stand up for women in the workplace and raise a nation’s consciousness. Her name is Anita Hill, and she is a lawyer.

Twenty-four of the 56 signators to the Declaration of Independence were lawyers, many of whom sacrificed their profession, their homes and farms, their families, and some even their lives for freedom. Twenty-nine lawyers of the 40 signers brought forth our Constitution. Over half of our presidents have been lawyers. More than any other nation on earth, America was founded and molded by lawyers.

Some of us may not be as famous, but like thousands of lawyers every day we help someone survive a divorce, help a small business thrive, save a family’s home and show them how to provide for the future of their children, ensure equality on the job, protect a person’s privacy and freedom, or literally save an accused person’s life. You and I have had the satisfaction of making a difference for someone by being a lawyer, and we have our own heros:

• He resurrected a family’s name from the ravages of McCarthyism and also saved baseball for Seattle. His name is Bill Dwyer, and he is a lawyer.

• She has dedicated her life to representation of the poor and disenfranchised, prodding the conscience of the profession to champion access to justice. Her name is Ada Shen-Jaffe, and she is a lawyer.

•  He has never wavered from his ceaseless dedication to relieving the plight of migrant farm workers in the Yakima Valley. His name is Guadalupe Gamboa, and he is a lawyer.

• He has courageously fought the profession’s ultimate battle throughout the country for society’s most reviled persons against execution of the death penalty. His name is Tim Ford, and he is a Seattle lawyer.

• Through compensation litigation, he insisted that an industry protect children from the ultimate agony caused by flammable fabrics, and then taught a new generation how to try cases. His name was Professor Jack Sullivan, and he was a lawyer.

• Beginning in the 1940s, when his home town was divided racially by the railroad tracks, he risked his new career by becoming the lawyer for the African-American side and went on to become an internationally recognized trial lawyer. He was my dad, and he was my first lawyer hero.

The law is a learned and serving profession. The pursuit of justice is a calling worthy of respect. Hold your head high, be proud of what you do, because you deserve to be! I am proud to be a lawyer and privileged to serve as your president.

Back to table of contents >>