Lawyers' Professionalism and Ethics

About the Committee

The practice of law is continually changing, and with these changes come new and challenging ethical issues that need to be addressed. Only a few years ago, the profession struggled to address the impact of third-party audits on the practice of law and to discuss the tripartite relationship among the insurer, the insured and the attorney. What are the ethical issues the profession is currently facing? They include such issues as: cyber threats, privacy and the use of electronic information; artificial intelligence, the off-shoring of legal research; innovative fee agreements; multi-state practices and the trend toward multi-state licensing arrangements; conflicts of interest and bigger and bigger law firms; and the effect of market forces on the blurring of the definition of the unauthorized practice of law. While we work to address these ethical issues, the profession struggles with an alarming decrease in civility and professionalism towards others in the profession. Discovery abuse tactics, rude and insulting behavior at depositions, and refusals to grant extensions or otherwise accommodate other lawyers has increased significantly. This behavior has resulted in an unprecedented number of sanctions.

We would like to increase our level of activity in our online community to feature articles and accomplishments of our members, highlight recent ethical decisions, and provide a forum to ask questions and share information. We would also like to increase the number of ethics speakers that we provide for both DRI substantive committee seminars and SLDO meetings throughout the country. We welcome new volunteers who are interested in this important aspect of our professions. We look forward to hearing from you.