Expectations for a Professional

The Florida Bar Standing Committee on Professionalism defined professionalism thus,

“Professionalism is the pursuit and practice of the highest ideals and tenets of the legal profession. It embraces far more than simply complying with the minimal standards of professional conduct. The essential ingredients of professionalism are character, competence, commitment, and civility.”

"To The Florida Bar, lawyer professionalism is:

1. embracing a commitment to serve others;

2. dedicating to properly using knowledge and skills to promote a fair and just result;

3. endeavoring to enhance knowledge, skills, and competence;

4. ensuring that concern for a client’s desired result does not subvert the lawyer’s fairness, honesty, civility, respect, and courtesy during interactions with fellow professionals, clients, opponents, public officials, members of the judiciary, or the public;

5. contributing skill, knowledge, and influence to further the profession's commitment to service and the public good, including efforts to provide all persons, regardless of their means or popularity of their causes, with access to the law and the judicial system;

6. enhancing the legal system’s reputation by educating the public about the profession’s capabilities and limits, specifically about what the legal system can achieve and the appropriate methods of obtaining those results; and

7. accepting responsibility for one's own professional conduct and the conduct of others in the profession, including encouraging other lawyers to meet these civility and Professionalism Expectations and fostering peer regulation to ensure that each lawyer is competent and public-spirited. "

Sounds good to me.  A little late in joining the human race as evidenced by nothing significant happening with the 1989 and 2013.  The current Professional Expectations has only been available since January 2015.

Either Florida and I agree on Professional Expectations or the Devil is in the Details.

The Flag to the Flags

Fifty American flags (not state flags), one for each state, are now flown 24 hours a day around a large circle centered on the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

How did such a violation of The Flag Code come about?  Wikipedia's entry on the Washington Monument provides clues.

Since 1920, Forty eight American flags (one for each state then in existence) were flown on wooden flag poles on Washington's birthday.  Sometime later on Independence Day, Memorial Day, and other special occasions were added.  Both the flags and flag poles were removed and stored between these days

In 1958 fifty 25-foot (7.6 m) tall aluminum flag poles (anticipating Alaska and Hawaii) were installed, evenly spaced around a 260-foot (79 m) diameter circle. Since Washington's birthday 1958, 48 American flags were flown on a daily basis, increasing to 49 flags on July 4, 1959, and then to 50 flags since July 4, 1960. When 48 and 49 flags were flown, only 48 and 49 flag poles of the available 50 were placed into base receptacles.

 All flags were removed and stored overnight.

Since July 4, 1971, 50 American flags have flown 24 hours a day.

During 2004–05, the diameter of the circle was reduced to 240 feet (73 m). 

This is a longer story than I have planned for this column today.  Details are available in Washington Monument reference 92: Michael D. Hoover, The origins and history of the Washington Monument flag display, 1992

As usual, the bad guys include Congress and Richard M. Nixon