Professing concern for preserving the integrity of legal institutions, bar authorities enact codes of professional conduct. Institutional integrity though, cannot exist without some underlying concept of moral virtue. Our hope for institutional integrity depends less on adopting codes of professional conduct, than on whether moral virtue exists in the hearts of lawyers subject to these codes. God’s standards of virtue, which transcend the human-crafted standards of professional ethics, move us down a narrow road toward greater professional integrity in our legal institutions. With the help of our forgiving God who wrote the Law above our laws, may we commit to journey down that road together.
