It doesn’t have to be

by Barry Cavanaugh

When lawyers gather, we find ourselves talking about the image of our profession, the pressures on lawyers today, and how practice is changing so rapidly. We seem to have lost a sense of meaning as a profession. How did this happen? We are well-educated, our work is intellectually challenging and varied, we have the opportunity to make a difference to people and to society, and we have the potential of decent incomes. Even so, professional fulfillment is elusive, and may be the most significant problem facing us as a profession.

Current problems facing lawyers impact on our sense of professional fulfillment. Rising competition from notaries, banks, and accountants strikes at the heart of solicitor practice. Curtailment of legal aid services, and payment, savages the incomes and even the raison d’etre of some criminal law practices. Financial pressures lead to excessive competition between us, or to an obsession with billing at the expense of client service and lawyerly self-esteem. These are only part of the litany of problems that impact on our sense of fulfillment as lawyers. It’s obvious when you look at the rise of discipline matters across Canada in the last decade, or at the substance abuse and depression rampant in some parts of the profession. Look at the intense interest in our “Options For Lawyers” program, which helps lawyers seeking to make a change, or to leave Law.

What are the obstacles to professional fulfillment? Perhaps, the difficult balance between home-life, work, and community service; increasing pressure for greater productivity; commercialization of the practice of law; a growing lack of civility among lawyers; the lack of effective support systems and mentoring for lawyers; the debt load incurred by students and young lawyers, limiting choices early in a career; financial and technical difficulties in accessing the tools of the legal trade, especially for small practices; the lack of training in marketing and operating a professional practice; the increasing trend toward lawyers functioning as mere technicians rather than advisors providing counsel; a growing sense of isolation and alienation; an increasingly irrational and negative view of lawyers expressed by the public and exacerbated by media and partisan interests. Are these true for you? Can you add to the list?

There are many examples of the profession, and the CBA in particular, working on these individual problems. However, our burning issue overall may be to revitalize a sense of pride and security in our profession. The critical role lawyers play in society demands that we face the profession’s problems. To ignore the problems, or to suggest they defy solution, denies our responsibility to ourselves, our profession, and our society.

I believe the CBA, as the voice and instrument of the profession, can address barriers to professional fulfillment. Mentoring, collegiality and cooperation, civility and professionalism--I encourage you to discuss these issues with me in the coming months as I prepare to address them in future BarTalk columns. I believe that when we tackle the ogres of our time--legal aid, title insurance, no-fault insurance, and others--we can only hope to succeed if we do so with a solid base of professionalism and self-respect. High standards characterize our profession, including ethics and integrity, competent service to clients, independent judgment, civility and collegiality, public service, and a commitment to the rule of law. Many believe the pressures to which I have alluded have eroded the professionalism of the Bar. Too often, there is a gap between ideal and reality. We need to unabashedly strive for the noble principles of our profession. I hope you will join me in discussing these issues. The CBA can be a catalyst and a leader in returning a sense of pride and purpose to all of us in the legal profession. We are, after all, about lawyers helping lawyers.

This article was published in the April 1998 issue of BarTalk. © 1998 The Canadian Bar Association. All rights reserved.