{"id":3707,"date":"2005-03-23T13:34:18","date_gmt":"2005-03-23T17:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2005\/03\/23\/flying-solo\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:57:52","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:57:52","slug":"flying-solo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2005\/03\/23\/flying-solo\/","title":{"rendered":"flying solo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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a field of wildflowers<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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I recall the courtship<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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not the marriage<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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their gravestones<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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hers newer and taller<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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than his<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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treeless downtown street<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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two spring robins<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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on a window box<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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George Swede<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A> from <\/FONT><\/FONT>Almost Unseen<\/FONT><\/EM><\/A> (Brooks Books, 2000)<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT><\/SPAN> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT><\/SPAN> <\/DIV>
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by <\/FONT><\/EM>dagosan<\/EM><\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A>:  <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/EM><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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the duckling <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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skirts the ice floe —<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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our river rendezvous<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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         <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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mom’s voice long distance:         \"phone<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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who-died-and-when-did-I-last-dust?<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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[March 23, 2005]<\/EM><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/EM>
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potluck<\/FONT><\/EM><\/STRONG><\/SPAN><\/DIV><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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Ben Cowgill <\/FONT>at Legal Ethics Blog<\/EM><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/A> and Carolyn Elefant <\/FONT>at MyShingle<\/EM><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/A> have<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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started a lengthy correspondence about legal ethics weblogs, pedagogy, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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and enforcement, with a focus on solo practitioners.   I think you’ll get the<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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gist of the issues from my quick comments here:<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Legal ethics is definitely important enough to deserve its own weblogs<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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and<\/EM> it should be a part of virtually every law school course and<\/EM> every<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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practice-oriented weblog.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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Legal ethics is about far more than micro-rules.  As <\/FONT>Prof. Schiltz says<\/FONT><\/A>:<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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First, a lawyer has to comply with the formal disciplinary rules <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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. .  . . . But you should also understand that the formal rules <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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represent nothing more than ‘the lowest common denominator <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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of conduct that a highly self-interested group will tolerate.’ . . .  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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But complying with the formal rules will not make you an ethical <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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lawyer, any more than complying with the criminal law will make <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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you an ethical person.  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Second, a lawyer must act ethically in his work, even when he <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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isn’t required to do so by any rule.   . . .  For the most part, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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this is not complicated. Treat others as you wish to be treated. <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Be honest and fair. Show respect and compassion. Keep promises.  . . . <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Third, a lawyer must live an ethical life outside of work. . . . But <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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being admitted to the bar does not absolve a lawyer of his <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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responsibilities outside of work — to his family, friends, community <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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and, if he is a person of faith, to his god. To practice law ethically, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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he must meet those responsibilities, which means he must live a <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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balanced life.<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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I do not believe that Bar Council are out to get solo and small-firm practitioners.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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There are plenty of non-conspiratorial reasons why so many disciplinary actions<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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involve solos.  See, e.g., <\/FONT>here<\/FONT><\/A> and <\/FONT>there<\/FONT><\/A>. <\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    a field of wildflowers I recall the courtship not the marriage           their gravestones hers newer and taller than his                 treeless downtown street two spring robins on a window box   George Swede from Almost Unseen (Brooks Books, 2000)      by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-XN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13304,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707\/revisions\/13304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}