New State Bar President Promotes Professionlism

Political Interference in Judiciary Concerns LR’s Robert Cearley

Professionalism is the banner unfurled over the 4,200-member Arkansas Bar Association by its new president, Robert M. Cearley Jr.

“The issue of professionalism has been on my mind for sometime,” Cearley says. “It’s one of the things that caused me to seek this position. There’s a lot of hand-wringing about the public image of lawyers, that we need to do something about it.

The perception is that lawyers don’t clean their own house. Criticism that the [internal policing] process is too slow, secret and soft is legitimate. If we want the public to have confidence in us, that needs to change. It needs to be certain, swifter and, when appropriate, more stern.”

Ethics and integrity, competence and dedication, and civility are among topics Cearley discusses with a quiet, missionary-like zeal.

Those unfamiliar with the Little Rock lawyer might be tempted to relegate him to the status of a noble-minded policy wonk promoting lofty notions like truth, justice and the American way.

He loves law, and his advocacy for professional ideals is one manifestation of that abiding affection. It’s a passion that has brought him national acclaim along with wealth.

Cearley (pronounced Keer-lee) stepped into the public spotlight as the lead counsel challenging the constitutionality of the state’s creation science law in 1982.

Creation science was effectively declared an oxymoron in McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, and the law was repealed.

“The courts held that it met none of the tests of science,” Cearley says.

His second high-profile case came when he sued the Rogers-based Daisy Manufacturing Co. The 1993 product liability suit stemmed from a 10-year-old Little Rock boy who was rendered a quadriplegic after he was shot in the heart with a Daisy BB gun.

A tandem case involved an 11-year-old in Marquette, Mich. He suffered severe brain damage after he was shot in the head with a similar multiple-pump air rifle, capable of firing a BB with the same muzzle velocity as a .22-caliber rifle.

“Both were settled, the first for an undisclosed amount and the second one for $5 million,” Cearley says.

In both instances, the injury-causing shot was inflicted with the mistaken belief that the gun was empty. Cearley blames a faulty design that allows a BB to become lodged in the feeding mechanism but later break free and enter the firing chamber.

“They’ve not redesigned the gun although that’s something we advocate,” he says. “The Consumer Product Safety Commission has never responded to our complaint to redesign the gun and/or reduce its firing power.”

The litigation drew attention as a segment on ABC’s 20/20 news magazine in 1996. The following year, Cearley received the Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award from the Arkansas Trial Lawyer’s Association and the Golden Gavel Award for Exemplary Service from the Arkansas Bar Association.

Public court of opinion

Cearley is concerned about how politics has grown as a threat to an independent judiciary.

“You can’t have judges worrying about making a single decision when they’re exercising their judicial discretion and doing what’s right.”

The ABA supports the merit system, where potential state judges are recommended by a committee of lawyers and non-lawyers for selection by the governor. After that appointment, judges would come up for a thumbs up or thumbs down vote by the public.

The perceived impact of special interest groups on the electorate scares the ABA. It doesn’t help when public opinion is growing more vocal in asking why the law and justice seem to be more mutually exclusive.

“Hopefully, the law is a framework for justice that will provide a roadwork for obtaining justice,” Cearley says. “Ideally, the two would come together, and when the two don’t, I suppose there’s cause for concern.”t

Promoting more pro bono service among the ABA membership is high on Cearley’s agenda. He highlights the need to expand the group’s charity work by pointing out that 500,000 residents of Arkansas qualify for pro bono service.

“In order to meet the needs of the poor, people have to give of their time,” Cearley says. “This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Arkansas Bar Association, and I’m encouraging our members to commit to 100 hours of community service.”

The jury duty process is among the items he would like to see modernized. Cearley advocates a one-day or one-trial mode for jury service, instead of the more demanding structure that was geared to a less mobile era.

“We need to change the way we try cases,” Cearley says. “In many ways, we’re doing it the same as the horse-and-buggy days. We need to respect jurors’ time and give a greater number of people the opportunity to serve as a juror,” Cearley says.