Let’s Talk About It: Welcome To The Ethics Committee
By How many times did Dad say, “Do the right thing.”
How about when Grandma said, “Do it right the first time, and you don’t have to do it again.”
Or better yet, when an office mate quips, “Make sure to C-Y-A!”
In an odd way, those expressions have origins in the working man’s or woman’s view of ethics.
Let’s talk about it.
What are the blocks that build your foundation? Integrity? Compassion? Morality? Fairness? Or something else?
For me, I worked by the mantra “Do no harm” when I was a newspaper reporter. Before an interview, I would tell a person that I was there to make them look good. I would not take anything out of context. And I stood by that, even with an editor.
The Ethics Committee’s (the “EC”) focus is to keep you informed on trends, topics and things that are interesting about ethics. Lunch and learns, interaction through blog content and reach outs through the Community forum are the channels that will be utilized to keep you informed and involved. The EC will collaborate with committees such as Membership, CPE, Scholarship, Diversity & Inclusion and Communications to enhance our outreach. And, the EC will be an active partner in the Annual Meeting planning.
ICYMI, this committee highly recommends the North Carolina Paralegal Resource Binder, which details the ethics that each professional paralegal should engage in, in its section “Ethics for Professional Paralegals.” The binder also provides guidance in four other sections: “Effective Utilization and Supervision of Paralegals”; “Notary Public; e-Discovery – The Basics and Useful Internet Resources”; and “Effective Attorney/Paralegal Teams.”
The binder contents will serve as the launching pad for highlighting “hot topics” and “what’s trending” elements for future discussions and ways to update the current ethics section. For those die-hard ethics enthusiasts interested in reading the full binder, a digital copy of this resource is available – just let me know.
This year, the committee will explore the broad view of ethics. As Chair, I encourage you to head over to the North Carolina State Bar ethics web page and take some time to read these “what’s trending” articles in the Ethics Articles, Conflicts of Interest section:
Let’s continue our conversation next month.
Kimberly M. Johnson is a member of the Paralegal Division Council. She is the Chair of the Ethics Committee. Kimberly is a member of the CPE Committee, Women in the Profession Committee and the Task Force on Integration, Equity and Equal Justice.
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