As a profession we endure with dignity and  humor  criticism of lawyers, even when done for political opportunity. The media has turned the law firm image into sex first, high drama second and court room antics with a circus atmosphere.  Ask Denny Crane.  The truth about our profession is a far cry from the insults leveled at us and the entertainment we provide for tv ratings.  Hope is still visible.  Law school applications are up and the number of attorneys entering the profession in Utah continues to increase.  Nevertheless, some of our more serious detractors argue that America has three percent of the world’s population and 70 percent of the world’s lawyers which to them is reason enough to follow the Shakespear suggestion in one of his plays, to “kill all the lawyers”.  Perhaps the government of Pakistan has been studying Shakespear.

I was surprised when a  successful business man and  philanthropist in Utah stated a few years ago that one of the real advantages of doing business in the former Soviet Union is that there are so few lawyers. It is true that under communist dictatorships there were far more political killings than lawyers.  Perhaps one of the benefits the government had was “too few lawyers.”

Pause with me for a moment to reflect on the accomplishments of our profession and its continued vitality and meaning in America, today. 

We  recognize with pride  judges who  sacrifice to be the instruments of justice in our system and who patiently engage in the challenging task of rendering, daily, difficult decisions.

We honor our colleagues who day after day endure the stress imposed in protecting individual rights and liberties.  We honor our colleagues who spend themselves defending, however unpopular, those charged with capitol offenses and in particular we thank our colleagues who have freed innocent victims on death row or in prison through the determined utilization of DNA testing.  We also honor our colleagues who represent and speak for the people through vigorous enforcement of the law and who seek justice for victims of criminal activity.

We pay tribute to our colleagues who step into the arena, who know both victory and defeat and whose minds and emotions are bruised and bloodied from court room battle.

We respect those colleagues who so effectively protect the real and personal property of  clients and who skillfully and ethically orchestrate  transactions involving millions of dollars.

We honor a profession that has  increased substantially the number of women in its ranks. 

We honor those who, at the risk of never getting paid, take corporate giants like Ford and General Motors to court to remind them a human life--even a single human life--is worth more than the cost of redesigning a poorly conceived gas tank.

We appreciate the sacrifice of our colleagues who work for legal aid, the office of the public defender and those who do pro bono work to extend the benefits of our legal system to the poor and underprivileged.

We can stipulate--the system and its actors do not always perform well.  We have to our credit a demonstrated ability to criticize each other.  While self examination and client and public comment are needed and often helpful, we recoil at attacks because it is fashionable. 

It is a privilege to be servants of the law.  We make no apologies. 

The lawyers of this State and our country owe no apology.  The legal profession  is the protector of America’s freedoms.  We stand guard at the gateway to the Bill of Rights.  It was our professional progenitors who drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation.  We have a rich heritage that calls us to the law and reminds us of our responsibility.  The "law" is a proud tradition of service.

 A recent example of such service is the Wills For Heroes (WFH) program undertaken by our (Utah’s) young lawyers division.  WFH is a national program and an outgrowth of 9/11.  It is a program designed and implemented by young lawyers across this nation to honor those who died on 9/11 and to prepare wills for future first responders at no cost.   Wills were prepared for first responders during the St. George Bar Convention at the local police department.  The YLD and the State Bar commission are now in the process of preparing to take this program to first responders across our state.

Assembled at the constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1787 were 55 delegates of whom 34 (62 percent) were either lawyers or were trained in the law.  This group so assembled crafted a constitution that established a frame work for democracy and government that has resulted in freedom, growth and opportunity unprecedented in world history.  The United States Constitution has endured longer than any other in world history.  Thomas Jefferson wrote in July of 1802, "Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally and recall the people; they fix too for the people the principles of their political creed."[2]

It will not go unnoticed in this generation that the human being most responsible for freedom in Eastern Europe and democracy in the former Soviet Union, Mikail Gorbachev, received a degree in Jurisprudence in 1955.

So, to those who want to do business in Russia because there are so few lawyers,  we suggest:  It may not be just coincidence or accident that the country with more bed-rock freedom than any other for over 200 years,  the country that still maintains the greatest opportunities  for success and prosperity, and the country that remains the leader and protector of the free world, is also that country with 70% of the world's lawyers.