That copies of the Code of the Alabama and Virginia State Bar Associations, with so much of the report of the Committee on Judicial Administration and Legal Reform as relates to the subject of such Code, shall be sent by the Secretary to each member of this Association, and that each member of this Association is hereby urged to carefully examine such Code and such report, and sometime before the first day of February, 1902, to send to the Secretary of this Association his comments and criticisms upon such Code with any suggestions he may have as to amendments, either in the way of addition or exclusion.

That the Committee on Judicial Administration and Legal Reform, to be appointed by the President elected at this meeting, shall begin not later than the fifteenth day of February, 1902, the consideration of the communications which, in accordance with the annexed above resolution, may by that time have been received by the Secretary from the members of this Association. And that after considering such communications they shall prepare the draft of a Code of Legal Ethics to be submitted to the next meeting of the State Bar Association.

THE PROPOSED CODE OF LEGAL ETHICS.

To the courtesy of the President of the Alabama State Bar Association, HONORABLE J. J. WILLETT, of Anniston, Alabama, and of the Secretary of the Virginia State Bar Association, E. C. MASSIE, Esq., of Richmond, Virginia, I am indebted for authentic copies of the "Codes of Ethics," together with the information, kindly volunteered by the first-named gentleman, that they originated mainly with the late Governor of Alabama, HONORABLE THOMAS G. JONES.

BALTIMORE, April, 1900.

CHARLES E. PHELPS.

The purity and efficiency of judicial administration, which, under our system, is largely government itself, depend as much upon the character, conduct, and demeanor of attorneys in their great trust, as upon the fidelity and learning of courts, or the honesty and intelligence of juries.

"There is, perhaps, no profession after that of the sacred ministry, in which a high-toned morality is more imperatively necessary than that of the law. There is certainly, without any exception, no profession in which so many temptations be

set the path to swerve frow the lines of strict integrity; in which so many delicate and difficult questions of duty are constantly arising. There are pitfalls and man-traps at every step, and the mere youth at the very outset of his career, needs often the prudence and self-denial, as well as the moral courage, which belong commonly to riper years. High moral principle is his only safe guide; the only torch to light his way amidst darkness and obstruction."-Sharswood.

[A comprehensive summary of the duties specifically enjoined by law upon attorneys, which they are sworn "not to violate," is found in section 791 of the Code of Alabama.

These duties are:

"1st. To support the Constitution and laws of this State and the United States.

2nd. To maintain the respect due to courts of justice and judicial officers.

3d. To employ, for the purpose of maintaining the causes confided to them, such means only as are consistent with truth; and never to seek to mislead the judges by any artifice or false statement of the law.

4th. To maintain inviolate the confidence, and at every peril to themselves, to preserve the secrets of their clients.

5th. To abstain from all offensive personalities, and to advance no fact prejudicial to the honor or reputation of a party or a witness, unless required by the justice of the cause with which they are charged.

6th. To encourage neither the commencement nor continuance of an action or proceeding, from any motive of passion or interest.

7th. Never to reject, for any consideration personal to themselves, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed."]*

No rule will determine an attorney's duty in the varying phases of every case. What is right and proper must, in the absence of statutory rules and an authoritative code, be ascer

*Omitted by Va. B. A. See Md. Code Public General Laws, Art. X, secs. 10-13.

tained in view of the peculiar facts, in the light of conscience, and the conduct of honorable and distinguished attorneys in similar cases, and by analogy to the duties enjoined by statute, and the rules of good neighborhood.

The following general rules are adopted by the [Alabama]* State Bar Association for the guidance of its members:

Duty of Attorneys to Courts and Judicial Officers.

1. The respect enjoined by law for courts and judicial officers is exacted for the sake of the office, and not for the individual who administers it. Bad opinion of the incumbent, however well founded, can not excuse the withholding of the respect due the office, while administering its functions.

2. The proprieties of the judicial station, in a great measure, disable the judge from defending himself against strictures upon his official conduct. For this reason, and because such criticisms tend to impair public confidence in the administration of justice, attorneys should, as a rule, refrain from published criticism of judicial conduct, especially in reference to causes in which they have been of counsel, otherwise than in courts of review, or when the conduct of the judge is necessarily involved in determining his removal from or continuance in office.

3. Marked attention and unusual hospitality to a judge, when the relations of the parties are such that they would not otherwise be extended, subject both judge and attorney to misconstruction, and should be sedulously avoided. A selfrespecting independence in the discharge of the attorney's duties, which at the same time does not withhold the courtesy and respect due the judge's station, is the only just foundation for cordial, personal and official relations between bench and bar. All attempts by means beyond these to gain special personal consideration and favor of a judge are disreputable. *"Virginia," by Va. B. A.

4. Courts and judicial officers, in the rightful exercise of their functions, should always receive the support and countenance of attorneys against unjust criticism and popular clamor; and it is an attorney's duty to give them his moral support in all proper ways, and particularly by setting a good example in his own person of obedience to law.

5. The utmost candor and fairness should characterize the dealings of attorneys with the courts and with each other. Knowingly citing as authority an overruled case, or treating a repealed statue as in existence-knowingly misquoting the language of a decision or text-book-knowingly misstating the contents of a paper, the testimony of a witness, or the language or argument of opposite counsel-offering evidence which it is known the court must reject as illegal, to get it before the jury, under guise of arguing its admissibility-and all kindred practices-are deceits and evasions unworthy of attorneys.

Purposely concealing or withholding in the opening argument, positions intended finally to be relied on, in order that opposite counsel may not discuss them, is unprofessional. Courts and juries look with disfavor on such practices, and are quick to suspect the weakness of the cause which has need to resort to them.

In the argument of demurrers, admission of evidence, and other questions of law, counsel should carefully refrain from "side-bar" remarks and sparring discourse, to influence the jury or bystanders. Personal colloquies between counsel tend to delay, and promote unseemly wrangling, and ought to be discouraged.

6. Attorneys owe it to the courts and the public whose business the courts transact, as well as to their own clients, to be punctual in attendance on their causes; and whenever an attorney is late he should apologize, or explain his absence.

7. One side must always lose the cause; and it is not wise, or respectful to the court, for attorneys to display temper because of an adverse ruling.

Duty of Attorneys to each other, to Clients and to the Public.

8. An attorney should strive, at all times, to uphold the honor, maintain the dignity, and promote the usefulness of the profession; for it is so interwoven with the administration of justice, that whatever redounds to the good of one advances the other; and the attorney thus discharges, not merely an obligation to his brothers, but a high duty to the State and his fellow-man.

9. An attorney should not speak slightingly or disparagingly of his profession, or pander in any way to unjust popular prejudices against it; and he should scrupulously refrain at all times, and in all relations of life, from availing himself of any prejudice or popular misconception against lawyers, in order to carry a point against a brother attorney.

10. Nothing has been more potential in creating and pandering to popular prejudice against lawyers as a class, and in witholding from the profession the full measure of public esteem and confidence which belong to the proper discharge of its duties, than the false claim, often set up by the unscrupulous in defense of questionable transactions, that it is an attorney's duty to do everything to succed in his client's cause.

An attorney "owes entire devotion to the interest of his client, warm zeal in the maintenance and defense of his cause, and the exertion of the utmost skill and ability," to the end, that nothing may be taken or withheld from him, save by the rules of law, legally applied. No sacrifice or peril, even to loss of life itself, can absolve from the fearless discharge of this duty. Nevertheless, it is steadfastly to be borne in mind that the great trust is to be performed within, and not without the bounds of the law which creates it. The attorney's office does not destroy man's accountability to his Creator, or loosen the duty of obedience to law, and the obligation to his neighbor; and it does not permit, much less demand, violation of law, or any manner of fraud or chicanery, for the client's sake.