Learn from the Cowboy Code
By Dan Murdock, OBA General Counsel

Each year about this time, we should each stop and think about what has happened to our profession within the past year. The key word I use in that sentence is “profession” because we lawyers are “professionals.” Black’s Law Dictionary will not help us with its definitions of these words nor with its definition of the word “professionalism.” Black’s defines “professional” as “one engaged in one of the learned professions or in an occupation requiring a high level of training and proficiency.” We must consider who we are and what we are in a different sense. To me, being a lawyer is not just doing a job, it is a way of life. It influences all aspects of our lives, not just that part at the office. That attitude is also seen in those with whom we interact. It is how they act toward us knowing that we are members of the bar.

The Book of Cowboy Wisdom is a short collection of writings about cowboys. I was amazed because I thought, and hoped, the same things should be said about lawyers. Chapter Two began with “The Cowboy Way:”

“In the old west, an unwritten code governed the daily affairs of life. Cowboys were expected to be honest and friendly; they were required to be courageous.”

We have a written code and unfortunately, as our report indicates, we do not always get it right. Cowboys lived a rough life but things were not complicated. “Teddy Blue” Abbott may have said it best:

“You know a cowboy by the way he stands and walks and talks.”

It should not be difficult for us to understand that certain things are not complicated
or hard to understand, concepts like courtesy, respect and candor. Nor should it be difficult or hard to understand arrogance, rudeness or insensitivity. Another wise cowboy once said:

“The Code of the Range was a way of doing business, meeting others and conducting oneself.”

We have our rules, but do we really understand who we are as lawyers and live our lives as if we were on the range? Ramon F. Adams was quoted as follows:

“The Code of the West was a gentleman’s agreement to certain rules of conduct. It was never written into the statutes, but it was respected everywhere on the range.”

The Code of the West was not about loopholes and grey areas. It was not about seeing how far the rules could be bent or how long we could live on the edge, just barely escaping in the nick of time. We as lawyers have taken an oath that sets us apart from all others in the conducting of our lives. We are not perfect and we are not always going to be so. This message is not about perfection. It is about recognizing our imperfections and our attempting to stand, walk and talk as a professional. In closing, let me share with you a quote from a real cowboy, John Wayne:

“Tomorrow comes to us at midnight. It’s perfect when it arrives, and it puts itself in our hands and hopes we learnt something from yesterday.”

As we think about tomorrow, let us hope we learnt from yesterday.