Ethics

    The charge to the ABA's new 20/20 Commission is expansive. This is from the press release:

?Technological advances and globalization have changed our profession in ways not yet reflected in our ethics codes and regulatory structure.  Technologies such as e-mail, the Internet and smart phones are transforming the way we practice law and our relationships with clients, just as they have compressed our world and expanded international business opportunities for our clients.? said Lamm.

The ethics commission will review lawyer ethics rules and regulation across the United States in the context of a global legal services marketplace.

Its work will be guided by three simple principles:  protect the public, preserve core professional values, and maintain a strong, independent and self regulated profession.  ?Reshaping the U.S. legal profession to better serve clients and lawyers in this evolving environment will require a clear vision of the future.  It will require 20/20 vision,? Lamm emphasized.

    What's excluded? Monetary policy. Perhaps. To get ready, I've been 

reading Richard Suskind's book The End of Lawyers? The question mark is important. He's not really predicting our demise. Suskind is a futurist and a solicitor. He predicts how advances in information technology that we can't even imagine (although he can, a bit) will change law practice and (so) legal education.

    The book is repetitive and somewhat over the top, but in many places it is supported with examples and Suskind's less expansive predictions have intuitive appeal.

    I kept thinking about the mass media. The product of both professions is information. Upheavals to the media's business model should be a warning to lawyers. 

        The commission's first meeting is next month. I expect its work will be very transparent. The members are not the presumptive repository of all good ideas and this forum, I hope, will be a source for many. (I'm already open for business if anyone wants to identify a problem or a solution within Carolyn Lamm's charge.)