WHEN CONVERSATIONS turn to decrying the practice of law today as unprofessional and praising the way it used to be, my immediate reaction has been to discount such glorification of the past. It seems that lawyers are remembering only the "good" from the good old days and conveniently forgetting what was bad.

Last month, however, I read an article in the District of Columbia Bar’s magazine that changed my mind. The article contained stories of lawyers who have left practice for other careers. One of the pieces was written by an old friend, someone who was a prosecutor there when I was a public defender in the early ‘70s. He left the practice of law in the ‘80s to become a writer.

In the article, he said the primary reason that he left the United States Attorney’s Office was the change in attitude among his fellow prosecutors. He said that it became unacceptable among his colleagues for him, or any other assistant United States Attorney, to socialize with lawyers from the public defender’s office. He recalled that in the early ‘70s, as prosecutors and public defenders we frequently got together on Friday afternoons at a bar near the courthouse for a couple of beers. A few years later, such contact was no longer tolerated.

While my friend witnessed the souring of the relationship from the prosecution side, the same shift in attitudes was occurring among public defenders. Lawyers I know who worked in the D.C. Public Defender[’s Office] during this period say that defenders became increasingly intolerant of prosecutors.

As one of the regulars at the Friday afternoon get-togethers back then, I wondered what had caused the change in the relationship between the offices. How did a positive working relationship become so negative?

In earlier years, lawyers got into the criminal justice system to try cases. Whatever side you were on, you were there because you enjoyed the rough-and-tumble of a big-city criminal court. Almost everybody stayed in their respective offices for about three years and then went elsewhere. For a first job out of law school, it was intense and fun.

The lawyers stopped having fun when the new lawyers started saying that the lawyers on the other side were politically motivated. In the ‘70s, crime became a hot political issue. Lawyers became prosecutors to fight crime. Others became defenders to fight the police. These lawyers argued that, because of their motivation, the other side was not to be trusted. These lawyers began to set the tone and change the culture of their respective offices. The fun was over. The distrust between the offices became institutionalized.

Is there a way to turn back the clock? Probably not. But it is worth recognizing that there was a time when lawyers treated one another better. There was a time when lawyers disagreed with one another all week long but were able to keep those differences in perspective.

The perspective is mutual respect. This means more than simply tolerating opposing counsel. It means having a genuine appreciation for each lawyer’s role in the system. It means recognizing that the other side has legitimate interests to protect and assuming that the other lawyer is acting in good faith. The more each of us is able to demonstrate such respect, the better our working relationships will be.

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