Editor’s Column
By Jason T. Vail
I have a good friend who is a first-year law student at Seattle University. In talking with her about her first-year experiences, I have had occasion to reflect on my own time in law school. It is a curious thing: For some reason, my memories of the first year (and, particularly, the first semester) of law school seem far more vivid than those of the following years. Perhaps your experience is the same. However, of all my memories from those initial, exciting, and scary days, I have one memory that is particularly significant – and it comes from a time before classes even began.
In the spring of 1998, I was preparing to begin law school in the fall. As a prospective enrollee, I had the opportunity to tour Gonzaga Law School with a “host student.” I took the day off from my job as an advertising art director (a career I fondly remember as my “former life”) and, with the host student, saw the school, sat in on a class, and got a general taste for the law school environment. As the host student and I talked about the legal vocation, he told me something I have never forgotten: That we, as attorneys, are held to a special ethical standard of conduct in all that we do, especially in our professional lives.
I was profoundly struck by this statement. While I had long contemplated becoming an attorney, this was an aspect of the calling I had never considered before. Of course, it wouldn’t be long before I would come to understand the meaning of “Professional Responsibility” and its importance to me as a member of the Bar. And though the ethical hypotheticals posed in law school and on the bar exam may have seemed fairly straightforward and obvious at the time, the real world we face as attorneys presents ethical dilemmas that are far less clear. As a result, we have the opportunity to read, with morbid curiosity, the Discipline Notices section of the Bar News every month and wonder whether we, too, could find ourselves in the same situations.
I have become particularly mindful of the complexity of ethical issues since I began teaching legal ethics for paralegals. Paralegals and other legal assistants are bound by the RPCs, and a thorough understanding of the duties imposed by these rules is an integral part of an ABA-accredited paralegal education. Even though I have taught this particular subject for three quarters now and feel confident in my grasp of the subject matter, I am constantly amazed by how difficult some of the students’ questions can be; rules that seem, at first look, very black-and-white, can quickly become very grey under the class’s inquiries. As a teacher, I have the luxury of being able to take the time to research my students’ more perplexing questions. But as a practicing attorney, I may be faced with a confusing ethical dilemma that requires immediate resolution. Thus, I think that making sure we are operating within the Rules of Professional Conduct can be one of the most challenging aspects of being a young lawyer. Sure, we all know the basics; after all, the rules are generally common sense. (Any of you try bribing a judge lately? I didn’t think so.) But it is the nuance and details that can be a source of worries that keep us up at night.
This issue of De Novo presents articles on ethical issues confronted by practicing young lawyers. These explore ethical questions that are encountered in the “real world” and not quite in the mold of bar exam questions. Assistant Editor Shelley Ajax, a solo-practitioner from the Tri-Cities, writes about her experience dealing with ethical concerns when billing with PayPal. Attorney Marjorie High of Northwest Justice Project writes about the unique ethical challenges presented to civil legal services attorneys who primarily practice as telephone lawyers on a legal aid hotline. I have also written a piece addressing how the RPCs apply to legal assistants, and your responsibilities as an attorney to ensure compliance. Further, you will find that other substantive articles, like the regular Dear Family Lawyer column, explicitly address how to handle ethical issues that may arise in particular situations. De Novo will continue this focus in future issues, but not just on substantive ethics issues. Beginning with this issue, you will find information about opportunities for community and pro bono service. I hope that De Novo will serve as a vehicle to inform and educate the readership about ways to get involved. This is not only to assist you in meeting your aspirational goal of 30 hours of pro bono service per year set out in RPC 6.1, but also to ensure that young lawyers across the state will be able to find ways of serving as forces of good in the communities in which they live.
I know that many of you have encountered unique ethical questions similar to those found in this issue of De Novo and invite you to share them with the readership. I also encourage you to submit stories of your own experiences providing pro bono or volunteer service, or opportunities of which you are aware to render such service. Exploring interesting ethical questions together and encouraging each other to volunteer and provide assistance where it is needed will help us all to continue to adhere to the high standards of ethical conduct to which we, as attorneys, are held.
Jason T. Vail is Editor of De Novo and a staff attorney with the Seattle office of Northwest Justice Project. He can be reached at 206.464.1519 or jasonv@nwjustice.org. All opinions are solely his own and not those of the WYLD, the Bar Association, or De Novo.
