The Significant Lawyer: The Pursuit of Purpose and Professionalism

With more than forty years in practice, including fourteen years on the federal bench, and informed by hundreds of conversations with other lawyers, Judge Duffey has cultivated a deep interest in the culture and challenges within the legal profession. The Significant Lawyer is the product of his experiences and conversations. It describes changes in the legal profession beginning in the mid-1980s when lawyers began to measure success by the profits they and their firms generated. Law became a business, not a profession. Integrity, efficiency, and strong client relationships eroded. Lawyers found themselves professionally unfulfilled. The suicide rate for lawyers skyrocketed. They forgot about their oaths; oaths that require civility, commitment to justice, fair play, and respect for the courts. Practice today would look vastly different if lawyers aligned themselves with the shared values of their profession and with their own values and priorities. Clients would be treated differently, colleague relationships would be strong, productive, and respectful. But is this kind of alignment possible anymore? It takes commitment and resolve for a lawyer to live by the oaths taken when admitted to practice and to adopt the right priorities. Choosing this path, an attorney embraces the practice of law as a profession and commits to serve others with integrity, competence, and compassion. The outcome is a lawyer who discovers fulfilment and significance in the practice of their profession, and the profession is better for it. See more