Last week, I attended “A Conversation with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson,” where Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson posed questions to the U.S. Supreme Court Justice regarding her recently released memoir “Lovely One.”
Held at the House of Hope in Chicago’s historic Pullman community, the conversation included Justice Jackson’s reflections on the individuals who shaped her life and career, the significance of becoming the first Black woman confirmed to the nation’s highest court, and the necessity of civic engagement.
During this conversation, Justice Jackson reflected on experiences that illustrate values essential to legal professionalism. Below are a few that made a particular impression on me.
1. ‘You can get angry, or you can be a Supreme Court Justice.’
To prepare for her confirmation hearing, Justice Jackson said she spent hours with White House staff, who led her through a simulation of the intense questioning she might face from various members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In providing guidance on how to respond to adversarial questions, Justice Jackson recounted that one staff member wisely emphasized the importance of maintaining her composure, saying, “You can get angry, or you can be a Supreme Court justice.”
This same principle applies to lawyers during highly contentious hearings, negotiations, and depositions.
You can become uncivil and argumentative, potentially drawing objections, losing strategic focus, and undermining your professional reputation. Or you can be an effective advocate for your client, remaining civil and composed, efficiently advancing your client’s interests, and bolstering your credibility with the court and opposing counsel.
2. Honoring everyone’s ‘unique machinery’
While discussing the role family has played in her life, Justice Jackson shared that one of her daughters is autistic. (Note: I describe her daughter as “autistic,” as opposed to “a person with autism,” as Justice Jackson writes in “Lovely One” that this is her daughter’s preference [see p. 340].)
This diagnosis compelled Justice Jackson to search for schools and environments in which her daughter could flourish and cultivate her talents.
She realized that she could not assume that what motivated her as a child (e.g., being assured that she could achieve anything through hard work) would be effective and appropriate for her daughter. She said she had to respect the “unique machinery” of her daughter’s brain. (See p. 310.)
Recognizing the varied ways in which people process information and the world around them — rather than assuming that our perspective is universal — is essential to effective client representation.
It helps ensure that we do not miss facts, arguments, or approaches that would better advance a client’s goals. Whether designing client intake forms, framing arguments for juries, or preparing for mediation and negotiations, proactively seeking to understand and engage multiple ways of communicating, behaving, and interacting helps lawyers more comprehensively and successfully serve their clients.
3. Recognizing our shared humanity
One of the most moving stories Justice Jackson shared about her childhood was finding a handwritten note at her grandmother’s house in which almost every word was misspelled (e.g., “Brok sink—Wate for repare”). (See p. 56.)
Justice Jackson, who was eight years old at the time, had recently won a first-prize ribbon in a writing competition and she recounted how hard she laughed when she discovered the note with so many errors.
However, when Justice Jackson showed the note to her mother, her mother was appalled at her laughter and asked: “Who do you think wrote this note?” Her mother then reprimanded her, telling her never to laugh at someone who could not read or write as well as she could or who was not blessed with the same opportunities as she had.
Justice Jackson quickly realized that her beloved grandmother, who had not been afforded the opportunity to finish grade school, had written the note. Justice Jackson said she felt mortified and began to sob. Although she apologized profusely, she wrote that “the memory of that note would never fail to humble me.” (See p. 58.)
When describing this experience, Justice Jackson emphasized the importance of not equating wisdom with degrees or thinking oneself better than someone else on account of educational accomplishments.
The Preamble to the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct emphasizes that lawyers “should use the law’s procedures only for legitimate purposes and not to harass or intimidate others.” The principles of equality and the respectful treatment of others without bias and prejudice should be cornerstones on which lawyers’ interactions with others are grounded.
As Justice Thurgood Marshall once wrote, “In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.”
Understanding the ‘awesome power of the law’
In “Lovely One,” Justice Jackson describes an internship she had in college at a public defense nonprofit organization in Harlem.
“That summer,” she wrote, “I understood for the first time the awesome power of the law to heal or hurt real people.” (See p. 163.)
All lawyers serve in roles infused with this “awesome power.” Therefore, it is imperative that we keep professionalism as our north star and that values of civility, inclusion, and equality empower us to use the law to uplift and edify the people whom we serve.
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