Ethics course curriculum set by DuPage Bar

The DuPage County Bar Association has embarked on two major initiatives designed to raise the level of ethics and professionalism about attorneys in the 18th Circuit.

The DCBA has created an Academy of Bar Leaders that entails a 20-hour leadership training program, in seven sessions, in cooperation with the Leadership, Ethics and Values Department of North Central College.

The curriculum includes discussion of three roles a DCBA member should play in enhancing one’s professional influence. They are Lawyer as Counselor, Lawyer as Advocate, and Lawyer as Citizen.

Forty members are participating. The first group of Fellows of the ABL will be inducted at the President’s Ball in May.

The bar association also is partnering with the 18th Circuit Court in formation of a Commission on Professionalism, co-chaired by DCBA President Alfred Spitzzeri, a member of the ISBA Assembly, and Chief Judge Ann B. Jorgensen, a member of the Bench and Bar Section Council.

The first goal of the 23-member commission is to draft an aspirational Code of Professionalism for the DuPage County legal community.