hope that the committees of the respective State Bar Associations will aid us with their advice, and that every member of the American Bar, whether a member of the American Bar Association or not, will freely and frankly criticise the canons and before June 15 next advise the committee of any points, whether of substance or phraseology, with which he is not in accord, and will also submit draft for any additional canons which he believes should be inserted. All such criticisms and suggestions will receive your committee's careful consideration. Only in this way can our final report be presented to the Association in the best possible form and in harmony with the consensus of opinion in the profession. 66 Suggestions and criticisms should be addressed to the committee at the office of the Secretary, 713 Arcade Building, Philadelphia, and to be of service should reach us not later than June 15, 1908." (Continuation of final report). II. Prints of the draft and preliminary report were also sent to the committees on professional ethics of State Bar Associations having such committees and to the secretaries of all State Bar Associations, with the same earnest request for suggestions and criticsms which was extended to each member of the American Bar Association. In response to your Committee's invitation, more than one thousand replies were received by letter and postal card from every section of the United States, many of them evidencing that deep and earnest thought which the importance of the subject demands, and we record our appreciation of the help thereby received in the work. All the replies were carefully analyzed, briefed and classified, and we are able to report that, with the exception of the canon on contingent fees, the preliminary draft has been overwhelmingly approved by those communicating with us, adverse criticisms of the other canons and of the oath being few in number and relating mainly to matters of phraseology. Upwards of two hundred members of the Association wrote us specifically on the subject of the contingent fee canon, many desiring that the same be made more stringent and some that it define the proposed Court control. We have endeavored at many points to make the canons more precise by slight changes in phraseology, and in a few instances have redrafted particular canons. The one on contingent fees we hope in its present form will meet the views of all who have communicated with us on the subject. We have not attempted to particularize concerning the proposed Court control, as we believe that to be rather a matter for legislative and judicial action than for incorporation in a canon of ethics. The subject is one, however, of vital import to the welfare of the profession, and those who would pursue it further are referred to the very able report of the Special Committee on Contingent Fees of the New York State Bar Association, with its scathing arraignment of the abuses of the contingent fee and proposal of a remedy therefor, presented in January, 1908, and printed pp. 99-124, vol. xxxi of the Reports of that Association. A special Committee has also recently been created upon the subject by the Pennsylvania Bar Association, with directions to investigate and report in 1909. In accordance with some suggestions made we have shortened the Preamble, and we recommend that the quotations from Sharswood, Ryan and Lincoln be printed with the canons, facing the Preamble. We have reframed the third paragraph of the recommended form for oath of admission, embodying therein the distinction, indicated by Sharswood at p. 90 et seq. of his Professional Ethics (A. B. A. Reports, vol. xxxii), which should be made "between the case of prosecution and defense for crimes; between appearing for a plaintiff in pursuit of an unjust claim, and for a defendant in resisting what appears to be a just one." The subject is too abstruse to discuss within the limitations of this report. Some have asked, indeed urged, that we incorporate in our report canons concerning the judiciary. The resolution providing for the organization of the committee and those adopted from time to time directing the prosecution of the work did not specify that such canons be prepared, and we have accordingly confined our report to the ethics of the Bar, as distinguished from the ethics of the Bench; but it may be that hereafter the Association will deem it advisable to treat of that phase of professional activity. In conclusion we desire to acknowledge our indebtedness for the aid and support given in this work by committees of numerous State Bar Associations and of several County and City Bar Associations. III. We submit the annexed form for the canons with the recommendation that if they meet with the approval of the Association, they be adopted and printed annually in the reports of the Association at such appropriate place as the Secretary may deem best, and that they be reprinted forthwith in pamphlet form, and two copies be forwarded to each member of the American Bar Association and ten to the Secretary of each State Bar Association in the United States, with the information that the American Bar Association will furnish each State Association upon request with such numbers of prints as may be necessary to enable such State Association to distribute a copy to each member of the Bar within its State jurisdiction, should it desire so to do. We also recommend that the American Bar Association advise that the subject of professional ethics be taught in all law schools, and that all candidates for admission to the Bar be examined thereon. All of which is respectfully submitted. August, 1908. HENRY ST. GEORGE TUCKER, Virginia, Chairman, LUCIEN HUGH ALEXANDER, Pennsylvania, Secretary, J. M. DICKINSON, Illinois, GEORGE R. PECK, Illinois, FRANCIS LYNDE STETSON, New York, EZRA R. THAYER, Massachusetts. Committee on Code of Professional Ethics. "There is certainly, without any exception, no profession in which so many temptations beset the path to swerve from the line of strict integrity, in which so many delicate and difficult questions of duty are continually arising. There are pitfalls and mantraps at every step, and the mere youth, at the very outset of his career, needs often the prudence and self-denial as well as the moral courage, which belong commonly to riper years. High moral principle is the only safe guide, the only torch to light his way amidst darkness and obstruction."GEORGE SHARSWOOD. "Craft is the vice, not the spirit, of the profession. Trick is professional prostitution. Falsehood is professional apostasy. The strength of a lawyer is in thorough knowledge of legal truth, in thorough devotion to legal right. Truth and integrity can do more in the profession than the subtlest and wiliest devices. The power of integrity is the rule; the power of fraud is the exception. Emulation and zeal lead lawyers astray; but the general law of the profession is duty, not success. In it, as elsewhere, in human life, the judgment of success is but the verdict of little minds. Professional duty, faithfully and well performed, is the lawyer's glory. This is equally true of the Bench and of the Bar."- EDWARD G. RYAN. "Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser in fees, expenses and waste of time. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereupon to stir up strife and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be enforced in the profession which would drive such men out of it." ABRAHAM LINCOLN. |