to say that lawyers, at our best, are extraordinarily civic-minded, responsible, generous -- leaders in and pillars of our communities. But it's delusional for us to believe that we're the only people who answer to that description. It's the worst kind of elitism to maintain, even implicitly, that we occupy higher moral ground than everyone else. But fundamentally, that's the belief that underlies opposition to non-lawyer ownership of law firms. I call this "lawyer exceptionalism" -- the belief, held by lawyers and lawyers only, that our professional standards, ethical training and higher calling places us in a separate and better category than those without our advantages, both making us socially indispensable and justifying special treatment. You might never have articulated it in so many words, but I'll bet that subconsciously, that idea stirs feelings of recognition and affirmation. It's an assumption that was planted in our minds in law school and has been growing quietly in all the years since. If lawyer exceptionalism were valid, I'd expect lawyers to be unusually exemplary in their personal and professional conduct, law firms to be models of outstanding corporate behaviour, and the legal system to be as fair and accessible as this life will allow. You and I both know, of course, that that's not the case. We know it because we've dealt with too many lawyers, spent time inside too many law firms, and met too many people who can't afford or even understand the justice system. Mr. Weber referred to the