Reflecting on What Matters Most
By Dan Murdock, OBA General Counsel

Lately, I have been more introspective. I suppose that turning 60 years of age has that impact upon us. We think more often of the past and reflect back on our careers and enjoy our memories. It may be too late to think, “Are we where we ought to be?” We are where we are (sounds like Yogi Berra), and although some changes can be accomplished, there are many things we cannot change or do over again. We look back at the cases we have handled and the clients we have represented, and yes, there are those cases and those clients we try to forget. We like to think that we made an impact at one time or another. We like to think that we did something for someone sometime that made his or her life a little better or that we righted a wrong or two along the way. We remember the times we could have done better. We remember the times we should have done better.

The Preamble to the Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct states that a lawyer is a representative of clients, an officer of the legal system and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice. This tells us that we can and should remember one thing. We should always remember the nature of the special relationship between the lawyer and the client. No other profession has the rules, procedures or requirements that help define that relationship. The relationship requires competence, confidence and confidentiality, inter alia. We must remember also, however, that we are never too late. We can still make an impact. We can still do something to make a life a little better. We can still right a wrong or two along the way. It is the memory of times past that spurs us on to the creation of future memories. Yes, we can quit now, but there is still much that can be done and still much that needs to be done. As lawyers, that is our obligation.

Not all of our clients will remember us and not all will remember what we did for them. We will, however, have our own special memories. We will remember our special relationships. Maybe that is why we refer to them as “our clients.” They are not customers. They don’t just stop in for a nominal service or for a nominal time. A relationship is developed. Maybe a relationship that exists a lifetime and even beyond. Most of all, a relationship of trust, a relationship wherein the client discloses all secrets and personal feelings and puts their lives and financial worth in our hands and seek our help and guidance.

Maybe that’s why they call us “their lawyer."