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http://www.wsba.org/media/publications/barnews/ethics/jan-99-ethics.htm
The Preamble to the Rules of Professional ConductAn Important Guide to Professionalism by Barrie Althoff, WSBA Chief Disciplinary Counsel. Opinions expressed herein are the author's and are not official or unofficial WSBA positions. Most of us consult the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPCs) only when we recognize a specific ethical problem. Usually this is when we are uncertain whether we should or should not do something, and then we tend to read the RPCs to our advantage, hoping they will allow us to do what we want. Sometimes, after we have already done something, we consult them retrospectively, usually with a certain trepidation, to see whether what we have already done was ethically permissible. At those times, we tend to read the RPCs narrowly like a criminal statute, with all of the marvelous twists of thought and justifications we lawyers are capable of, to prove that we did not violate them. In our haste to resolve a specific problem, we often leap into the RPCs to find a particular rule in the midst of the nearly 11,000 words of the RPCs. In doing so we usually skip over the Preamble to the RPCs. We often do this without thinking of what the RPCs are really all about. We forget that the RPCs are not to be consulted only in a moment of decision, action or crisis, but are also to be consulted as a guide to basic standards of behavior (even if only minimal ones) on how to become a more complete and more fulfilled professional. The etymology of the word preamble, "to walk in front of," should help us understand the Preamble's central role in our ethics rules.

Full Article: http://www.wsba.org/media/publications/barnews/ethics/jan-99-ethics.htm

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