With a new year come calls for a new approach.
From diets, to health and wellness, to financial freedom, we are urged to start anew. I’m going to suggest the opposite.
I’m suggesting that we reexamine the value of the values that brought us this far. I’m suggesting that we revisit the virtues of hard work, professionalism and the Oath of Admission to The Florida Bar.
Let’s focus less on the number of steps we take each day and more on their direction.
Do you remember how grateful you were when you received your first job offer as an attorney? Do you recall the instant sense of dedication and loyalty you felt to our justice system? Remember striving for the knowledge to help in law school?
We would all do well to revisit how humbled we were then. And act accordingly.
“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary,” British businessman Vidal Sassoon said.
Do you remember the late nights and early mornings in your first years as an attorney? Do you remember when you didn’t know what you know now? Do you recall the struggle with what we now call work/life balance?
There are at least three forces competing for your day: work, self, and the three F’s – faith, family and friends.
The solution to making them all fit into 24 hours is simple, and difficult – less self. Sacrifice. More of the other two will sustain you. And likely benefit you.
With today’s technology, we can work from almost any location, at almost any time.
I’m not suggesting that we don’t take time off, unplug, and give our time and attention to other deserving persons and endeavors.
I am suggesting that we take advantage of technology and work when the opportunity presents itself. Less of us can be more.
“The essence of professionalism is the focus upon the work and its demands, while we are doing it, to the exclusion of all else,” American author Steven Pressfield said.
Just as important as how much we work is how we work. Our attitude. Our treatment of others. Our conscientiousness. Our willingness to do the right thing, not for our sake, but for the sake of our profession.
We are reminded in the Florida Rules of Professional Conduct that, “A lawyer, as a member of the legal profession, is a representative of clients, an officer of the legal system, and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice.”
Read that excerpt again. As attorneys and judges, each of us is responsible for pulling on the rope. Not in any direction, in the right direction. Each of us has a duty to ensure due process and fairness in all that we do. Each of us has a duty to preserve confidence in our branch of government.
“I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Florida.” – Oath of Admission to The Florida Bar.
That’s the first line of the oath we took as attorneys, and perhaps the most overlooked. We all recall where we were and who was present when we raised our right hand with such reverence.
But do we remember what it was we promised to do?
How are we doing with our pledge? Are we acting with “fairness, integrity and civility” to opposing parties and their counsel? Do we “maintain the respect due to courts”? Have we employed “means only as are consistent with truth and honor”?
And because we took an oath to support them, should we not re-read our Constitutions as we open a new calendar? To better inform ourselves. To remind us why we do what we do.
Do we not practice in the greatest system of justice in the world?
Are our clients, colleagues and the court not deserving of our best efforts?
So, as we start this new year, let us look to our past. And learn from it.
Fourth Judicial Circuit Judge John Guy was appointed to the bench in 2015 after 22 years in the State Attorney’s Office.