Professionalism: An old idea but a new ideal

• Author: The Honourable Joan L. Lax
• Pages: 291-299

291

g Summer 2009

Prfessinalism:

AN OLD IDEA BUT A NEW IDEAL

THE HONOURABLE JOAN L. LAX

In October 1999, Justice Rosie Abella delivered what has become an

iconic speech to a retreat of Law Society benchers. Her title was “Pro-

fessionalism Revisited.” Her speech was about values, and her thesis

was “that there are three basic values that merge in a good lawyer: a com-

mitment to competence, which is about skills; a commitment to ethics,

which is about decency; and a commitment to professionalism, which

transfuses the public interest into the two other values.”1 This triumvir-

ate of values– competence, ethics and service to the public– has long

been regarded as the foundation of the claim that law is not merely a

trade but a higher calling– a profession– comprising elements of schol-

arship, integrity, honour, service, pride and independence.

Historically, the early professions of law, medicine and theology were

built around philosophical or ethical codes featuring some kind of ser-

vice to others and “a calling to some higher satisfaction than a commer-

cial gain,”2 and professionals “declared that choice openly in front of the

1 The Honourable Rosalie Silberman Abella, Justice, Court of Appeal for Ontario (as

she then was), “Professionalism Revisited” (Opening Address, Bencher’s Retreat,

October 14, 1999), (Toronto: Law Society of Upper Canada, 1999) at 1 [Justice Abella].

2 E.W. Roddenbery, “Achieving Professionalism” (May–June 1953) 44:1 Journal of

Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science at 109; cited in Jordan Furlong, “Profes-

sionalism Revived: Diagnosing the Failure of Professionalism among Lawyers and