{"id":4502,"date":"2003-07-07T10:16:03","date_gmt":"2003-07-07T14:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2003\/07\/07\/from-zealous-to-honorable-wha"},"modified":"2011-08-05T15:00:51","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T19:00:51","slug":"from-zealous-to-honorable-whats-in-a-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2003\/07\/07\/from-zealous-to-honorable-whats-in-a-word\/","title":{"rendered":"From &#8220;Zealous&#8221; to &#8220;Honorable&#8221; &#8212; What&#8217;s in a Word?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">With much fanfare (but little press), the Arizona Supreme Court announced last month that it had made <strong>&#8220;a historic and significant&#8221; one-word change <\/strong>in the Arizona Rules of Professional Conduct that would give a new meaning to what it means to be a lawyer. As explained in its <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.supreme.state.az.us\/media\/archive\/060603Rules.htm\">press release<\/a> <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">(June 6, 2003): <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">In response to a comprehensive two-year study by a State Bar committee on ethical review, the Arizona high court this week removed the obligation of an attorney to be a <strong>&#8220;zealous&#8221; <\/strong>advocate of his\/her client and<strong> <\/strong>substituted<strong> to &#8220;act honorably&#8221; <\/strong>in the furtherance of a client&#8217;s interests.<strong> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><\/p>\n<li>According to Arizona Supreme Court Vice-Chief Justice Ruth McGregor, &#8220;Arizona is the <strong>first state in the country<\/strong> to make this crucial rule change.&#8221; . . . &#8220;We are advised that this definitional change will also be considered by the American Bar Association,&#8221; says McGregor. &#8220;This change may appear to be subtle,&#8221; explains Chief Justice Jones, &#8220;but in fact, it&#8217;s a very significant foundational change in the Rules of the Court, and one that is <strong>designed to send a distinct message to attorneys<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/li>\n<p><\/span><\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">The term &#8220;zealous&#8221; was eliminated from the preamble, because it was erroneously being used by some attorneys to defend <strong>behavior that was seen as unprofessional and potentially belligerent,<\/strong> according to one committee member. &#8220;Jones explains that the State Bar committee&#8217;s recommendation . . . <strong>harkens back<\/strong> to a time when lawyers were closely identified as officers of the court. As such, they were duty bound to represent their clients with personal and professional ethics and integrity in mind.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">The changes in the <strong>Preamble<\/strong> (sections 1, 2, 8, 9) will go into effect on December 3, 2003, as part of a comprehensive set of changes to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.supreme.state.az.us\/media\/pdf\/test%20ule%2042%20%2043.pdf\">Arizona&#8217;s Rules<\/a><\/strong> for lawyer conduct. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">What do you think? Will this make any difference in how law is practiced? I looked up the relevant <strong>definitions on OneLook.com<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><em> <\/em><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><em>Quick definitions<\/em>: <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.onelook.com\/?w=zeal&amp;ls=a\">zeal<\/a><\/em><\/strong> <strong><em>noun<\/em>:<\/strong> (1) excessive fervor to do something or accomplish some end; (2) a feeling of strong eagerness (usually in favor of a person or cause) <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><em> <\/em><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><em>Quick definitions:<\/em> <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.onelook.com\/?loc=lemma3&amp;w=zealous\">zealous<\/a><\/em><\/strong><em> <\/em> <strong><em>adjective<\/em>:<\/strong> marked by active interest and enthusiasm <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><em> <\/em><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><em>Quick definitions:<\/em> <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.onelook.com\/?w=honorable&amp;ls=a\">honorable<\/a><\/em><\/strong><em> <\/em> <strong><em>adjective<\/em>:<\/strong> (1) showing or characterized by honor and integrity; (2)\u00a0not disposed to cheat or defraud; not deceptive or fraudulent; (3) adhering to ethical and moral principles; (4) deserving of esteem and respect <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">It&#8217;s sort of hard not to like the word &#8220;honorable&#8221; (and the related adverb &#8220;honorably&#8221;). On the otherhand, the active interest and enthusiasm that comes with the word &#8220;zealous&#8221; isn&#8217;t so bad either, especially if you remove the notion of excessiveness or zealotry.\u00a0 If other states and the ABA are thinking about a similar change, they might consider the phrase &#8220;<strong>with zeal and honor<\/strong>&#8221; (or &#8220;zealously\u00a0and honorably&#8221;).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">My biggest problems with the word change from zealous to honorable are:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<ul><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><\/p>\n<li>The two years of effort spent on this project might have been far better spent addressing the profession&#8217;s inability to provide for the legal needs of low and moderate income Americans.\u00a0 I have this concern whenever I hear about vasts amount of legal and judicial talent laboring over the need for &#8220;civility&#8221; in the profession.\u00a0 A few good disciplinary actions or contempt of court orders would go much further to reign in inappropriate lawyer behavior than editing the Preamble to the Rules of Conduct.<\/li>\n<li>The tone of the Press Release suggests that the focus of the change is far more on the &#8220;dignity of the profession&#8221; than on the effects of what I call<strong> &#8220;the zealous advocate excuse&#8221;<\/strong> <em>on clients<\/em>.\u00a0 I wish Chief Judge MacGregor had said something like &#8220;We are especially concerned that lawyers have been using the excuse of zeal to increase their income\u00a0by (a) providing clients with unnecessary services; (b)\u00a0antagonizing the opponents (client and counsel) with excessive, unreasonable positions, demands and posturing;&#8221;\u00a0 and (c) irresponsibly prolonging adversarial proceedings, when compromise and settlement were in the client&#8217;s best interests.<\/li>\n<p><\/span><\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>update<\/em><\/strong> (July 9, 2003):\u00a0 <strong><em><span style=\"font-family: Arial;color: #ff0000\">Supreme Serendipity<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">. <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Driving back home from Western New York this afternoon, I  suddenly realized that I had forgotten a very important meaning for the  word \u201c<strong>honorably<\/strong>\u201d when I made my <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2003\/07\/07\">posting<\/a><\/strong> on Sunday about the <strong>Arizona Supreme Court<\/strong> decision to replace  the word \u201czealously\u201d with \u201chonorably\u201d in the Rules of Professional  Conduct.\u00a0 Just by chance, I was listening to the audiobook by Bill  Bonanno entitled <strong><em>Bound by Honor<\/em><\/strong><em>: A Mafioso\u2019s Story<\/em>.  (1999, Simon &amp; Schuster Audio Div.) <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">In the book, Mr. Bonanno (son  of the legendary\u00a0godfather Joe \u201cBananas\u201d Bonanno) stresses his own  connections and life in Arizona, and <strong>Mob influence in the State<\/strong>,  while describing what it means to be a \u201c<strong>man of honor<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 With my own  Sicilian ancestry, I shouldn\u2019t have overlooked this special meaning of  honor \u2014 <em>giving due respect to people of authority and power, while  brooking no disrespect to yourself (and seeking revenge when  necessary)<\/em>.\u00a0 We definitely need to consider this special definition,  when\u00a0assessing the possible ramifications of Arizona\u2019s one-word  amendment to the Rules of Conduct.\u00a0 Thank goodness, I pulled that  cassette case off the Library shelf before taking my two-day vacation.\u00a0  Serendipity Rules!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman,Times,Serif\"><strong>P.S.<\/strong> I&#8217;ve never been to Arizona, and this blawg is not supposed to be focused on that State.\u00a0 AZ just seems to do a lot of interesting things relating to lawyer ethics.\u00a0 Please send me news from <em>your<\/em> State about changes, proposals, opinions, etc.,\u00a0that\u00a0seem to important to how legal ethics affect consumers of legal services.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span style=\"font-family: Geneva,Arial,Sans-Serif;color: red\"><strong>Update<\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">: Walter Olsen at <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.overlawyered.com\/archives\/000126.html\">Overlawyered.com<\/a><\/strong> discusses\u00a0this topic\u00a0in a posting made on\u00a0July 17, 2003.\u00a0 He&#8217;s hoping the word change will produce meaningful results, as &#8220;<\/span><\/span>Time and again, in our experience, the putative obligation to represent clients in a &#8220;zealous&#8221; fashion has proved the last resort of the scoundrel litigator and ethical edge-skater.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With much fanfare (but little press), the Arizona Supreme Court announced last month that it had made &#8220;a historic and significant&#8221; one-word change in the Arizona Rules of Professional Conduct that would give a new meaning to what it means to be a lawyer. As explained in its press release (June 6, 2003): In response [&hellip;]<\/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-4502","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-1aC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502","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=4502"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14246,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502\/revisions\/14246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}