Ohio Employment, Labor and Worker’s Compensation Law

Posted By Charles J. Cochran, Jr. on January 24, 2009

I belong to the American Inns of Court specifically a local Inn known as the Scanlon Inn of Court.  It is a nationwide organization which is dedicated to the profession of law not just the business side of it.  When I say business side I do not mean to infer something that leaves a “bad taste” in your mouth.  I am just trying to emphasize that an attorney must deal with at least two potentially opposed concepts when he or she goes into practice.  The Inn attempts to bring both of these concepts into focus and merge them.  It only makes sense and any business coach will tell you that a business needs to move forward in a common direction with a common thought.  If your concept of business is not in keeping with your concept of professionalism it would have to detract from how the business operates as a whole.  These concepts apply as much to the Firm Attorney as they do the Solo.

The business side of law requires you to be an entrepreneur in what you do.  It is important that you be abreast of the newest marketing skills and keep an eye on your bottom line.  A great number of very intelligent people are out there who will help you educate yourself on these skills so I will not belabor the point.  If you cannot make your business viable you certainly cannot develop the “professional side” of the practice.  You must survive and learn to walk before you can grow.

Law as a profession is more esoteric.  This is where you combine your good business practices with your moral compass which I believe exists inside of each of us even the most jaded.   Law as a profession is less based upon learning and more based upon following this compass.  A person well versed in the law can do a lot of things with it and not all of it is fair or good even if it is legal.  We are constantly immersed in the concept of “Zealously representing our clients” but what does that really mean?  We would all do well to look into each our own hearts to help determine where zealous representation will lead us.  The Attorney who will do anything to win the case is the epitome of “Zealous representation” and the only caveat we impose upon him limits his actions to be within the Law and our Ethics requirements.  I believe we should hold ourselves to an even higher standard which is less measurable and even harder to implement.  We should measure every action which we take against that standard.  I will be the first to say that I do not always follow my moral compass right down to the last letter.  When the law is written which favors my client it is my responsibility and my duty to use it and do so to the best of my ability.  Still we could take that extra amount of time with our clients to indicate that while the actions we are taking are legal they are not fair.  If there exists a fairer way of obtaining the desired results then we should take the time to explore it with our clients.  We each have a responsibility to each other and to the client and public that I believe is connected in “doing right” by everyone we come across.  That concept is going to tear at us sometimes when we must pursue a course of action that hurts another in order to further our clients interests.  If we have that client that wants to hurt another just because he can we do a disservice to ourselves and our profession by being a party to it.  There simply must come a time when you reach a certain point, which is probably different in all of us, that our moral compass tells us we are not “doing right” and that should be the time when we either educate our client as to our way of thinking or divest ourselves of that client for our own moral salvation.  How many times have you heard someone tell a story of how much damage they did to someone in our justice system just by using the law against them.  Yes we need to be able to make the hard calls and handle matters in which someone will lose and someone will win but the way and purpose of our actions needs to be reviewed by ourselves.  Results matter but they are not everything that matters.

At the end of the day we should be able to at least say we did something of good for that day or say nothing at all.  I am not trying to say that I am an angel.  Winning that tough case is good for the ego and motivates us in our business but how much more so when it is done in a spirit of professionalism.  I think that just by dealing in the business in which we deal that a certain amount of callousness and lack of empathy will by necessity need to wear off on us.  Certainly if our heart is too soft we would not be able to stand up to the lack of fairness which we see in the world on a day to day basis.  Those who equate justice and fairness are missing the point of the law.  We can be fair in our overall dealing with each other but when justice is sought it is based upon a foundation of time and prior experiences.

In the end let us look toward not only the business of law but step a little farther forward into the profession which we have also chosen for ourselves.  I think most of us would not only wish to be known as a successful business person but a reputable attorney and one who tries to be fair in his dealings with everyone.  In the end fairness is the goal which should be sought and doing justice when fairness fails.  Keep in mind that everything you do for a client becomes a part of that clients knowledge of what an Attorney really is and we should not complain too loudly of the low esteem by which we are held in the public eye when we are the source of the information upon which that opinion is built.  A sprinkling of fairness in our day to day course of dealing would work wonders in our image.  We should remember that we are not just Attorneys at Law but we are also Counselors and I believe there is a difference of more that just semantics in that statement.   chuck cochran

Categories: Professionalism/Aspirations
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