Transforming Our Profession
By Bill Conger

I have been Speaking a lot this past year about the state of our profession. Recently, I spoke at the opening banquet of the William J. Holloway American Inn of Court. My remarks began with the premise that we are a profession in crisis. Consider the following:

• the poor reputation of lawyers within our society
• high rate of dissatisfaction among young lawyers
• high departure rate for lawyers from the profession - especially women
• growing economic pressures on all law firms
• high levels of client dissatisfaction — formal complaints and malpractice action
• client dissatisfaction with hourly billing rates, increasingly large legal bills and insistence on alternative billing structures
• increasing lack of civility and professionalism among lawyers
• increasing delays in litigation
• high level of substance abuse and mental illness among lawyers.

I submit to you we have a profession in serious need of transformation — and it is incumbent upon all of us to take steps now to ensure public esteem for the rule of law and the legal profession.

Why has the prestige of our profession continued to drop in polls? I, and others, believe it is because the profession of law has become the “big business of law.” We must go back to the basics of our profession. We speak in lofty terms that ours is an ancient and noble profession. But what does that really mean? Two things come to my mind. One, it is a learned profession. We are very educated and continue with our education. Second, our profession is noble because it implies service to others, especially those who are most vulnerable in our society — the infirmed, children, the elderly and, of course, those who cannot get access to the justice system because they cannot afford it.

David Hall, a former dean at Northeastern University School of Law, gave the keynote address to the National Association of Public Interest Law Conference in 1998. The conference theme that year was “Raising the Bar: A Campaign to Transform the Legal Profession.” Dean Hall made a number of important points in that address that I want to share with you. He began by suggesting that if we are to transform our profession we must begin by first transforming ourselves by raising the standard and bar in our own life. He counseled us that lawyers of the future must not be measured and rated by the type of work they do but by the values they possess and live by.

I think the Hon. Judith Kaye, chief judge of the State of New York, said it best, “Success in the law is not measured by the biggest salary or the most prestigious firm. You must see success in terms of righting wrongs, ending discrimination, changing attitudes, helping people in trouble, confronting and overcoming injustice.”

If you believe as I do that values are the core for the transformation of the profession, then we must decide, as Dean Hall suggests, what values are fundamental to this profession and how we will instill these values. Certainly, service is a fundamental value. But there are others — caring, honesty, dedication, loyalty and practicing law as though people matter.

To instill these values, it begins in the law school and continues in the culture of law firms and our professional organizations. At OCU it starts the first week of orientation. All OCU students attend an orientation session, where they take an oath usually administered by the chief justice of the Supreme Court or one of the associate justices. It is called the Pledge of Professional Commitment. These students make a sworn commitment to a number of things such as the pursuit of excellence, honesty, integrity, courtesy, civility and fairness as well as a commitment to seek improvement of the law, access to the legal system, the administration of justice and the quality of service rendered by the legal profession. Following the oath, the students participate in a discussion of legal ethics. The process of instilling values doesn’t stop there but continues throughout their law school career.

We need to challenge lawyers to dream and imagine a different world. As Dean Hall stated so eloquently, “We need dreamers who are willing to proclaim that as lawyers they are the healers of peoples’ wounds and the wounds of this society and are not parasites that benefit from the suffering of others.” He says we need for lawyers “to become problem solvers and not gladiators, to be healers and not band aids ... to work as compassionate professionals.”

Now I realize there are some who will suggest that I am not realistic, who will say I am naïve – a dewy-eyed romantic — but I don’t think that is the case. I have seen far too many lawyers who are great because they are more than just lawyers. They are servant leaders, and they are raising the bar. As Oklahoma Bar Association president, one of the great privileges I have is meeting lawyers all over the state. One such lawyer is Yonne McDaniel from Mangum.

In June, I attended a luncheon in Mangum honoring Yonne for 62 years in the practice of law. Incidentally, Yonne never went to law school. She read the law and then took the bar exam. There was a large crowd; numerous lawyers and lots of townspeople were there. The mayor took the podium and as I listened to her remarks, I was struck by the fact that she was not only recognizing Yonne as a lawyer, she was thanking her for all she had done for the community, the many boards she had served on and her many years of teaching Sunday School in her church.

As I listened, I realized that Yonne was the epitome of what I have been trying to teach law students at OCU. And when it was my turn to speak, I told her this — I said, “Yonne, you are an inspiration to not only women but to all of us for your 62 years of service to our profession, and you are exactly who I have in mind when I talk to students about leadership. For you see, I tell them that when they go to their communities, especially smaller ones like Mangum, they are expected to be leaders. They will be one of the three or four most educated people in the community along with the doctors, the clergy, and, if there is a college nearby, the professor. The citizens of the community expect them to serve on the town council, in the mayor’s office, on the school board and on the church vestry.” Interestingly, as I was making these remarks, the townspeople in the audience were nodding their heads in agreement.

Now Yonne was a pioneer who has completed a long and distinguished career. But she is only one example of a lawyer who transformed our profession because of her values and the work she did. There are others who come to mind. I think of people like Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange and her works in Rwanda and other conflict countries such as Ghana and Liberia; I think of Fern Holland from Tulsa and the work she did in Iraq for which she gave her life. I think of Kent Myers and Don Nicholson who created Oklahoma Lawyers for Children; I think of Will Hoch and the work he does for the homeless and the poor. I think of David Boren, Burns Hargis and Tom McDaniel, lawyers who are leading great universities. The list could go on forever.

Several years ago Justice Tom Colbert of our Supreme Court gave the commencement address for the OCU School of Law; and, among other things, he talked about what your law degree gives you — that it empowers you to transform the profession and the world. It is appropriate for the lawyer to view herself as a public citizen but with that there are many obligations not the least of which is doing what is right and decent — not just legally permissible.

This profession requires much of its top lawyers. It requires people to be involved, to be of service to others and to have the highest ethical standards. In sum, to be a leader! The type of person who can and must transform this profession!

Sincerely,

To contact President Conger, e-mail him at bconger@okcu.edu