Dale C. Doerhoff
Cook, Vetter, Doerhoff & Landwehr
Jefferson City

Some professions are easy to describe. What do doctors do? They try to make sick people well. Dentists? Fix teeth. Lawyers? Hmm . . . no easy answer.

What do you get when you ask a hundred lawyers: "What do lawyers do?" A hundred different answers. That was my experience, although there were some themes that appeared more than once. The most common view was that lawyers are "problem solvers." But does that description sufficiently distinguish lawyers from others? After all, mathematicians solve problems. So do social workers. So do plumbers.

Admittedly, my sampling was not scientific, but it reinforced something I have been observing for several years. Lawyers are increasingly unsettled about their role in society. What are the reasons for this unsettled state?

One of the factors, perhaps the main one, is the revolution in information technology. Lawyers no longer have a monopoly on the "sacred texts" – case reports and statutes. Anybody with internet access (i.e., nearly everybody) can look up the law for free through a number of consumer-friendly web sites. Likewise, lawyers no longer have a monopoly on legal forms. The public can access leases, real estate sales contracts, wills, trusts, etc., at little or no cost. People can also bypass lawyers and represent themselves in court pro se, with do-it-yourself kits for divorce, bankruptcy, and other actions. Pro se appearances are not just limited to civil matters; criminal defendants and convicts engaged in post-conviction proceedings are taking advantage of easy access to the law, burdening the courts with their inartful work.

Are lawyers faced with the choice of either redefining themselves or going the way of the buggy whip makers?

While there may be a fear of becoming obsolete, the truth is that most lawyers have never been busier. They are stressed and stretched, frustrated by the lack of personal time.

Older lawyers fondly remember the days when it was possible to have a daily routine — cup of coffee, scan the morning paper, go through the day's mail, make a list, follow the list. No more.

Now there is no routine. Even before the cup of coffee, there are e-mail messages on the computer, overnight faxes on the desk, voice mail messages on the telephone, and before we can respond to all of those, others have arrived. The morning's "snail mail" delivery is almost irrelevant, although there is some small pleasure in throwing all that third-class mail in the waste basket. Lawyers who still make a morning list are mostly dreamers; those who are dead serious about it and won't go home until the day's list is done are some kind of masochist and prime candidates for burnout.

But does being busier mean we are better lawyers? Or are we becoming little more than human servers in the information technology web, just high-priced information nodes, competing with lower-priced information nodes that will eventually win out as consumers shop for the quickest service at the lowest price?

Before we let ourselves be defined in a way that sets the profession on a road to perdition, should we step back, undisturbed by the buzz of daily activity, and refocus on what we really do? What is it that makes lawyers unique? What fundamental role does the profession play in American society? How can we reinforce that role, and how do we educate the public so they will value who we are and what we do?

If you have some answers or random thoughts to share, please send them to "Dialogue on Justice," c/o Dale C. Doerhoff, 231 Madison St., Jefferson City, MO 65101 or e-mail them to ddoerhoff@cvdl.net. (Don't expect an instant reply, because I may be working on my daily list.)