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The American Bar Association passed a bold resolution at its midyear conference in February 2023, formally calling for the Supreme Court of the United States to adopt a binding code of conduct. It is a historic resolution that has already made waves in the legal community, mobilizing organizations and advocates within the legal profession to draft their own codes of ethics.
Today, I write, not as your regular immigration law columnist, but as the President of the King County Bar Association of Washington State. We moved the ABA to pass this resolution. We made history. And I was privileged to be part of a team that made it possible.
The importance of clear ethical standards in the law has been on my mind for some time. In 2020, I wrote “Legal Heroes in the Trump Era.” I was compelled to write that book because it was clear that standards and ethics in the profession were dropping as there were blatant breaches of ethical duties. I hold this profession in such high regard. I grew up wanting to be nothing but a lawyer. To see my profession being sullied gave me grave concerns.
My concerns over ethical standards were shared by others. In July 2022, ABA President Deborah Enix-Ross and President-Elect Mary Smith, among others, gathered in Seattle to celebrate Llew Pritchard, a founder of the ABA Center for Human Rights and an honorary recipient of the center’s Eleanor Roosevelt prize. Llew’s acceptance speech resonated deeply. He fondly spoke about the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, referencing “Ruth’s wretched cookies” that she would offer when they would meet to work on various human rights projects in her office. During his speech, Llew also emphatically advocated for a code of ethics for SCOTUS justices and that there be more rigorous standards for lawyers displaying lack of ethics, especially behavior that rocks the core of democracy.
Inspired by Llew’s call to action, our KCBA ABA Delegate Kathleen Hopkins, an expert on ABA policy and procedure — as well as a beloved ABA member — suggested that we bring to the midyear conference a resolution that called for a binding code of conduct for SCOTUS. To the credit of the entire KCBA Board of Trustees, there was unanimous agreement on the issue.
Kathleen then started the complex task of drafting a resolution. She asked Tom Fitzpatrick, a nationally acclaimed judicial ethics expert who lives in Seattle, to assist. She also called upon national ethics expert Lucian Pera of Memphis. This ad hoc team worked hard over the holiday season of 2022 with little sleep. At our December 2022 board meeting, the trustees had a very thoughtful discussion upon reading the draft. And, in January 2023, a couple of weeks before the midyear meeting, our board passed two resolutions. The first was that KCBA holds that the SCOTUS must adopt a binding resolution. The second called for ABA to pass a similar resolution and that other bar associations around the country should do the same. All that work led to Resolution 400 at the ABA conference.
It was soon clear that keeping the strong language we used in the resolution would take courage. After the resolution passed at KCBA, lawyers from around the country started to email our small team to weigh in on it. Thanks to Kathleen and the team’s hard work, we had supporters from all parts of the country, including some attorneys general of their states. But for many people, the word of contention was “binding.” We received correspondence from various ABA committees and individual members rebuking us for using that word “binding.” KCBA Trustee Neal Black worked hard to simultaneously be responsive to all the voices in our email dialogues while remaining true to our resolution. In the end, we presented the resolution with the original wording that KCBA approved. The emotions were high.
As the ABA midyear meeting started on February 1, 2023, at the Sheraton New Orleans, the National Conference of Bar Presidents simultaneously held its midyear conference at the nearby New Orleans Marriott, which I was grateful to attend. Some of the people in leadership positions at NCBP also were in the ABA’s House of Delegates. The House of Delegates would be meeting on February 6, so members were getting prepared to vote on various resolutions. Still, I was surprised that so many of my NCBP colleagues were aware of our KCBA resolution. People whom I had not met before recognized me because of the ABA resolution. The experience and excitement around a profound resolution like this was all new to me.
It was clear our resolution had caused a stir.
On the day of the House of Delegates meeting, KCBA Trustee Neal Black and King County Bar Foundation Trustee and Washington State ABA Delegate James Williams represented us. James moved and presented the resolution.
James was undeniably passionate, purposeful, and persuasive.
He said in part, “Our profession needs leadership from the highest level from above. We need our heroes and sheroes on the United States Supreme Court to lead us by example. Show us how it’s supposed to be done. How can they expect all the lawyers in America, all the judges in America of every level, to faithfully follow our codes of conduct when they don’t have one for themselves?”
It was the first time I’d observed an ABA resolution go through the process from conception to debate to a vote. But watching the back-and-forth discussion on video after I came home from the NCBP conference, it was clear how hard-fought this resolution was — from both sides.
Another delegate made a motion to postpone the resolution indefinitely. Once that move was defeated, the parliamentarian let the delegates vote on Resolution 400 without further speeches. Almost 50 people had been waiting to speak — additional evidence of the gravity and importance of what was at stake. This historic resolution passed with an overwhelming majority of the 592-person body of the ABA House of Delegates.
Our resolution was breaking news for prominent national news outlets, including the ABA Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Law360, CNN, The New York Times, Above the Law, NBC, The Washington Post, The Hill, and more.
None of it would have been possible without the vision and leadership of Kathleen Hopkins, Tom Fitzpatrick, Lucian Pera, James Williams, Neal Black, Mark Schickman, Lorelie Masters, and past ABA President Patricia Refo. We owe so much gratitude to this star team.
So, what now? Why is this important? Through this process, I learned that the ABA cannot take a position on any matter unless there is an adopted resolution. Now that the ABA has a resolution, it can take action.
Next steps could include, for example, the ABA’s drafting a code of ethics, supporting other organizations drafting such codes, or taking a position on pending efforts by Congress to impose its own code of ethics on SCOTUS. The resolution has a profound impact.
I am so grateful to have experienced this moment as the president of KCBA. I always believed in the values of our founders of KCBA — that lawyers must use their powers for the good of society and to protect the rule of law. Over a century later, KCBA lawyers continue that work. And they boldly lead where others are afraid.
Now with KCBA having taken this first bold and brave action, we have paved the way for other bar associations to do the same. If you are part of a bar association, as a member, board member, or a leader, I urge you to consider adopting a similar resolution.
Our roles as officers of the court require us to defend the rule of law. And this action is for democracy itself.
Tahmina Watson is the founding attorney of Watson Immigration Law in Seattle, where she practices US immigration law focusing on business immigration. She has been blogging about immigration law since 2008 and has written numerous articles in many publications. She is the author of Legal Heroes in the Trump Era: Be Inspired. Expand Your Impact. Change the World and The Startup Visa: Key to Job Growth and Economic Prosperity in America. She is also the founder of The Washington Immigrant Defense Network (WIDEN), which funds and facilitates legal representation in the immigration courtroom, and co-founder of Airport Lawyers, which provided critical services during the early travel bans. Tahmina is regularly quoted in the media and is the host of the podcast Tahmina Talks Immigration. She is a Puget Sound Business Journal 2020 Women of Influence honoree. Business Insider recently named her as one of the top immigration attorneys in the U.S. that help tech startups. You can reach her by email at tahmina@watsonimmigrationlaw.com, connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter at @tahminawatson.
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