Publicly and Privately, Lawyers Champion Justice for Others
July 1, 2015 I Tennessee Bar Journal I William L. Harbison
One of the most important purposes of any bar association is to serve as a voice for the profession. The Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) has long served this purpose, and continues to do so. My immediate predecessors as president, Cindy Wyrick and Jonathan Steen, have shown incredible leadership and wisdom in the face of recent serious issues for the legal community. We have spoken out about judicial selection and have responded to unfair attacks on the judiciary.
More than a century ago, the Bar of St. Petersburg, Russia, passed a resolution condemning a racist and totally unjustified criminal indictment of a Jewish man accused of murdering a child. The indictment was motivated by politics and anti-Semitism. The St. Petersburg bar had the temerity to speak out about this scandal even while Russia was under czarist rule. One of the lawyers for the accused, Alexander Kerensky, would become the head of the first democratic provisional government upon the revolution in 1917.
More recently, lawyers in Pakistan united to protest the removal of the chief justice of their Supreme Court. In the face of arrests and extreme danger, lawyers throughout that country spoke out and marched to preserve the rule of law. The courage of Pakistani lawyers was noticed by the entire world.
There are many other examples of lawyers acting selflessly to champion justice. The TBA celebrates the role of lawyers and judges. Sometimes this role is quite public, as in the cases I have just described.
More often, and in fact every day, lawyers and judges help to settle disputes, to get needed child support, to close transactions smoothly, to represent indigent defendants in criminal cases, and to perform countless other tasks that mostly go unpraised but are crucial to the rule of law.
Our profession is changing, and the TBA will in the coming years stay abreast of those changes. Some states are experimenting with the licensing of paralegals, and Internet-based products and services challenge and compete with the traditional delivery of legal services. We will study these changes and help to focus debate on how Tennessee should respond.
One thing that will not change is that the TBA will continue to serve as a clear and measured voice for the lawyers and judges in our state.
