| Bar Bulletin |
December,
2003 |
| MSBA News |
|
New Court Commission to Oversee Professionalism
~Focus on
Judicial Leadership~
By Janet Stidman Eveleth
Early next year, a new judicial commission will begin monitoring
professionalism in Maryland’s legal community. After conducting an
18-month probe of attorney civility in the state, the Maryland Judicial
Task Force on Professionalism recommended the creation of a court
commission to oversee civility in today’s practice of law. On November 10,
2003, the Court of Appeals of Maryland established the Professionalism
Commission to promote professionalism as an important core value in
Maryland’s litigation process and its institutions.
“The Commission will integrate attorneys and judges into Maryland’s
professionalism movement to ensure the highest degree of professionalism
in this state’s legal community, inside and outside of the courtroom,”
reports the Honorable Lynne A. Battaglia, Chair of the Maryland Judicial
Task Force on Professionalism. “Its efforts should enhance professionalism
and emphasize the importance of ‘community’ among judges and lawyers in
Maryland,” a concept that was stressed in the task force report.
Judicial leadership will be one of the Commission’s priorities. According
to the report, “involving the Bench and emphasizing judicial
professionalism ranked high” as a top objective. This new judicial body
will focus on attorney mentoring, professionalism guidelines and
standards, attorney sanctions and discovery disputes, based on the task
force’s recommendations.
Once up and running, the Commission will encourage all Maryland judges to
serve as effective role models in the courtroom and the community, adhere
to the highest standards of professionalism and hold all practicing
attorneys in the state to the same high standards through guidelines and
possible sanctions. It is charged with the task of “drawing on the
findings of the Professionalism Task Force, identifying the indicia of
professionalism and developing standards of professional conduct to be
published to the Bench and the Bar throughout the state.”
The Task Force sought this Commission after conducting a series of 22 town
hall meetings across the state, representing every county in Maryland.
During these sessions, Task Force members discovered that attorneys have
serious concerns about diminishing respect and unprofessional behavior in
today’s law practice. Overall, it found lawyers in all Maryland
jurisdictions are troubled about the uncivil environment in the legal
community today and want to do something about it.
One of the Commission’s focal points will be greater judicial interaction
with the bar association community. The Task Force study disclosed a
direct correlation between judicial involvement with attorneys in bar
association activities and a higher level of attorney civility and
collegiality. The study found “most lawyers agree that the smaller the bar
and the greater the involvement of judges, the greater the civility and
professionalism among its members.”
“One of the keys is the size of the community,” reports Battaglia. “We
clearly saw that the size of the legal community matters. More
importantly, judges’ involvement in bar activities matters, as does the
involvement of judges in the greater community.”
As an example, the report cites smaller counties where there is a greater
sense of camaraderie and a better connection between the Bench and the
Bar. Civility has always been higher in local communities where judges and
lawyers know each other and interact through bar association activities.
This environment fosters professionalism.
The Honorable Robert M. Bell, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of
Maryland, is expected to complete appointments to the Commission by late
December. It will likely consist of a lawyer from every county and
Baltimore City as well as representatives from the judiciary, the MSBA,
the Attorney Grievance Commission and both law schools. The Commission
will convene early next year to review the Task Force report
recommendations and set its future direction.
“The Commission will immediately roll up its sleeves and go to work,” adds
Battaglia. “Our overall challenge is to go forward into next year with a
full-fledged Commission, working individually and collectively as members
to explore the recommendations, which are multi-faceted and in order of
priority. Hopefully by the end of 2004, we will be at a point where we can
discuss preliminary findings and have a better sense of where the legal
community in Maryland wants to go with this.”
The Commission’s objective is to advance professionalism through various
new initiatives. Eventually, the Commission is expected to “develop
professional guidelines and sanctions for adoption by the judiciary,
reflecting the expectations that lawyers will behave appropriately in the
litigation of both criminal and civil actions and in non-litigation
contexts.”
One of the measures that the Commission is considering is of particular
interest to lawyers because it involves the possible levying of sanctions
against attorneys for unprofessional behavior. The Task Force proposed
that this type of conduct “be sanctioned formally or by informal
intervention.” Thus, the Commission will ponder “the development and
formal definition of appropriate sanctions for adoption by the judicial
conference.”
Discovery abuse is another target of the Commission. The Task Force found
that lawyers throughout the state consider this abuse to be a major
problem. To ease discovery abuse, the Commission is expected to review,
update and reissue Maryland’s current Discovery Guidelines in an effort to
guide the Bar and Bench and encourage consistency in the resolution of
disputes. It will also explore the possibility of appointing Discovery
Masters to address discovery disputes and recommend solutions on a
real-time basis. The Task Force recommended retired judges and attorneys
as the best candidates to fulfill this role.
Another area of concern is the unauthorized practice of law. Testimony at
the town hall meetings indicated a sharp rise in the unauthorized practice
of law, and attorneys labeled this a “contributor” to the decline in
professionalism. The Commission will take up the Task Force’s
recommendation to better enforce sanctions against this growing problem.
In addition, the Task Force found during its probe that attorneys believe
the breakdown of traditional mentoring opportunities for new attorneys has
also hurt the profession. The Commission is likely to pursue the Task
Force’s proposal suggesting that information pertaining to these
opportunities be widely disseminated and that participation in existing
programs for the mentoring of inexperienced lawyers be encouraged by the
Bench and the Bar.
Finally, the Task Force considered mandating a professionalism course for
all licensed Maryland attorneys, expanding the one now required for all
new attorneys in Maryland before they may be sworn-in to practice law in
the state. After an in-depth examination of the Rule 11 professionalism
course that the MSBA currently presents to new attorneys, the Task Force
decided not to require this course for all licensed attorneys. Rather, it
suggested that the Professionalism Commission work with the MSBA to
develop an appropriate professionalism course to be used as a referral
tool for judges who identify unprofessional behavior.
The Commission must also contend with the profession’s negative image.
“One of the greatest dilemmas we face is the public’s perception of
lawyers, judges and the legal profession,” concludes Battaglia. “As judges
become more visible and involved in the greater community, it generates a
greater sense of public trust for judges and lawyers. Therefore, we want
to encourage judges to be very involved in the community; it’s a great way
to address the issue of public perception.
“Eventually, the Commission’s effort will have tentacles that reach out
and affect other issues in the legal community. The ultimate meaning of
this will go way beyond professionalism. My experience with the last
year’s project has made me hopeful about the future of our profession –
lawyers and judges in Maryland are committed to increasing the level of
professionalism in the legal community and mentoring the maintaining
civility for the Bar and the Bench.”
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