If  I  had to select a theme for  this month’s issue of the Advocate, it would probably be “Professionalism.”  The Professionalism Dinner and Aw ard is coming up simultaneously with the arrival of this issue on April 19.  Thanks go out to our committee chairs Suzanne Farace and the Hon. Ruth Jakubowski.

We also have our annual Law Day events scheduled for May 2.   It too is a reminder of why we chose this profession as a career and why it is so important to the maintenance of our society.  Kudos go to Phil Tirabassi and his committee for organizing this event.  With the participation of Association members, I am sure it will be a great day.

Two recent events criss-cross in my mind as I write this.  The Honorable Walter Haile  passed  away  a   couple of days ago.   Judge Haile was our oldest living Past-President of this Association.  He was President in 1953.   Not  a  lot  of  people  now active  in the Association even  recall  his  tenure on the  bench, let alone his presidency of the Association.   Old, though I may be, his tenure as President escapes even my recollection, but I do remember him as a judge.  My memories, however, are  skewed  a  bit,  for  I was his bailiff/law clerk, right before I left the courthouse for practice with the State of Maryland.   He was great  to me, kind and courteous, and I truly enjoyed working  with  him.  There are  lots  of  Judge  Haile   stories,  but  what  I think is truly worth noting  are  the  changes  that   occurred   not 
continued on next page only over this man’s lifetime but over his career at the bar and bench.   The world really did change in very dramatic and profound ways, and people had to adjust to those changes.

The other event that occurred this past week was the visit from a delegation of Russian attorneys.  We were so pleased and happy to be able to be with them one morning in old Courtroom 5 through the good graces of Judge Turnbull.  They were thrilled to sit in the jury box with Judge Bollinger, and a thank you goes out to him for his courtesy and instruction to these fellow members of the bar.   These were very bright people, and very sophisticated in their grasp of technology.  They were also fairly young and excited about the changes and opportunities now available in Russia.

Would the jurists, whose portraits adorn the walls of Courtroom 5 and who presided over and participated in our courts in the 1940’s – 1970’s, have ever imagined our bar association hosting Russian attorneys?  Think then of the changes Judge Haile saw during his lifetime in both society and in the law.

Are we prepared to meet the same degree of change?  It seems to me that slowly and almost imperceptibly we too are experiencing dramatic changes within our profession.  Twenty years from now when we look back on the preceding and current decade I hope that we will be able to point with some pride on the changes that have occurred and on our adaptation to them.  May we live in interesting times.