When my son Callon was an exchange student at the Colombian Naval Academy in South America, he heard shocking stories about officers siphoning funds that were meant to equip their units and selling out their comrades-in-arms to the drug cartels. Actions like these are not mere violations of rules. They jeopardize national security and put lives at risk.
Perhaps more than anything, this experience taught him the practical value of the Honor Code he lived under as a student at the U.S. Naval Academy and later upheld after his selection as the Midshipman Honor Advisor. The Naval Academy Honor Code, which demands honesty and integrity, is more than words he was required to memorize. It is essential, just as the right training and equipment are, to our national defense.
For the legal profession, our honor code is our Canon of Ethics and it has much the same effect. It is essential to the administration of justice.
Excerpted from the Litigation Section of the State Bar of Texas’s report, The Advocate. To read the full article, click here.