Editorial Advisory Board: The role of lawyers in public life

If you are reading this on the beach in Ocean City at the Maryland State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting, pat yourself on the back when you are applying some more sunscreen. If you participate in other bar activities, political organizations, religious or fraternal organizations or other civic organizations, then we are preaching to the choir. But, if you are just skimming The Daily Record between emails and phone calls at your desk and have not participated in any voluntary association in years, if ever, this piece is for you.

Lawyer participation in voluntary associations has been an important part of life in the United States since the early days of the Republic. Alexis de Tocqueville, who visited the United States in the 1830s, commented on the vital roles of voluntary associations and lawyers in “Democracy in America.” Members of the bar have played important roles in the development of the country that we know today. Abraham Lincoln, who spent most of his career prior to his election to the presidency as a practicing lawyer, helped to save the nation. Thurgood Marshall, who was a member of the Maryland bar, broke the barriers of racial segregation through his work for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Members of the bar also have had a significant impact upon myriad religious, fraternal and civic organizations. One would be hard-pressed to find an organization of any note that has not had a lawyer or lawyers on its board and among its leadership. Lawyers, by their training and work, bring unique organizational and problem-solving skills to any organization in which they participate.

However, lawyer participation in voluntary organizations reportedly is in decline. Chief Justice Rehnquist addressed the subject several times. At the dedication of the North Carolina Bar Association Center in 1994, he said:

[A]t the time I practiced law, there was a public aspect to the profession, and most lawyers did not regard themselves as totally discharging their obligation by simply putting in a given number of hours that could be billed to clients. Whether it was “pro bono” work of some sort, or a more generalized discharge of community obligation by serving on zoning boards, charity boards, and the like, lawyers felt that they could contribute something to the community in which they lived, and that they as well as the community would benefit from that contribution. As law firms focus on the proverbial bottom line, with predictable pressure on associates to increase billable hours, little time remains for public service.

The decline in lawyer participation in voluntary organizations parallels the decline in participation in organized activities by the public at large. Lawyers are not the only people who are “bowling alone” in the modern era.

We are well aware of the economic pressures of modern law practice. Most of us spend more time in front of a computer or at work than is healthy for us or society as a whole. But, each of us tries to find time for non-work civic involvement (over and above our drafting these pieces for The Daily Record).

Not all is doom and gloom. Ten years ago, Janet Stidman Eveleth wrote a Maryland Bar Journal article titled “Where Have All the Lawyer Legislators Gone?” In 1966, 54 of the 141 members of the Maryland House of Delegates and approximately half of the members of the Maryland Senate were lawyers. By 2001, those numbers had declined to 20 lawyer-delegates and 6 lawyer-senators. However, today there are 45 lawyer-legislators in the Maryland General Assembly.

We do not live in William Rehnquist’s idealized 1950s, when most lawyers had a non-working spouse to keep the home fires burning while he (and most lawyers then were men) was out and about at various non-work activities, when billable hour requirements were less and most entertainment was outside of the home. But, lawyers still have an important role to play in public life. We salute our colleagues who have taken time out of their schedules to participate in the Maryland State Bar Association‘s Annual Meeting and encourage everyone to become involved in some aspect of their professional or home community.

Editorial Advisory Board members John S. Bainbridge Jr. and Arthur F. Fergenson did not participate in this opinion.