Veteran lawyers offer insights on developing professional qualities in ABA publication

A groundbreaking effort from the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility provides well-timed practical guidance to a new generation of lawyers facing globalization, evolving technology and other challenges to long-standing law practice assumptions, values and approaches. 

Essential Qualities of the Professional Lawyer explores the values, skills, habits, convictions, duties and qualities that characterize the professional lawyer. With the law job market unsettled and legal education models under intense scrutiny, more than ever new lawyers need seasoned insights on how to emerge as professionals equipped to give service, stand for justice and find success in the practice of law.

The resource-rich, 20-chapter book illuminates ways in which truly professional conduct builds professional standing, supports a life of service to clients and community, and promotes career success. As observed in the foreword by William M. Sullivan, chief author of an innovative report on legal education by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: “This is a moment when lawyers, especially new lawyers and law students, need resilience. This book speaks directly to that need in a useful and eminently wise way.”

The following are chapters by subject-matter experts and leading thinkers in the field:

• The Qualities of the Professional Lawyer — Professor Neil W. Hamilton

• The Authentic Lawyer: Merging the Personal and the Professional — Professor Daisy Hurst Floyd

• Civility as the Core of Professionalism — Jayne R. Reardon

• The Practical Case for Civility — Peter R. Jarvis and Katie M. Lachter

• Successful Lawyer Skills and Behaviors — Professor William D. Henderson

• Inclusive Thinking: Essential Professional Value/Powerful Professional Advantage — Arin N. Reeves

• Women in the Law: Overcoming Obstacles, Achieving Fulfillment — Roberta D. Liebenberg

• Mastering the Craft of Lawyering — Mark A. Dubois

• Diligence — Professor Daisy Hurst Floyd and Paul A. Haskins

• Honesty, Integrity and Loyalty — Mark A. Dubois

• Navigating the Character and Fitness Process — Patricia A. Sexton

• Reputation — Avarita L. Hanson

• Finding and Getting the Most out of a Mentor — Lori L. Keating and Michael P. Maslanka

• Money — Martha Middleton

• eProfessionalism — Stephanie L. Kimbro

• Pro Bono and Public Service — Professor Anthony C. Musto

• Health and Wellness — Frederic S. Ury and Deborah M. Garskof

• Mindfulness and Professionalism — Jan L. Jacobowitz

• The Importance of Personal Organization — Kelly Lynn Anders

• Globalization and Professionalism — Professor Robert E. Lutz

Essential Qualities of the Professional Lawyer was developed by the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism and edited by its lead counsel, Paul A. Haskins, also senior counsel of the Center for Professional Responsibility. Haskins previously was a civil litigator in Chicago and a newspaper reporter and columnist in Washington, D.C., and North Carolina. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago.

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