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Henry Latimer Professionalism Library Guide

The Florida Bar Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism recommends these resources to inform Florida legal practitioners about professionalism and ethics issues.

Civility, Compromise and the Zax - Leah Ward Sears

Leah Ward Sears is a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. At the time of her appointment, she was both the youngest representative and the first female justice to sit in the Supreme Court of Georgia. She was also the first African American to serve as Chief Justice of a state Supreme Court. In this video, Sears discusses the toxicity that has invaded American discourse.                                                                                           



Civility in the Legal Profession - Ilana Rovner

"Judge Ilana Rovner discusses the importance of civility in our legal culture and how her passion for civility led her to pursue a career in the law, leading to her current position as judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit." - Jayne Reardon
                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should - (Heather Kolinsky)

In this article, first published in the Nova Law Review in 2012, Heather Kolinsky, an appellate attorney in Orlando, Florida, explores the historical transition from professionalism as an ideal to an expectation in Florida and further discusses the doctrine of absolute immunity for litigators.

Ethics and Professionalism on Appeal - (Peter Webster)

In this article, first published in the Florida Bar in 2011, Peter Webster, a former judge with the First District Court of Appeal identifies several professionalism pitfalls that appellate lawyers should avoid in writing appellate briefs and arguing orally in front of appellate courts.                                                                                                                                                                                         

The Most Ethical of People, The Least Ethical of People - (Larry Krieger)

In this article, Larry Krieger proposes that Self-Determination Theory ("SDT") can be a powerful new tool for understanding attorney motivation and behavior, and that it can answer core questions regarding ethics and professionalism. Krieger suggests that SDT is particularly suited to such research because it has both the necessary conceptual breadth and well-established measures to empirically study character formation and many of its attendant features.