Friday, July 31, 2015

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.

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