Now is a good a time as any to brush up on The Texas Lawyer’s Creed — A Mandate for Professionalism, which was adopted by the Supreme Court of Texas and the Court of Criminal Appeals in 1989 and still remains in effect today. Below we list eight of the mandates that seem to be often overlooked:
- I will advise my client of the contents of this creed when undertaking representation.
- I will advise my client that I reserve the right to determine whether to grant accommodations to opposing counsel in all matters that do not adversely affect my client’s lawful objectives. A client has no right to instruct me to refuse reasonable requests made by other counsel.
- I will be courteous, civil, and prompt in oral and written communications.
- I will agree to reasonable requests for extensions of time and for waiver of procedural formalities, provided legitimate objectives of my client will not be adversely affected.
- I will not attempt to gain an unfair advantage by sending the Court or its staff correspondence or copies of correspondence.
- I will not arbitrarily schedule a deposition, Court appearance, or hearing until a good faith effort has been made to schedule it by agreement.
- I will readily stipulate to undisputed facts in order to avoid needless costs or inconvenience for any party.
- I will comply with all reasonable discovery requests. I will not resist discovery requests which are not objectionable. I will not make objections nor give instructions to a witness for the purpose of delaying or obstructing the discovery process. I will encourage witnesses to respond to all deposition questions which are reasonably understandable. I will neither encourage nor permit my witness to quibble about words where their meaning is reasonably clear.