CHIEF JUDGE JONATHAN LIPPMAN’S

LAW DAY 2012

Today on Law Day, we pause from our busy routines to celebrate our nation’s faith

in the rule of law and the liberties we so dearly cherish. And we reaffirm the ideals of
equality and justice that are the roots of our national prosperity.
While we enjoy the freedoms guaranteed to us by our Constitution, we cannot take
for granted that the continued vitality of those freedoms — the very life of those freedoms –
depends on the active engagement of each of us. Those who are privileged to call
ourselves lawyers have a special duty as the gatekeepers of justice to participate in
preserving what we hold so dear.
With that in mind, my remarks today will focus on a most pressing responsibility for
all of us: instilling and fostering a culture of service in the men and women who enter our
profession as lawyers each year. It is the legal profession’s commitment to equal justice
and to the practice of law as a higher calling that has made service to others an intrinsic
part of our legal culture. The new protocols that I will announce today for admission to the
bar in New York, will challenge every law student to answer very basic questions that are
fundamental to the very fibre of the legal profession: How will you choose to benefit your
fellow man and your community with your new skills? Will you use your legal acumen to
foster equal justice in our state? Do you recognize that being a lawyer requires an
understanding that access to justice must be available to all New Yorkers regardless of
their station in life? From the start, these responsibilities of the profession must be a part
of every lawyer’s DNA – - to support the values of justice, equality and the rule of law that
make this state and this country great.