{"id":4494,"date":"2003-06-28T13:07:02","date_gmt":"2003-06-28T17:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2003\/06\/28\/the-word-on-lawyer-discipline"},"modified":"2011-08-05T15:00:52","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T19:00:52","slug":"the-word-on-lawyer-discipline-maybe-they-do-mean-what-they-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2003\/06\/28\/the-word-on-lawyer-discipline-maybe-they-do-mean-what-they-say\/","title":{"rendered":"The Word on Lawyer Discipline: Maybe They DO Mean What They Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Wea<\/I>kend Special<\/FONT><\/B>: Lawyers are known for their annoying insistence on verbal clarity AND their use of words to obscure meanings — depending, of course, on whose ox might be gored.<\/FONT><\/P>
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I bring this up because a tv commercial last night promised that “nothing works better” than the advertised product.  Whenever I hear that claim, I wonder “do they mean that literally — would using nothing be better than using their product?”   That thought merged two of my favorite hobbies: contemplating the lawyer discipline system and enjoying the oddities of the English language.  <\/FONT><\/P>
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Below are some of the most important words in the realm of lawyer discipline <\/B>and ethical responsibility, along with their various<\/EM> dictionary definitions.   Were the words chosen to clarify or obscure<\/STRONG>?  Which meaning is intended?<\/FONT><\/P><\/FONT>
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Code<\/STRONG><\/A><\/FONT> (from OneLook Dictionary Search Quick Definitions):<\/FONT><\/P>
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noun<\/EM><\/FONT>:<\/FONT><\/STRONG> a coding system used for transmitting messages requiring brevity or secrecy <\/FONT><\/P>
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noun<\/FONT><\/I>:<\/FONT><\/B> a set of rules or principles or laws especially written ones <\/FONT><\/P>
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verb<\/FONT><\/I>:<\/FONT><\/B> convert ordinary language into code <\/FONT><\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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Rule<\/A> <\/STRONG>(from OneLook Dictionary Search Quick Definitions):<\/FONT><\/P>
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noun<\/FONT><\/I>:<\/FONT><\/STRONG> prescribed guide for conduct or action <\/FONT><\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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noun<\/FONT><\/I>:<\/FONT><\/B> directions that define the way a game or sport is to be conducted <\/FONT><\/P>
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noun<\/FONT><\/I>:<\/FONT><\/B> dominance or power through legal authority <\/FONT><\/P>
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verb<\/FONT><\/I>:<\/FONT><\/B> exercise authority over <\/FONT><\/P>
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verb<\/FONT><\/I>:<\/FONT><\/B> be larger in number, quantity, or importance <\/FONT><\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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“A profession<\/B> is a specialized work function within society. A profession is always held by a person, and it is generally that person’s way of generating income. Some historians believe that the foundation of modern civilization is division of labour into different professions, thus increasing the level of expertise held by professionals. ‘Profession’ is very often restricted to include only those occupations requiring extensive study, such as law, medicine, the Church or engineering. . . . Note that sociologists have been known to define “professionalism<\/STRONG>” as organised exclusivity along guild lines, much in the sense that George Bernard Shaw characterised all professions as “conspiracies against the laity”. <\/FONT><\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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Sanction<\/FONT><\/A><\/B><\/FONT> (from The American Heritage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weakend Special: Lawyers are known for their annoying insistence on verbal clarity AND their use of words to obscure meanings — depending, of course, on whose ox might be gored. I bring this up because a tv commercial last night promised that “nothing works better” than the advertised product.  Whenever I hear that claim, I wonder “do they mean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4494","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-1au","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4494","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=4494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14256,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4494\/revisions\/14256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Profession<\/A><\/FONT><\/B> (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia): <\/FONT><\/P>
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