The question most asked is, "How are you going to do it?"
The unspoken question is, "Why are you going to do it?"
According to those whose faces have graced this column before me, being the president of a unified state bar with 25,000 members will take a lot of time. Lawyers, most of whom, like me, have to work for a living, don't have a lot of time these days for anything else. So how am I going to do this job and why?
This is why the most asked question has surprised me. How I will do all my jobs this next year, including this big one of representing the lawyers of this state, is the same way each of you does it every day. When the rewards outweigh the sacrifice, you find a way.
So to "how," my answer is: I will find a way. I cannot take a year off from my clients or my family. My skills and energy will be challenged like never before. So what could possibly make this worthwhile? Or, in a word, why?
Sometimes we forget, but being a lawyer is a privilege. Because of our specialized and advanced education, our experience and our skills, we are permitted to go into courtrooms all over the state and country and speak for others who find themselves in jeopardy. Clients bring us their dreams and we find the way to make them a reality within the complex system of legislation and regulations. With this privilege comes the responsibility that we must do this difficult work not only within the confines of law but in keeping with our profession's rules and standards for honest, fair and honorable conduct.
The finest people I know are Missouri lawyers. They help others, especially in times of great crisis and tragedy – divorce, death, injury, broken promises that threaten a livelihood or a business built by generations, damaging claims that must be disproved. Lawyers bring clear heads and caring hearts to these events. They are counselors as well as attorneys at law, practicing in the cities and small towns of Missouri. They work in the largest firms in the country and the smallest. They know what it means to be personally responsible for paying the rent and meeting a payroll every month and for competing in the marketplace for clients and good employees. They work as counsel inside corporations answerable to shareholders and the consuming public. They represent local, state and national governments that must be accountable to the electorate. They are judges making the hardest decisions humans can be asked to make. To represent these men and women is a high privilege.
With this privilege comes the responsibility to use the opportunity I have been given. Each of us has an opportunity every day to promote and improve our profession. In the coming year I will have the opportunity to speak with you and for you to tell our profession's story to the public and to any among us who need reminding. To the public at large I will promote and defend the role of lawyers in our society at every turn. To each of you, I will prod and push for a candid conversation about where we find our profession today, where we want it to be in 10, 20 or 50 years and our responsibility for both.
The practice of law has changed a lot since I watched my dad and uncle practice law in Unionville and Kirksville in the 50s and 60s. In the 22 years since my associate days began as the 37th lawyers at the "big" firm of Morrison Hecker Curtis Kuder & Parrish in Kansas City, the pressures on the profession and each of us have intensified. Emerging issues such as national and regional consolidation of law firms, application of profit- driven business models to professional partnerships, competition from within and outside the profession, the squeeze on the general practitioner, escalating starting salaries, technology as a blessing and a curse, diminishing ethics and professionalism and a brain drain away from private practice and away from the profession itself loom large. More and more I hear outsiders demean lawyers and lawyers talk about the loss of the love of lawyering and of the pride and joy of the practice.
This year gives me the opportunity to do my part to focus our collective wisdom on maintaining and, where necessary, restoring the profession to its glory. Each day we have the opportunity to raise the standard in our own offices, in the courtrooms, in negotiations, in the letters we write and in the words we utter. I want lawyers to reclaim their roles as respected community leaders who guide others to act honorably, behave respectfully and do the right thing. What do you want and what are you willing to do to get it? Do we care enough to take the small and the big steps needed?
I have my selfish reasons as well for taking on this job. During my 20 years of bar work, the lawyers I have encountered have been a great source of renewal for me. Their passion for sustaining our profession and the rule of law has reminded me on countless occasions why, when I have hit a low point on the professional road, I continue to practice law for a living.
I would love to hear from you about why you continue to practice law for a living and whether you care and if and how you are willing to help. In the meantime, I thank you for this privilege and opportunity. I hope I don't blow it.
Your humble servant,
Theresa L. F. Levings
***Married, White, Short, 48 year old, Mother of 2, Lawyer Seeking to Maintain or Restore (as the case may be for you) the Pride and Joy