When I first envisioned the project that came to be Best Friends at the Bar, it was to support young women in the practice of law. In 2007, they needed all the help they could get, and Best Friends at the Bar was there with a helping hand. As women lawyers grew in numbers and in influence and presence at the top ranks in the profession, I broadened my focus to all young lawyers, men and women alike. My goal was to keep them from tripping over themselves on their way to success. I continue in that work, but my focus has broadened to all lawyers in response to current events.
It is now clear that all lawyers need to organize and fight what is becoming a very real and powerful threat to the profession. It is time for lawyers across the bar to organize as “best friends” who have each other’s backs. Lawyers in America — in big firms, smaller firms, boutiques and solo practices — need to support each other now more than ever. They need to object when BigLaw firms are being targeted by the Trump Administration. And they need to create a support system to keep firms from capitulating to the bully in the room — the bully with the objective and the power to destroy those who understand his unconstitutional overreach and are in positions to stop him.
Former Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, who served in the George W. Bush administration, is quoted on Above The Law from an NPR podcast as follows: “If lawyers aren’t stepping up and speaking out against these kinds of attacks, that’s disappointing and dangerous. I must confess some level of disappointment in the silence that I’m hearing amongst a lot of firms … not to mention the outright capitulation that too many firms are engaging in.”
Gonzales also has a pretty good idea why this is happening. “[Trump’s] trying to … limit the number of great lawyers or good lawyers that can take positions [and] represent clients in opposition to what [the president] wants to accomplish or wants to do. And in a republic like ours, I think that’s very, very dangerous … [but] the rule of law exists to check abuses of power.”
This is a former Attorney General in a republican administration. Although Alberto Gonzales is not declaring himself as a recruit to the opposing political camp, he knows wrong when he sees it. He is disappointed and outraged at the lack of response from the legal community and hoping for more. Without saying it, he is looking for the lawyers of America to be Best Friends at the Bar.
And so am I. As I see more and more firms treat the Executive Branch’s attacks on them as negotiations, I wonder how those lawyers are going to look at themselves in the mirrors in years to come. I see too many in the American legal bar turn blind eyes to behaviors of the Executive Branch that have the potential to alter the very foundation of the profession. I regret the loss of so many lawyers and firms I have admired, as well as the loss of positive role models for the young lawyers in those practices. And at the same time, I am proud of and inspired by the lawyers in firms that are pushing back against an administration that is overreaching and threatening and protecting the independence of the practice of law.
This fight has to be organized and cannot depend on individual efforts. There is strength in numbers, and bar associations have an obvious role in protecting the legal bar. They are natural gathering places for lawyers, and they can be very influential. Start there. Grow support there. Be a change agent there.
It is time that our profession demonstrates that profits do not “trump” values. That money is a means to doing good. That ethics have not left the practice of law.
Be a Best Friend at the Bar. It is a noble calling.
