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The real joy of serving on the Bar Commission comes in the friendships and associations that develop. Judge D. Frank Wilkins is one of the truly remarkable people I have known. As I sat
with him at Commission meetings, I frequently marveled at his eloquent statements. After I served about three years, I began to record his sayings as best I could. I deeply regret that I
didn't start writing them down sooner. Let me share a few of my favorites:
We sometimes have to stand as individuals against an oceanic wave.
We are cast into the cauldron of seething controversy.
When as a Commission we exercise our core functions we must do so with deliberation and strength, unencumbered, unweakened and unattenuated by other concerns. We must not be too
compliant with other authority, and I believe that with the deepest stirrings of my heart.
As Cochise used to say, "let's think on it."
As Jack Webb used to say on Dragnet, "just the facts, ma'am."
I'm beginning to be a stick-in-the-mud even by my own standards, but I'm not an ethnocentric nerd.
Lawyers at their best use superior language. At their best they adopt excellent manners. At their best they pursue high principle. At their very best they infuse the substance of
justice with uplift.
If I appear to be scolding, I'm not. Or, if I am, I'd rather you didn't know it.
Our guiding principle ought to be a sense of self-
satisfaction. That sounds arrogant; I think it is not. We ought not to worry too much about perception of the public. If we can get the public on our side, we ought to because that's the sensible thing to do. But at the end of the day, it's a sense of "oughtness", a sense of self-satisfaction that matters.
This is a true story. And, if it's not, it's a good story.
The Bar Commission should speak for the lawyers. Let the Judicial Council speak for the judges. We shouldn't be controlled by what the judges want. We should stand together, but not too
close. We shouldn't go loose arms around each other with Dorothy down the yellow brick road.
We look out of different portholes.
Sometimes, we don't have to be concerned with absolute purity. Medium purity will do.
I ask the Commission to revisit this with an open mind, and I might even revisit it with an open mind myself, although you might doubt that and so do I.
That cactus would be hard to swallow.
When the wind blows, the tree must bend.
If you don't like my peaches, don't shake my tree. You get part of the cherries, pits, skin, etc.
Judge Wilkins is one of the last of the old school of flowery oratory. He is good friend, a wise mentor, a formidable opponent and most of all, a real gentleman.
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