f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

Evan has Guest Writers.  I’m going to use former Miami-Dade County judge Philip Bloom as a Guest Mentor: 

Bloom is now Of Counsel to Steel Hector & Davis.  Here are excerpts from “Three Simple Rules for New Lawyers”  (law.com/Miami Daily Business Review, Oct. 20, 2004)

I offer to the new associates at Steel Hector & Davis the following simple rules: Practice law with

(1) Integrity, (2) Preparation (3) and Professionalism.

– Integrity: . . .Everything the legal profession does is done as a fiduciary — as a trustee in a special

relationship. . . .  If lawyers are to be trusted and respected, integrity must pervade everything we do.

 

– Professionalism combines integrity with preparation so as to produce consistent competent performance.

Professionalism is the manner in which we carry out our roles as attorneys. It is the practical application

of the law to life. It is the practice of law.

– Finally, I try to emphasize to new lawyers that we as attorneys are in a sense the Chosen People, with

special duties, and thereby have special responsibilities to society to see that justice is done. The law is the

bulwark of freedom and the antidote for violence.

 

– Former Chief Circuit Judge Gerald Wetherington recently wrote about “A Lawyer’s Duty” in the Dade County Bar Bulletin. He noted: . . . “The motivation of a lawyer to do the right thing should come primarily from within as a matter of personal integrity, and not primarily from the fear of external compulsion. Internalized values are the most dependable and lasting ones.”

  The firm of ethicalEsq & haikuEsq — with Kobayashi Issa, of counsel — want to add that clients need  lawyers they can trust, and trust will come from integrity and competence, not from a self-important notion of “professional dignity.”

 

first snow falling
I trust in his hand…
bridge by the gate

 

 

on honorable Buddha’s
honorable nose
an icicle

 

 

                                       thank you, Philip Bloom . .  

Issa, translated by Prof. David G. Lanoue