On Dignity

I wrote a little post over at the firm's blog about the importance of dignity.Surprisingly, I guess because of our human nature, some of us find being charitable and dignified difficult.

One of the important things I've learned during the course of my education and career, is that treating people with dignity and respect will get you further than anything else. 

I believe that the reason lawyers have such a bad reputation is because we're known to lack a general decorum of dignity and respect. Heck, who could blame us anyway? The adversarial system begs for the degrading remarks and behavior.

Quite simply though, it's important to remember that everyone deserves dignity and respect. It's too easy I think because of media exploitations, to discard people because of their troubles, behavior, or problems.

Everyday attorneys meet and deal with troubled and/or problematic people. Sometimes, despite their most ambitious attempts, these people cannot get out of their dreadful situations. It's not for us to judge their behaviors, rather, as counselors, we should strive to find ways to help.

By treating clients and colleagues with respect and dignity, attorneys could improve people's general perceptions, and do good. Attorneys have numerous opportunities to give charity. It's easy to forget that people are people, and not some inanimate object or other creature. They too had dreams, aspirations, and goals, which too quickly and too easily got consumed with life.