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 Procedural Reform in California A lawyer who invents or manufactures defenses for prisoners, or who procures their acquittal by the practice of any

manner of deceit, cajolery, willful dis tortion or misrepresentation of facts, or any other means not within the spirit as well as the letter of the law, is to be

reckoned as an enemy to society more dangerous than the criminal himself;

while successes at the bar won by such methods can never be the basis of

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of crime, or those acting in their behalf,

of any improper or corrupt means. In the criminal law it must be re membered that the people rightfully demand, and are entitled to, not only

the conviction of the guilty but the acquittal of the innocent as well. To the extent of a full recognition of the foregoing principles, the feelings of the attorney charged with the prose cution or with the defense may properly

desirable professional reputations, but,

enter into his‘client’s cause, but beyond

on the contrary, are badges of infamy. Whenever an attorney’s professional

this he should avoid bringing his per

obligation compels him to bring about

beliefs into a criminal cause.

sonality or his personal feelings or

the acquittal of a person charged with crime through the advancement of a legal proposition foreign to the guilt or innocence of the accused, his success

is to be regarded both by him and by his professional brethren rather as the culmination of a regrettable duty than as a professional triumph. Lawyers representing the people in public prosecutions should use every

XII. Paramount Ethical Obligation As a ﬁnal and emphatic canon in this, its Code of Ethics, the Bar Association

of San Francisco admonishes the pro fession that its members are officers of the court charged with the high duty of aiding in the administration of justice,

and that this duty enters into and must

be recognized as the dominant factor

proper means to lay before the jury

in the interpretation of any obligation

the cause of the people, and should strive to prevent miscarriages of justice through the exercise by persons accused

interests of his clients or to maintain suc

resting upon the lawyer to further the cessfully their causes.

A San Francisco Program of Procedural Reform HE Bar Association of San Francisco has shown itself one of the most

progressive and alert organizations of the kind in the country by the interest it has shown in the subjects of procedural reform, improvements in judicial ad ministration and professional ethics. Within a. short time the Association has adopted, substantially without change, recommendations

oﬁered by a

com

Procedure, it has also adopted the suggestions of another committee con

templating improvements in the methods of the Superior Court, and it has unanimously adopted the report of still another committee submitting a code of professional ethics. The committee which offered the recommendations regarding the reform of civil and criminal procedure was made

mittee calling for considerable amend up of some of the most distinguished meat; to the California Code of Civil California lawyers, O. K. Cushing'