Thank you Dean Saunders. Dean Saunders and I have something in common. Before coming to the Charleston School of Law (CSOL), Dean Saunders worked at Nelson Mullins like I do. We miss her at the firm, but she is doing great work here for the CSOL. I appreciate that gracious introduction.

Let me also thank Dean Abrams and the CSOL BOD for the opportunity to speak today. The SC Bar has a great relationship with the CSOL. And like most relationships, there are connections on many levels. I grew up in Greenville. So did Dean Abrams. I come from a family of lawyers. Dean Abrams also comes from a family of Greenville lawyers. His father Sol Abrams was a legend in the Greenville Bar. Barbara Mandrel had a song called "I was Country When Country Wasn't Cool." Dean Abrams father Sol was a plaintiffs' personal injury lawyer before that work was cool. He was a pioneer in the field. Many of the most successful lawyers who represent plaintiffs in personal injury cases owe much of their success to Sol Abrams.

Dean Abrams' brother Doug is one of the top lawyers in NC. We have litigated against each other, and have become good friends. Not only is Doug a fine lawyer; he is also extremely civil and professional.  So while Dean Abrams is a great lawyer and leader of the profession in his own right, like me, has some good family influence.

But my connections with the CSOL do not stop there. Like many SC lawyers, Professor Steve Spitz taught me property law (that was 25 years ago); Nathan Crystal advised me on ethics issues as I managed our firm's Greenville office; John Simpkins and Deborah Gammons are friends from their days in Greenville; And going back the longest, Gerry Finkel's sons and I played on Sylvan Way in Columbia back in the late 60s while he and my Dad were in law school.  I was a pre-schooler at the time….All that is to say that I feel very much among friends here and am so grateful for the opportunity to speak to you today.

As Dean Saunders indicated, I am the current President of the SC Bar. The Bar has over 13,000 members. This number of members was mentioned when I was sworn in.  My son Wes, who is 12, is fascinated with who is the "boss" these days. He asked me if I was now the "boss" of all those 13,000 lawyers. I laughed. And I quickly made it clear that I was not. I am not sure anyone is capable of being the boss of 13,000 lawyers. And I don't think I or anyone else for that matter would want that job. In fact, being President of the Bar is much like the infamous custodian of the cemetery. There are a lot of people under me, but none of them are listening.

But I do bring you greetings from the SC Bar. We have a lot of exciting and worthwhile initiatives being pursued this year. I will touch on some in my remarks. But one of those initiatives I want to mention at the outset that the Bar feels that it is important to help the law schools in the state. We have members of our Executive Committee serving as liaisons to both law schools in the state. We meet regularly with the Deans of both schools. In some states, Bars have very little to do with law students and legal education. Not in SC. The Bar views law students, even though they are not yet licensed, to be part of our profession and the Bar wants to do what we can to advance the entire profession. So I address you students today not as a lawyer, speaking to students. Instead, I speak to you as colleagues in our profession. You are part of that profession right now.

Lawyers often talk in stories and I want to share one with you. You may have heard the story of a young boy who was on a walk with his grandfather. As they walked, the boy asked: Grand-daddy, how many bones are there in a body? The Grandfather knew the answer (its 208 by the way). But he answered this way: There are hundreds, but there are only three that matter. What are the three that matter, the boy then asked. The Grandfather said, the three most important bones are the wish bone, the funny bone and the back bone. The Grandfather was a wise man. His advice applies to our profession too. So today, I'd like to use those three bones—the wish bone, the funny bone and the back bone—as the back drop of our time today.  

A WISH BONE
First, the wish bone. You may remember the ritual. Sunday afternoon was time for the family meal. It was often after church. In the South, that meant that the family had a big dinner often with chicken, usually fried, as the main course. The most popular piece of chicken, at least for the kids, was the wish bone. It was popular not because it tasted better, although it was certainly goo.  It was popular because of what happened after you ate.  One kid would hold one piece of the bone, one would hold the other, and they'd pull. When the bone broke, the one whose broken piece was longest got to make a wish…and supposedly it would come true.

Well, that was a good time for wishing.  But law school is too.  This is a great time for you to wish, to dream.  I'm not talking of wishing about the end of classes and tests and things like that.  I'm talking about big things.  Most of you are still young. All of you have your legal careers ahead of you. It is a great time to wish or to dream about what type of lawyer you want to be, what type of reputation do you want to have, about how you can make a difference.

Some of the best and most influential lawyers have had very big dreams. Let me give you an example. Just about a month ago, our profession lost a giant when the Honorable Matthew Perry died. I am sure many of you know Judge Perry's story.   Judge Perry was SC's greatest civil rights lawyer. His work led to the integration of SC beaches, parks, restaurants and schools. His work led to the release of over 7,000 sit in, civil rights protestors. His work forced Clemson University to admit its first African American student. He became the first African American to serve as a federal judge in SC. He had a distinguished career as a judge.

But as brilliant as he was as a lawyer and judge, Judge Perry was remarkably humble.  I still remember the first time I appeared before him.  I was very young and nervous.   But he treated me with dignity and patience. It calmed me down at least a little and hopefully kept me from making too much of a fool of myself. What is so amazing about the way he treated me and others who appeared before him is that it was the exact opposite of how he had been treated as a lawyer. When he was a young lawyer, Judge Perry had been forced to sit in the balcony while waiting for his turn to argue. He had been put in jail for some of the positions he took.

Judge Perry had many, many attributes. We could talk about that for hours. But among them was how he used his "wish bone." Judge Perry "wished for" and "dreamed about" a SC that simply did not exist at the time. He "wished for" and "dreamed about" a SC where all people would be treated equally; he "wished for" and "dreamed about" a SC where there could be an African American federal judge. He wished for and dreamed about these things before the rest of the state did. And because he wished for them, he worked for them. And because he worked for them, he made a huge difference in our state.

I like country music and one of my favorite country music singers is Martina McBride. In one of her songs, she says:

You can chase a dream
That seems so out of reach
And you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway

She is right. Dream it anyway. Use your wish bone. I am not saying you will have the influence of a Matthew Perry. None of us will. But we can follow his example and make a difference.

A FUNNY BONE
The second bone I want to talk about is the funny bone. Now using your funny bone doesn't mean that you need to be a comedian. It certainly doesn't mean you need to be the class clown. But to me, using your funny bone as a law student and lawyer means at least two things: (1) learn to laugh at yourself and (2) be civil to others.

First, laugh at yourself. Don't take yourself too seriously. Things will happen as a law student and certainly as a lawyer that will make you cry if you do not learn to laugh. My practice is mostly the defense of civil litigation. But every now and then I have handled a plaintiffs case. One time was when I was a young lawyer. A guy had gotten my name and came in to see me. He had a Frankenstein like scar from his eye over his head down almost to his neck. It was awful.  He told me that he had been pushed into the corner of a brick wall by a bouncer at a bar. He assured me he was not drunk when it happened. I was just a year or two out of law school at the time so I was not very good at screening cases. This all sounded great to me. I thought my firm is going to think I am great. I brought this case in. No one else my age is doing that.

We spent a lot of time preparing on how my client would respond when asked how much beer he had drunk. He said he had had a few beers and we went over and over that testimony. He did fine on direct exam. But, by the time the defense lawyer got through with him, he admitted drinking 12 beers. That was bad…but it got worse. He also admitted that he was kicked out of the bar because he was standing on a urinal in the bathroom. And not just any bathroom… the girls' bathroom. 

I thought we were dead. Somehow, we still won that case, but my point is that as a lawyer, things will not always go the way you think they will. Witnesses will surprise you; they will change stories; you will lose cases you think you will win; and you will win cases you think you are going to lose. You need to learn to laugh at these situations. As I said, if you don't, you will cry. The other lawyer in the case I described is a good friend. We get together for lunch or a beer from time to time. Every time we do, we laugh about that case.

Second, be civil to others. SC has incredible lawyers. I practice all over the country. I see lawyers from some of the biggest cities in the US. SC lawyers are just as good and in many cases better. But beyond legal ability, SC lawyers are more civil to each other than anywhere else I know. We fight hard for our clients, but we treat each other with respect; we are polite; we tell the truth; with very few exceptions, if a SC lawyer tells me something, I feel no need to confirm it in writing.

This civility is important. It is important because it makes your work life more enjoyable. But beyond that, it is important to our profession. When lawyers do not display civility, they degrade our profession. The public watches how we behave. Surveys show that the public does not like or respect rude behavior or personal attacks.

The Honorable Gary Hill is a Circuit Court Judge from Greenville. He was a law school classmate of mine. Responding to a rare episode of incivility in SC, Judge Hill recently said: "It has been said the civility costs nothing but buys everything. The practice of law is among the noblest of professions, but it is a hard enough way to earn a living without having to joust with abusive and improper tactics of opposing counsel." Judge Hill went on to say that: "incivility not only degrades the profession, but in the end harms the lawyer." He is exactly right.

Each of us, as a member of the profession, is responsible not just to our clients, but to the legal profession.  You and I have inherited a grand tradition of professionalism, of civility.  It is our responsibility to maintain that tradition and pass it on to the next generation.  

And civility is not just important to practicing lawyers. It is important to law students too. Consider this: my two largest clients right now are law school class mates. Look around you. The people sitting next to or around you may turn out to be your clients; they may turn out to be your judge; or they may turn out to be your opposing lawyers. People have long memories. If you do not start being civil right now, you may burn a bridge with some one that is important to you in the future.

So be civil, laugh at yourself, use your funny bone.

A BACK BONE
The last bone I want to talk about is the back bone. It is the most important. In simplest terms, having a back bone means doing the right thing whether or not it is popular. It is not something that is unique at all to law students or lawyers. It is what we are taught as kids. But it surely applies to our profession.

Judge Perry surely had a backbone…. so did John Adams. Adams was our second President. But he was our first Lawyer President. And he was not just a politician with a law degree. He was a great lawyer. Commenting on Adams' oratory skills, Thomas Jefferson said this: "[Adams] moved his hearers from their seats."

Adams most famous case arose from protests by American Colonists in 1770. The Colonists were sick and tired of British taxes. They gathered outside the Customs House in Boston. British soldiers were called in to maintain order. One of the soldiers was hit by something.  He thought it was thrown by the protesters. The soldiers then fired into the crowd, killing five protesters. This event became known as the Boston Massacre. The soldiers were charged with murder.

Amid intense and deep anti-British sentiment, how could these soldiers get a fair trial? Most colonists were not worried about a fair trial. They felt the soldiers deserved punishment, not fairness. But not John Adams. He agreed to take on their defense. Not because he was sympathetic to their cause. He was not. Adams was one of the leading advocates from American independence. But he believed in the rule of law and felt these men deserved a defense, even if he despised what they stood for.

Representing these British soldiers was not popular. In fact, it cost Adams dearly. He lost most of his other clients because people were so mad at him for defending the hated British. But later reflecting on a career that included serving as a member of the Continental Congress, an Ambassador in Europe, and as our second President, Adams said his defense of those British soldiers was "one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered to my country."

In much less famous cases, SC lawyers do that too. I have seen it my entire career and I see it now even more as Bar President.

But despite that, the image of lawyers these days is not good. The public trusts us less and less. The Bar feels this is a very important issue. If the public does not trust our legal system, the rule of law which is so fundamental to our country could be undermined. 

If you want to see what happens when a legal system is not respected, look at Tunisia.  The people of Tunisia are revolting against the government.  How did the uprising start?  Well, that is a very complicated question.  However, the tipping point came from a young vegetable salesman. This young man sold vegetables from a cart he pushed along the streets.  He apparently failed to obtain the necessary permits.  When the police discovered this mishap, they arrested him.  The young man tried to pay the fine and get the license. But the government would not allow that. Instead, they humiliated the young man and insulted his family in the public square. Worse yet, he realized that the legal system in Tunisia was corrupt. He had no chance for justice. In protest, he set himself on fire.  That fire literally and figuratively ignited the revolt against the government. 

In response to the current view of lawyers, the SC Bar has established a Lawyer Image Task Force.  That Task Force is hard at work.  If you want to check it out, go to our website.  I hope you will like what you see. 

The SC Bar will continue to make the image of lawyers a priority. But in some respects, more than anything the Bar can do, respect the public has for the judicial system depends on how lawyers act. How will we conduct ourselves? Will we be honest? Will we treat other lawyers and witnesses with respect? Will we display candor with the Court? Will we represent not just clients who can pay, but clients that need help who cannot pay? Will we, at times represent clients, even when doing so is not popular? Will you serve as leaders in your community? Will we follow the purpose of the CSOL and the oath we all take to serve the public? I hope and believe the answer to all these questions is yes.

For you, it all starts now. Right here in law school. You are already part of a great profession. So I urge you to during your time at CSOL to use you wish bone, use your funny bone and use your back bone. And continue to use them when you become a lawyer. Doing this will make you better lawyers. And doing this will ensure that we maintain and pass on the tradition of professionalism and civility that we have inherited.

Thank you.

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