Keepers of the Lamp.

Each of us lawyers were taught the principles of American justice, and each of us knows how our courts have deviated wildly from those principles and the rules of juridical reasoning that used to constrain jurists from stretching the law beyond reason and prevented lawyers from making a game of the process instead of sticking to those principles for the sake of what's right and just (instead of allowing lawyers to line their pockets by abusing discovery and delaying judgments so they can unnecessarily take their case to trial to make more money instead of putting their opponents to their proof before trial).

We should see ourselves as the protectors of mankind's progress, keepers of the lamp, men and women dedicated to replacing the displaced ancient landmarks of reason and "what's right," champions of the rule of law and defenders of the strict rules of due process by which alone justice is made possible.

These are critical times in which we, and we alone, are able to stand for truth, even if it means losing a case now and then, instead of fighting tooth and nail regardless of the consequence to those who should prevail and too often do not, as a result of the gamesmanship most, if not all, of you have been witnesses to at some time in your careers.

Who will lift the lamp if we don't?

Who will put a stop to the courtroom highjinks that so often make a mockery of justice and dishonor those who gave their lives to preserve what they believed was a nation of laws where the benefits of due process belonged to each and every one, not only...