Quotes
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"Ordinary citizens, not lawyers, should run the disciplinary process. If a jury made up of non-lawyers is good enough to decide a murder case or a million dollar lawsuit, it's certainly capable of determining whether a lawyer has cheated a client."
"To effect significant improvements in the quality, cost and delivery of legal services, the Bar must accept fundamental changes in its regulatory structure. Anointing a few laymen to serve on drafting commissions or disciplinary committees will not suffice. As experience with token representation in other contexts makes clear, such cosmetic gestures serve more to legitimate than to affect the decisions of professionally controlled regulatory systems. Rather, structural deficiencies in the Bar's present governance system mandate reforms offering nonprofessionals (the American public) more than a supporting role."
Deborah L. Rhode
Professor of Law
Stanford Law School
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"The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of bold projects and new ideas. Rather, it will belong to those who can blend passion, reason and personal commitment to the great enterprises and ideals of American society."
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"Do not wait for leaders;
do it alone,
person to person."
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Mother Teresa
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
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" (The) system also deserves some of your attention and effort. The legal system belongs to you. You subsidize the courts with your taxes. You pay the lawyers, the mediators, the arbitrators, the court reporters and expert witnesses. In many states, you elect the judges. In all states you elect - and pay - the legislators to enact the laws.
In light of this, you and I ought to do everything we can to insure that the system functions fairly and efficiently. We cannot accomplish this goal by conceding control of our legal affairs to lawyers and the other members of the legal system. As individuals and business people, it is in our best interest to learn about the system, to monitor the activities of the lawyers, judges and legislators and to insure that they administer the legal system in a rationale and just fashion.
As citizens, we have an obligation to protect the legal system from the inefficiencies and abuses which can develop when no one but the administrators pays attention to how the system operates ."
Merritt Publishing through
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A Lawyer's Responsibilities as a Public Citizen
"As a public citizen, a lawyer should further the public's understanding of and confidence in the rule of law and the American system of justice. In a constitutional democracy, the effectiveness and, indeed, the very survival of the justice system relies essentially on public understanding, trust and confidence. This is so because our justice system is a public institution that depends on popular participation and support to maintain its authority. Lawyers, as guardians and caretakers, as well as stakeholders, in the justice system, have a special responsibility to foster public understanding of and confidence in the law and legal institutions."
W. Scott Welch,III
Standing Committee on Public Education
"American Bar Association Commission on Evaluation of The Rules of Professional Conduct"
"Ethics 2000"
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