Opinion ID: 1925132
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Delaware Attorney's Oath

Text: The Respondent, like so many before him and so many since, took the following oath upon his admission to the Delaware Bar in 1989: I, . . ., do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Delaware; that I will behave myself in the office of an Attorney within the Courts according to the best of my learning and ability and with all good fidelity as well to the Court as to the client; that I will use no falsehood nor delay any person's cause through lucre or malice. [18] This oath is, in its essential language, the same one taken by Delaware lawyers since colonial days. When the very first Delaware lawyer, Thomas Spry, was admitted to the Bar in 1676, his behavior was of paramount importance. Court records reflect the following: Upon the petition of Thomas Spry desiring that he might be admitted to plead some people's cases in the court, etc. The worshipful Court have granted him leave so long as the Petitioner Behaves himself well and Carrys himself answerable thereunto. [19] Thus, the ideal that a Delaware lawyer will behave . . . in the office of an Attorney is a first principle of the Delaware Bar that dates back a hundred years before the Revolutionary War. Today, that principle remains a fundamental tenet of the American legal profession. As former Chief Justice of the United States, Warren E. Burger, stated: lawyers who know how to think but have not learned how to behave are a menace and a liability not an asset to the administration of justice . . . I suggest the necessity for civility is relevant to lawyers because they are the living exemplarsand thus teacherseveryday in every case and in every court; and their worst conduct will be emulated . . . more readily than their best. [20]