RKC’s Paul Lipton Speaks at St. Thomas Law Review Symposium on Civility and Professionalism in the Law

At the St. Thomas Law Review Symposium on Civility and Professionalism in the Law: The Road to Justice, Paul Lipton, RK’s Director of Professionalism, Career and Skill Development was the Keynote Speaker. The discussion was framed  with a notion from Paul’s book Hour of the Wolf touching upon being a hero in a non-heroic age. In his opening remarks, Paul addressed the idea that in the law, attorneys strive to achieve truth and justice in each matter. He further noted that truth and justice require a personal commitment by attorneys to work towards that goal.

“Professionalism and civility are critical in walking the path to truth and justice. It defines who we are. Justice is founded on faith that we want the system to work fairly for all,” said Paul.

The panel focused on a number of issues including:

• changing the rhetoric on professionalism and civility to address the active versus passive enforcement and/or misconduct;
• attorney-on-attorney professionalism issues;
• practice pointers for making civility effective and sustainable;
• the Local Professionalism Panels; and
• the key role of mentorship.

Also present and participating in the different panels were Chief Judge Bertila Soto, Judge Andrea Wolfson, Judge Thomas Rebull, Former Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero, Jennifer Falcone (Florida Bar attorney), Benjamin Greenberg (acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida), Gerald Greenberg, Robert Cuevas, Jr., and Marc Ginsberg.