It's Not All That Hard…
By Dan Murdock, OBA General Counsel

I guess we really try to make things harder than they have to be. Maybe it's just the way life is. Maybe it is something inherent to our profession. Maybe we need more challenges than we already have. We have the Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct and the Rules Governing Disciplinary Proceedings to guide the way for us to practice our profession. The Rules of Professional Conduct cover Rules 1.1 to 8.5. Many rules have subparts. They cover what seem to be unlimited pages and are always changing. The Rules Governing Disciplinary Proceedings are primarily procedural in nature but they too have rules that must be followed. Why must things be so complex when the issues are so clear?

I am not a scholar. I have never claimed to be. It is unfortunate that my law school professors would readily agree with me. I realize that I tend to many times minimize the situation. I was taught early on that you reduce to the lowest common denominator. That concept I easily understood. Maybe now that is what I do with the rules mentioned above. Our behavior and the way we treat our clients should not be bound so closely to specific ethical rules which may not clearly guide our path. We should grasp the essence of the rules and condense them into a pattern of behavior which all can understand.

In that thought I have tried to reduce all those rules to the lowest common denominator. To me you have three major things that you need to do to get started. I have had help in developing those three ideas. Early on in life we all learned the "Golden Rule". Why not apply that as Rule 1? What a beginning. Secondly, don't lie (not even little white ones), cheat, or steal. No one could argue with that. The third rule is not my own. I wish that I could claim credit for it because it summarizes so much to so little. Few words but such a great thought. As best I can tell, credit goes to someone outside the legal profession. It was found on the Web site for Papa John's pizza. That statement is "Do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it."

These rules are not complex. Really only one interpretation. Adherence to them means that we are well on our way to fulfilling our ethical responsibilities. Our clients will be the immediate beneficiaries but we and our profession will be the ultimate beneficiaries because we will be fulfilling our obligations to ourselves, our fellow lawyers, and our profession.
Isn't that a unique idea?