Changing Professionalism: Will Harassment And Discrimination Survive?

Abraham C. Reich authored The Legal Intelligencer article, "Changing Professionalism: Will Harassment and Discrimination Survive?" 

Pennsylvania lawyers will be faced with an opportunity to address a recent amendment to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct dealing with harassment and discrimination. If the amendment—Model Rule 8.4(g)—is adopted in Pennsylvania, it would represent a significant addition. Anticipating that such a rule would not be adopted without significant debate, I write this article to give some historical perspective on changing professionalism and to offer some commentary on Model Rule 8.4(g).

In 1908, the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association adopted the first national standards of professional conduct for the legal profession; The Canons of Ethics. The canons focused on what were perceived to be the fundamental issues of professionalism of the time: the duty of lawyers to the courts, the obligations of candor and fairness and