Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/316

 A CODE OF LEGAL ETHICS craft, of which I speak, to evade all specificrules, by inventing devices which they would not fit. It also will be readily seen that while a code of ethics would rescue some of these typical offenders, by showing them a light of which they were previously ignorant, theirs is such a type that the only efficient code will be one that is certainly enforced by sufficient penalties, certain also to be invoked. So that, to my mind, for the conditions which I picture, the code must be simple, all-embracing, certain, efficient and both capable and certain of being applied and enforced against those who act in the practice of their 'profession in violation of ethical principles. The code should not only be the expression of proper ideals of professional practice, but should contain canons that would indicate and insure the enforcement of its principles in practice. For that reason, it should be not only the code of voluntary associations of lawyers similarly minded, but should be the law of the state, with proper penal and disciplin ary provisions; and then, too, there should be means provided for making the enforce ment of the law certain in proper cases. Any observer of such matters in New York City knows that prosecutions of offending lawyers, for the purpose of disbarment. are much more frequent now than formerly, and it is because the Bar Association, after years and years of comparative inactivity on the part of its grievance committee, has finally authorized the employment of paid counsel to prosecute flagrant offenders. But even now it is only the most flagrant cases that are moved against; it is only such cases as are apt to demand disbarment or suspension from practice that come out of committee; neither the committee nor the Association have themselves any disciplinary power; they can only recommend a prosecu tion before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, and cases for a mere warning or reprimand are not usually deemed worthy of their serious attention.

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Consequently petty offenders can pursue their unethical and disgraceful ways with out fear of molestation to the serious annoyance, if not loss, of their clients and fellow members of the Bar. Specific Recommendations.

I therefore recommend for the actual reformation of the bar, in my own com munity : A Code of Ethics which every member of the bar is by law or rule of court bound to observe — simple in structure, comprehen sive in scope, certain in effect, with suffi cient and certain penalties for all substantial infractions, and with a power of visitation and discipline lodged where it will be certain to be invoked and applied in all proper cases. . To this end I would have a body, composed of practicing lawyers, similar to a court for the trial of impeachments, by which any complaint of any infraction of the code could be heard summarily and a warning or reprimand administered, and with the power in flagrant cases to recommend suspension or disbarment, and pursuant to such recom mendation, to become relator against the accused in a proper judicial proceeding in which he would be entitled to a full hearing de novo and without prejudice; and with the right to review by certiorari its proceed ings ending in a warning or reprimand. This procedure would be somewhat similar to the proceedings by which, in some of the states, physicians guilty of unprofessional conduct are subject to revocation of their licenses by the State Medical Board, but itseems to me is an improvement on such proceedings (with which I am fairly familiar owing to having compiled them for Witthaus & Becker's Medical Jurisprudence). It differs from the usual scope of such pro ceedings in that it contemplates: 1. A Code of Ethics having the force of law, which the medical laws do not. 2. The legal body empowered to adminis ter minor penalties only. (The medical