Lawyers and ethics

What do you call 5,000 dead lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? A good start!

Why won't sharks attack lawyers? Professional courtesy!

These are just two of hundreds of lawyer jokes found on the Internet. Looking at the sheer number of jokes, no other profession is probably as disdained by society. This is certainly true in the United States, from where most of the lawyer jokes originated, notwithstanding the glorification of the profession through John Grisham's best selling novels, popular TV series LA Law and Julia Robert's stunning performance in Erin Brockovich.

Now, Indonesian lawyers are fast catching up with their American counterparts in carving a notoriety for themselves.

The way lawyers are exploiting weaknesses and loopholes in the law to delay the process of businessman Hutomo Mandala Putra going to jail is only the latest example of how people in the profession are obstructing justice in this country.

Lawyers representing the son of former president Soeharto, who has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for corruption, are using every trick in the book to delay the day when Tommy goes to jail. When jail became imminent on Friday, they insisted on having the original presidential decree which rejected the appeal for pardon, and not a copy, before telling their client to comply with the order to go to jail.

Earlier, having applied for a pardon from President Abdurrahman Wahid on behalf of their client, they also sought a judicial review from the Supreme Court. There could not be more contradictory actions than these two, because the first requires the client's admission of guilt, while the second means that he was insisting on his innocence. Yet, the lawyers went ahead with both options in an attempt to delay the legal process.

There are many other instances where lawyers went overboard in defending their clients, and on many occasions, they won their cases, thanks to weaknesses in the law and the legal system, as well as the incompetence of government prosecutors.

The most glaring example of this was the way lawyers delayed the process of the corruption investigation into Soeharto for as long as they could. And once the trial began in August, they defeated the government even before Soeharto set foot in the courtroom on account of his fragile health.

Other celebrated cases where lawyers have made their presence strongly felt include the investigation of several Army generals in connection with the violence that erupted in East Timor after the referendum last year, and a host of other cases of human rights abuses and corruption. Many lawyers have also had their day in court in most bankruptcy cases, even when the corporations they defended have technically been bankrupt for some time.

Lawyers are probably the only people who have made lots of money out of Indonesia's economic crisis of the last three years. Various corporate takeovers and bankruptcies and the ensuing prosecution of their owners as well as alleged corruptors meant that there was plenty of money to be made by lawyers.

Indonesia's transition to democracy and return to the rule of law has also been a boon for the profession. But democracy is the least of their concerns. Many of these highly paid lawyers are making big bucks defending alleged corruptors and human rights violators, exploiting weaknesses in the legal system. Even one or two lawyers who once claimed to be champions of democracy and human rights have not been able to resist the temptation and have switched camps to defend the very people they once criticized.

While their actions to exploit loopholes in the law are perfectly legitimate, they are not ethical, especially when it means delaying or obstructing the process of justice, which this country so badly needs today to reinvigorate confidence in its people and among foreign investors. They are complicating Indonesia's already difficult march toward democracy. In the case of the bankruptcy cases, they are also slowing down the process of Indonesia's economic recovery.

Can anyone put a stop to this? The prospect looks grim. The initiative must come from people in the profession themselves rather than from outside. Unfortunately, there is not one professional association but several, each one representing different cliques with different interests. Each is likely to have a different set of code of ethics, if it has one at all, and enforcement is likely to be difficult if there is more than one professional association in a competitive environment. But one thing is sure, unless lawyers start to put their own house in order, the profession will soon be looked down on by society very much the same way Americans look at their lawyers: With disdain.