Professionalism: Building Trust for a Conflicted Profession

The tension between the business of law and the profession of law has never been more perilous. In addition, the ancient trap of politics warping values and judgment for lawyers and judges has never gaped wider. Gallup’s 2025 survey of public trust in institutions and occupations shows lawyers tied with newspaper reporters in the “Net Negative” category, with only 17% of the public rating us as honest and trustworthy. A traditional profession is defined by a public servant who is trusted. The loss of public trust in the legal profession is a looming disaster for a democratic society.

Attendees will explore critical practice challenges that the Rules of Professional Conduct do not adequately address, and in some cases, address at all. The remedy is an understanding and mastery of professionalism, lawyers devoting themselves to core values and objectives, seeking exemplary ethics rather than merely compliance with ethics rules, rules that even the American Bar Association acknowledges are often insufficient to guide lawyers through the ethical complexities they face in modern practice. Drawing upon Georgia’s Aspirational Statement on Professionalism, this session will challenge and inspire Georgia lawyers to rise above minimum ethical standards and strive for exemplary professionalism in the service of the public. Mr. Marshall will engage attendees with real-world dilemmas to examine how principled conduct, civic responsibility, integrity, and respect for the justice system must guide professional behavior.

Legal practitioners at all stages of their careers will benefit from this course, as it will help them bolster both the justice system and the legal profession for the public's benefit.

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize the limits of mere formal compliance with the ethics rules, as well as understand how they should be used and why they must be regularly reconsidered.
2. Develop tools and techniques to differentiate ethics from professionalism within the bounds of the legal profession. 
3. Emphasize the importance of applying professionalism standards to all aspects of the practice of law, meaning that practitioners aspire to exemplary rather than merely compliant ethics, and are always mindful of the need for civility, integrity, and to engender trust in the profession among the public.
4. Examine real-life examples of lawyers who either breach core professionalism standards or embody them.