Executive Summary

Lawyering: Profession And Business

Richard G. Lareau
Partner at Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly
Member of MCCR Board of Directors

October 1994

A law firm is not just a professional association. It is also a business. It faces the same customer, employee, and social obligations as its corporate counterparts. Like any other business, we meet a payroll, pay vendors and taxes, and comply with a host of laws and regulations. Like any other business, a law firm in today's increasingly complex world must fulfill its responsibilities to clients, employees, and the community.

We are in business to serve our clients with diligence and skill. This is the basis of our rules of ethics. Our clients come first. Always. This also happens to be very good business.

As our clients' needs become increasingly complex, we, like other businesses, are finding that we need to implement systems and processes to ensure that clients are always served efficiently and effectively. To meet this need, law firms have adopted multifaceted continuous improvement programs. As with any business, the objectives often require significant internal cultural adjustment.

Because our clients are diverse people with diverse needs, diversity in our firm not only brings us a better understanding of the clients we serve, but also provides us with fresh ideas, creativity, and innovative ways of effectively serving our clients. Instead of viewing such things as parental leave policies and alternative work schedules as costs, we see them as productive investments that reward us with increased employee morale, productivity and loyalty.

Unlike other businesses, however, the law firm also has a special responsibility to the legal system itself. We have the added dimension of stringent ethical and legal constraints imposed by the Supreme Court and centuries of legal precedent. These rules require us to act with reasonable diligence and promptness or we can be brought up on ethical charges for not having put enough skill or preparation into a case. Some large firms have created new high-level positions solely to manage their ethical and legal issues.

Beyond requiring competent service for our clients, the rules of ethics governing our profession add a societal dimension as well. Lawyers are officers of the court, called upon to aid in the administration of justice. In addition to serving paying clients, we are also expected to serve the legal needs of those who cannot afford to pay. Our firm takes these public responsibilities very seriously. We are strongly committed to pro bono service for the less fortunate members of our community. We serve on court-appointed and Bar Association committees that are trying to improve the administration of justice in the corporate setting, as well as elsewhere. We serve as arbitrators and mediators, as we try to alleviate the burdens of increased litigiousness in our society.

Law firms have taken major strides in becoming supporters of their communities. We firmly believe that we must give back to the communities that have supported us and helped us to succeed.

In the final analysis, integrity is the key to understanding legal practice because the very foundation of law is justice, based on moral principles. In business as in life, character, courage, and honor are everything.

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