82 August / September 2008

P r E s i d E n t ’ s m E s s a g E

By Elizabeth Erny FooteCommit to the Profession

“For Professionals Only”. . . “Profes-sional driver on a closed course. Do not attempt.”. . . We, as lawyers, pride our-selves that we are “professionals.” But we hang a variety of meanings around the neck of this one word. Certainly, be-ing a professional means that we possess certain skills and training that others do not. (“Do not try this at home.”) But be-ing a professional connotes more than just ability — it connotes dedication to duty in the face of adversity as well as a level of responsibility that is extra-ordinary. Being a professional connotes a commitment to something bigger than ourselves — a profession and system that we strive to preserve and improve. Or, in the words of Al Pacino’s character in “The Devil’s Advocate,” lawyers are “the last priesthood.”

The Louisiana State Bar Association’s (LSBA) House of Delegates demon-strated a commitment to our profession by the passage this past June of a Board of Governors’ resolution changing the Association’s By-Laws to elevate to a standing committee and expand the mission of the original “Professionalism and Quality of Life Committee.” The new committee is named simply “Com-mittee on the Profession.”

Professionalism — another overbur-dened word — is often limited to mean civility. In turn, the meaning of civility has been denigrated to “lawyers being nice to each other.” But in designing the mission statement of the Committee on the Profession (see below), the Board of Governors used the Supreme Court’s broad definition of “professionalism” which goes beyond civility. Under this definition, the committee will support and encourage lawyers to exercise the highest standards of conduct. It will examine a lawyer’s duty to his/her cli-ents, the judicial system and the public good. It will impact and improve those relationships. The committee’s mission recognizes that our system cannot en-sure the administration of justice with-out providing access to the courts for all of our citizens. Lastly, the commit-tee will seek to improve the quality of life and the work/life balance for law-yers — expanding services to address mental health issues before those issues manifest themselves in drugs, alcohol or disciplinary complaints.

This is admittedly a very broad mis-sion and includes much of what we do as an Association. This committee will be charged with outlining new priorities to

further this broad mission and to collabo-rate with the Bar committees that pres-ently strive towards these same goals.

The Committee on the Profession will take the concept of professionalism to a higher level in Louisiana. The passage by the House of Delegates of this by-law change demonstrates that Louisiana lawyers are committed to their profes-sion and take their profession seriously. It demonstrates that Louisiana lawyers want to raise the level of their profes-sion. It demonstrates that Louisiana lawyers know that their profession is a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

This year, we will commit to our pro-fession in the following ways:

► We will commit to our clients through the Lawyers in Transition Committee by drafting rules ad-dressing what happens to clients’ files when lawyers are not able to practice because of death, disability or disbarment.

► We will commit to our members by increasing outreach to lawyers in local bars across the state and to solo and small firm practitioners to en-sure that we are not an organization of just “big city” law firms.

► We will commit to the future of our profession with the expansion of the law school professionalism pro-grams, including the new 1-L pro-gram on the bar admissions process initiated this past spring. (For more on this program, see page 125.)

► We will commit to our mem-bers and demonstrate that diversity is good for business by repeating our successful diversity conference in other parts of the state.

► We will commit to our young leaders with an expansion of Lead-ership LSBA and implementation of

Committee on the Profession Mission Statement

The Committee will:► Support and encourage lawyers to exercise the highest standards of integ-

rity, ethics and professionalism in their conduct;► Examine systemic issues in the legal system arising out of the lawyer’s

relationship and duties to his/her clients, other lawyers, the courts, the judicial system and the public good;

► Provide the impetus and means to positively impact those relationships and duties;

► Improve access to the legal system; and► Improve the quality of life and work/life balance for lawyers.

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more projects by the Young Lawyers.► We will commit to our citizens

with the launch of our new video on the need for pro bono representation. This video will be shown at all LS-BA-sponsored CLEs.

► We will commit to improve-ments in the image of our profession with our new role in the process of regulating lawyer advertising. In the Rules recently passed by the Loui-siana Supreme Court, the LSBA has assumed the role of clearinghouse for some advertisements. These Rules go into effect Dec. 1, 2008. The LSBA is committed to developing an efficient and effective process for implement-ing this new responsibility.

► We will commit to helping our brothers and sisters at the bar. Re-cently, Iowa and its legal communi-ties (and legal communities in four other Midwestern states) suffered

devastating flooding. Many lawyers lost their offices or were displaced. Courthouses were flooded and re-cords are not yet recovered. Specifi-cally, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa’s second largest city and one of the hardest-hit areas, nearly 7,200 properties were damaged and, of that number, about 1,300 are businesses, including law offices. In Cedar Rapids alone, an estimated 27 government buildings have been damaged to some degree. Although the devastation in Iowa and other states does not compare to that suffered by our state in 2005, it behooves us to remember that the Iowa State Bar Association sent the LSBA $40,000 in aid, distributed as grants to help individual lawyers. Other Midwest legal communities did the same. It is time to pay back our friends in Iowa and the Midwest. Your LSBA, in connection with the

Louisiana Bar Foundation, has set up a relief fund to aid in this effort. Checks should be made payable to the “LBF Midwest Flood Relief Fund” and mailed to the Louisiana Bar Foundation, 601 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130. On-line donations are being accepted at www.raisingthebar.org/Orders/ProductStage.asp?ProductID=45. Please show that you care about your profession by caring for these law-yers in need.

One last commitment: I commit to you that, as president of the Association, I will do my best to serve and elevate our profession.

Breached levees and flooded streets... Though reminiscent of the devastation in Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, this photo shows the crisis currently facing the legal communities in Iowa and four other Midwestern states.