Page 65 - ACTL Journal_Sum24

Much of the conversation on modern legal ethics began fifty years ago, with Watergate and its aftermath. Not only did we see the adoption of new model rules of professional conduct following Watergate, we also saw for the first time requirements that law schools teach courses in legal ethics and professional responsibility.
Why do we discuss the formation of good lawyers? There are abundant reasons. We have a mental health and well-being crisis in our profession. Lawyers are disproportionately like- ly to experience depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide.
We are all inundated with a barrage of headlines regarding failures of leadership and moral meltdowns, without reference to a particular political party or ideologic persuasion. And this is not limited to any particular political party or ideological persuasion. As a result of these challenges, we face a public relations crisis. We are not viewed that favorably by the pub- lic. We are not viewed as highly as many other professions in terms of our honesty and trustworthiness.
Though I am no expert on artificial intelligence, I believe that its use must be flagged as a concern. As artificial intelligence and machine learning take on more of the most technical as- pects of lawyering, what we think of as the core of lawyering is going to change. Legal services will look different twenty years from now. We need to be able to make a value proposition to our clients that centers on the human element. We need to recognize that ethics are more than just programming an algorithm.
A few years later, The MacCrate Report focused itself on not only on the importance of legal skills but also of moral values
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