Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/87

 An Informal Code of Legal Ethics By Judge Edward S. Doolittle Of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of West Virginia [EDITOR'S NOTE.— The following suggestions with regard to professional conduct may prove helpful to lawyers just beginning the study of legal ethics, who have mastered but a small part of the subject. They were originally published as a humorous addendum to a com' pilation of the rules of practice of the ' Circuit 1 Court of; Cabell Cab< County, West Virginia.] THE foregoing forty rules of prac tice for the Circuit Court of Cabell county have been compiled and adopted by the present judge thereof, with an eye to the useful and practical, and with the idea that it is not necessary to formulate in the shape of written rules what is only a matter of professional ethics. Legal ethics are generally axio matic and well known to the profession; and it is assumed that every lawyer, whether a judge or an attorney-at-law, will not deliberately violate the ethics of his profession. Every lawyer knows that it is un professional to borrow law books and not return them; to fail to pay over money collected for his client; to accept retainers on both sides of a contested case; to accept a retainer on one side and then neglect his client's case through forgetfulness, because of drunkenness or otherwise; or to enter a courtroom when he is so intoxicated that the sober members of the bar wonder what the sweet Psalmist meant when he so elo quently exclaimed: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor." Every lawyer, when arguing his case before a jury, knows that it is unprofes sional to inject his personality into the case by expressing his own private

opinion whether a witness has told the truth or a falsehood; to base his argu ment upon information which he volun teers while addressing the jury, and thus take advantage of his position to testify without having been sworn as a witness; or to wink at a juror and make the sign of distress, if they happen to belong to the same secret society. Every lawyer knows without being informed by a rule of court, that any attorney-atlaw who accepts a retainer to cheat and defraud the other side, though it be the national government itself, is a rascal; and that any attorney-at-law who enlists on the other side and discloses the con fidential and professional secrets of his former client, although summarily dis missed from further employment, is a grand rascal. He knows all this and many other things which are unbecoming to the good lawyer. In fine, the lawyer knows that the shyster's motto : "Win your case honestly if you can—but win your case," is open to righteous criticism. It should not be necessary to print, bind and publish the Code of Ethics and put a copy in the hands of an attorneyat-law, to inform him that it is not polite to smoke in the courtroom in the presence of the judge, a lady, or a gentleman, when the court is in session, although the attorney may thereby better collect his scattered thoughts and assume the appearance of being at his