Karen H. Rothenberg :: The Art of Advocacy

Much news this week from Karen H. Rothenberg, Dean of the University of Maryland School of Law. On Wednesday she offered an excellent op-ed on the importance of law schools' attending to the ethical aspects of the legal profession. And yesterday came word that she will be stepping down as dean and returning to the faculty at the end of next school year.

The law school will miss her leadership. Over the years she has steered the school with the same moral sensibility that is on display in the op-ed, in which she announces that:

Thanks to a $1.6 million investment from the Fetzer Institute, the UM School of Law has recently launched a pioneering initiative that will emphasize ethics, moral formation and leadership development for lawyers.

This is an excellent initiative. In 2003 I attended a meeting of the 4th Circuit Judicial Conference at which several law school deans, including Dean Rothenberg, discussed the future of legal education in the country. Afterwards, I wrote an article for The Daily Record entitled "A Challenge to Law Schools" that addressed this very topic.

The "challenge" went as follows:

The ABA Litigation Section recently undertook a study of why today’s lawyer is so disliked. The results of the study reveal varying complaints: Lawyers resort to procedure to prevent substantive accomplishments; they obscure matters with cryptic language; and they earn too much money from contingency fees. The study also suggests that the public blames lawyers for the high insurance rates and for harming the health care system.
What this and similar studies overlook is that the main reason why the bar is held in such low esteem is that lawyers are perceived to have a lack of character. The question of character is the critical issue for the bar today. What we do and how we conduct ourselves is the basis of our image. There are underlying reasons why some members of the public see lawyers as obstructionists, opportunistic or greedy. The negative image is derived from the way many attorneys behave in public on a daily basis.

Law schools can be of help. They can and should teach character. By “character” in this context, I mean not only personal integrity and principles, but also how these principles can be applied in the practice of law.

While the law schools do offer courses on professional responsibility, the curriculum could do more to instruct students on how attorneys ought to conduct themselves among their colleagues, the public and the Bench.

A special, one-year mandatory course could be created: “The Law and Essence of Lawyering.” This course could include not only the standard course of professional responsibility, but also the subjects of ethics, civility and proper attorney conduct, relationships with other counsel and judges, and the pitfalls of the legal practice.

The problem of character in the profession will not disappear by teaching a course or two in law school, but initiatives like the one Dean Rothenberg has announced will go a long way in mitigating the problem and setting young lawyers on the right path early in their careers.

My hat, as always, is off to the Dean.