By Jo Mathis
Legal News
The Lawyer’s Oath is a tough but worthy goal, Supreme Court Justice Bridget McCormack told attorneys last week at a strolling reception sponsored by the Washtenaw County Bar Association and Women Lawyers Association of Michigan, Washtenaw Region.
“We should remind each other and remind ourselves of the kind of lawyers we aspire to be, what kind of lawyers we have promised to be, and what being an honorable professional in fact requires,” said McCormack, an Ann Arbor resident.
McCormack spoke about what the Lawyer’s Oath means today before leading the crowd of about 100 in a renewal of the oath.
She said the Lawyer’s Oath serves two different but equally important purposes: a public commitment to the principles, and a “deeply personal recommitment to ourselves to abide by the terms of the oath.”
And that’s sometimes hard, McCormack said, noting that anything that is effortlessly satisfied is not asking enough.
Most other professions don’t require such an oath, she pointed out.
“Your banker did not swear an oath to keep your financial secrets, nor did your accountant,” she said.
While the oath is at times hard to live up, McCormack said, it’s better than having no oath at all because it keeps standards high.
“So I applaud the Washtenaw County Bar Association and the Women Lawyers of Washtenaw for their most excellent idea of recommitting to our Oath of Office,” she said.
“And I challenge you to challenge yourselves to return from time to time to the terms of our oath so that we as individual lawyers and as a profession live up to the ideals that distinguish us.”
For more photos of the event see inside.
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