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7 U. Fla. L. Rev. 375 (1954)
The Ethical Lawyer

handle is hein.journals/uflr7 and id is 389 raw text is: University of Florida Law Review VOL. VII WimimR 1954 No. 4 THE ETHICAL LAWYER HENRY S. DRINKER* Perhaps the best way to open discussion on this interesting subject is by mentioning those features of a lawyer which might be called the peripheral characteristics, that is, those characteristics not generally supposed to be attributes of ethics. The provocative rather than the informative or the didactic approach was selected because, to my mind, a man is not an ethical lawyer merely because he obeys the Canons of Professional Ethics and the Ten Commandments and refrains from doing things for which he can be disciplined by a court or censured by an ethics committee. He is an ethical lawyer only when his conduct goes beyond the dictates of such rules. The Preamble to the Canons of Ethics states that a lawyer must behave so that he will never be ashamed of himself and so that what he does will commend itself to the best people. He is thus commanded to do something more than merely adhere to the canons and the Ten Commandments. Lord Moulton once said: The real greatness of the nation, its true civilization, is measured by the extent of Obedience to the Un- enforceable. Obedience to the unenforceable is the true characteristic of civilization. It is this concept which lawyers must constantly have before them if they are to be truly ethical. Concern must be not with whether an act is subject to discipline by an ethics committee but whether such behavior is that which the conscience directs. PERIPHERAL CHARACTERISTICS I define the ethical lawyer as one whose preparation, equipment, character, and conduct are always such as to reflect honor on the noble profession of which he is a member. *A.B. 1900, Haverford College; A.B. 1901, Harvard University; LL.B. 1904, University of Pennsylvania; Chairman of the Standing Committee on Professional Ethics and Grievances of the American Bar Association, 1944-1953; Author of Legal Ethics; Member of the Philadelphia Bar. [3751

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