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Cheryl Smith Fisher
President, 2007-2008
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan.
Earth stood hard as iron
Water like a stone.
Snow had fallen, snow on snow…
While the lyrics above are from a Christmas song, I can't help but replay them in my head on these February days of cold weather when we don't have the leavening influence of the December holidays. This is the time of year in Buffalo when we know we are stronger than those poor, pitiful, weak denizens of warmer climes. Oh, how we pity them!
Are we "Falling Down"?
It was on a bleak midwinter Sunday morning when, in need of some cheer, I opened the New York Times to find an article entitled, "The Falling-Down Professions" by Alex Williams about the loss of prestige of the "older professions," medicine and - you guessed it – law (January 6, 2008). Just what I needed to get me through the dreary day, I thought, another bleak assessment of my profession. But after I read it, I realized that he wasn't really writing about me (or likely you). Williams was writing about those, who, for all their relationship to what I or the vast majority of members of this association do on a daily basis, may as well be practicing law on Mars. He was talking about the elite: college graduates who are choosing to get on the track to become investment bankers, whose bonuses and salaries this year will average $2.25 to $2.75 million, rather than partners at the country's 100 biggest firms who took home an average of $1.2 million in 2006. I repeat: this article is not about me.
Buried in the middle of the article is one sentence that may be about us in Erie County: "Unquestionably, many doctors and lawyers still find the higher calling of their profession -helping people - as well as the prestige and money, worth the hard work."
Well, let's hope so, because only 10 percent of lawyers in private practice work in firms of more than 100 lawyers, and since the 100th largest law firm, Akerman Senterfitt in Miami, has over 600 lawyers, even 10 percent of lawyers are not in the heady company of the 100 largest firms where partners make an average of $1.2 million a year. Most of us had better be in the profession for the "higher calling." Those who just want to make money should become investment bankers and consultants, rather than the unhappy lawyers who are interviewed for these articles.
I resent anyone who tells me that my profession is losing prestige because it doesn't attract those who are motivated solely by money. As I've said here before, being a good lawyer requires more than being smart, well-educated and ambitious. It requires a passion for, faith in and an abiding loyalty to the rule of law. As for those who don't have this sense of higher purpose (which includes, but is not exclusively about "helping people"), to paraphrase Ebenezer Scrooge, "If their only passion is making money, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population of lawyers." As for me and my Bar Association, we will serve the law. And remember that these articles aren't about us.
A Constant Struggle
It's easy to make light of concerns about civility and the committees that have been established to deal with them, but a recent court decision shows that there remain instances where an attorney needs a remedy when he or she has been subjected to uncivil conduct by an adversary. Ladcapp Value Partners, LP v. Lowenstein Sandler PC, no. 600973-2007. That's why the BAEC has a civility committee. While this happened in New York County, there is no reason to believe that the species of lawyer who, according to the court, engaged in a pattern of abusive, inappropriate and sexist behavior towards his adversary is extinct in this part of the state. In Ladcapp, attorney Michelle Rice sought a court-appointed referee to supervise depositions after her adversary called her "dear" and "hon" throughout a deposition, was unduly interested in why she didn't wear a wedding ring, and advised her she had, "better get someone else here to try this case, otherwise you're going to be one sorry girl."
Our Civility Committee can save you that trip to the court by providing a forum for hearing these complaints and educating the perpetrators. They cannot help if they are not aware of the problem.
Where's the Beef?
This month's column is admittedly a little light in the comic relief department. I apologize, but suggest you review the lyrics quoted above and look out your window before you criticize me too harshly. Fortunately, the healing power of laughter is never in short supply among the ranks of this Association.
If you weren't on hand for our recent Judicial Welcoming Ceremony, for instance, you missed out on some wildly humorous "therapy." I do want to confirm, however, that Hon. Frank Caruso and Hon. Rose Sconiers have called off their "engagement," much to the relief of their respective spouses. In hindsight, it seems that a formal public ceremony might NOT have been the best place to a) announce the engagement and b) return the ring.
Only in Erie County could an ostensibly dry, official program leave attendees rolling in the aisles. It is this spirit of camaraderie, this rare ability to laugh at ourselves and find the humor and beauty in even the darkest days of winter, that makes me proud to be a lawyer in this community. Not only are we not "falling down," my friends, but I submit to you that we are, in fact, holding each other up.