A PROFILE IN PROFESSIONALISM

Tracie J. Renfroe King & Spalding LLPP

The lawyers that we admire win our respect and admiration not for their win/loss record, but for the way they win or lose. These lawyers practice, and by their examples embody, three essential tenets of professionalism:
• Service to clients, Bar, and community
• Candor
• Teaching the art of professionalism to the next generation of lawyers

Service
In the daily milieu of competing for clients, fighting their battles, and surviving in a tumultuous economy, it’s easy to overlook our obligation to the judicial system as we give our best to serve (and keep) our clients. Yet, I believe that serving our clients with an eye on serving our judicial system is the best way to serve our clients. By this I mean winning, not at any cost, but by advocating your client’s cause consistent with the rules of fair play. Achieving results for your client in a manner consistent with the rules of fair play instills confidence in our legal system by clients, and more importantly by the adversaries whom they seek to bind by judgment or agreement. Consider the choice between a win-by-cheating or a loss in a fair contest. Whether to produce the smoking gun document; disclose the overlooked witness who can hurt more than help your client; or withhold material information to get the deal closed. In these and myriad other choices that approach the borderline of the rules of fair play, what would you choose? The lawyers we admire never face these choices because they practice the art of advocacy in the courtroom and the boardroom in the way that serves both client and the legal system. This is Professionalism.

Candor
If faithful service to the justice system is the key to serving the client, candor is the currency that makes it work. Candor with ourselves is the starting point. We must never sacrifice our judgment of right and wrong to the perceived wishes of clients. Indeed, clients depend on our objective judgment of right and wrong to serve them best. In our zeal to succeed for our clients, lawyers both young and old can easily lose this perspective and fail to deliver candid assessments. However, clients deserve our best judgment, whether good news or bad, the popular option or not – unqualified candor is required. Candor with adversaries and the courts is equally important, particularly in the Houston legal community, where a culture of trust and respect among adversaries still thrives.

Teaching the art of professionalism to the next generation of lawyers
Good stewardship of our remarkable judicial system requires that we teach the art of professionalism to the next generation of lawyers, and that we do so in real time. Though this seems obvious, we must recommit ourselves to doing so. Advocacy and negotiation skills are taught naturally as we discharge our legal work. The greater challenge – one embraced by the legends of our legal community – is to teach young lawyers the art of practicing law on the highest road, on the road that serves rather than undermines the judicial system. Teaching young lawyers how to succeed on this road, rather than succeeding at any cost, is the hallmark of professionalism.

Simply stated, professionalism means serving our clients in a manner that promotes rather than undermines the judicial system, rigorous candor with all, and dedication to teaching young lawyers these “practice skills.”