The Atlanta Lawyer October/November 2019 | Page 27

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to vignettes from Abraham
Lincoln’s legal career (prior to
his presidency). Panelists tie
situations of professionalism
from Lincoln’s lawyer days to
today’s modern lawyer. The
focus of each vignette is civility
and honesty. As attorneys, we
have the Lawyer’s Creed which
outlines the duties we owe to
clients, opposing counsel, courts,
colleagues, the profession and
the public. The hallmark of all
of these aspirational statements
is to maintain the profession with
dignity and honor. By discussing
various scenarios that Lincoln
faced, we see that the same
professionalism requirements
existed in the 1800’s, just like
they do today.
Dignity and Civility
The Creed provides, “To the
opposing parties and their
c ou ns e l, I of fe r f ai r n e s s ,
integrity, and civility. I will seek
reconciliation and, if we fail, I
will strive to make our dispute a
dignified one.”
It is difficult to imagine an
adversary of Lincoln to simply
ignore him given his well-known
height and demeanor. However,
that very scenario unfolded in his
professional life. Professionalism
is key to being a lawyer in the
community, court, and amongst
one another. Lincoln faced
some challenges that are readily
translatable. For instance, a client
and new counsel did not notify
Lincoln that he was removed
from a case. His duty was to
maintain representation for the
client until told otherwise. When
confronted with hostility by new
counsel, Lincoln responded by
maintaining professionalism
without resorting to harshness.
Although it is difficult to
maintain that level of composure,
it should serve as a guidepost.
Ms. Dawson described a difficult
situation with opposing counsel
and conveyed the difficulty in
responding calmly. When she
did so, it helped maintain the
relationship for the duration of
the litigation. Judge Childs stated,
prior to joining the bench, she
vowed to stay true to herself as a
litigator. Lincoln faced challenges
of being a local lawyer against
“big city” lawyers, which is a
phenomenon that the panelists
experienced. It is important to
remember that reputations take
years to build and minutes to
destroy.
Candor with the Court
Honesty and the truth are keys
to being a lawyer. As part of
the Lawyer’s Creed, we have to
conduct ourselves with integrity
at all times. When interacting
with the judicial system, lawyers
must use candor. The Creed
requires lawyers to agree to show
courts “candor and courtesy.”
Further, lawyers “will strive
to do honor to the search for
justice.” Judge Richardson relayed
the importance of honesty for
litigators who appear in front of
him. Judge Childs discussed how
judges do talk to one another,
and it is important to be candid
when communicating with the
Court and its staff.
One of the vignettes discussed
was Lincoln arguing for the
enforcement of a contract signed
by minors, which the minors later
reneged on by using the infancy
defense. This clip did not sit
lightly with the panelists, who
conveyed that the arguments
were not relying upon the law.
Instead Lincoln appeared to rely
upon a moral judgment instead
of the law, which the judges
disagree with because they want
to correctly apply the law as it
is written. The advice from the
panelists is to know the law and
assist the judge in reaching the
correct conclusion. It is important
to remember we are a small bar.
Judges know one another and will
discuss the attorneys appearing
in their courtrooms. Candor is
key to developing a professional
reputation.
Duty to the Client and the
Public
Candor to the client is obvious,
but there may be a temptation
to sugarcoat updates when
giving bad news. The Creed
provides to our clients we must
“offer faithfulness, competence,
diligence, and good judgment.”
Beyond just those elements, we
“strive to represent [a client]
as [we] would want to be
represented and to be worthy
of [the client’s] trust.” The panel
discussed anecdotes from their
experiences in which delivering
bad news to a client was their
least favorite part of the job.
However, it essential to assist the
client in making the best decision
for his or her situation.
The Lawyer’s Creed extends the
duty of the lawyer to the public,
which essentially means that we
must inform the client about the
“social and moral impact” of
decisions. For example, Lincoln
had a client who was a shopkeeper
sued with a premises liability
claim for injuries sustained
when a customer fell in her shop.
The shopkeeper had notice of
the danger and failed to make
timely repairs. However, Lincoln
reached a settlement with his
opposing counsel by reminding
the other side that the shop serves
the public, and the impact of the
requested demand would leave
the shopkeeper bankrupt.
L i ke ly w h e n we t h i n k of
professional responsibility,
clients come to mind first.
Lawyers want to win and get their
client a desired result. However,
candor extends to all of our
interactions, including those
with the community. The Creed
provides, “To the public and our
systems of justice, I offer service. I
will strive to improve the law and
our legal system, to make the law
and our legal system available to
all, and to seek the common good
through the representation of my
clients.” Although this portion of
the Creed will rightly conclude
that lawyers should do pro bono
work, we learned through the
vignette that the duty to the
public impacts our everyday
interactions with clients. We
have a duty to notify clients of
the community and moral impact
of their decisions as the counselor
to help them reach appropriate
outcomes.
Lincoln’s robust legal career
shows the groundwork he laid
for professionalism and candor
which led to his infamous
nickname, “Honest Abe.” Modern
lawyers can apply the lessons he
learned to grow our practice
and impact in the community
through professionalism and
candor.
BRITTANIE D. BROWNING, ESQ.
Hall Booth Smith PC
[e-mail]
www.atlantabar.org THE ATLANTA LAWYER
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