LEGALLY
Speaking
Doing Right … Leaders and Beyond
By
Lloyd W . Lowrey Jr .
“ Always do right . This will gratify some people and astonish the rest .”
Mark Twain
Lloyd Lowrey is the shareholder in charge of the Gilroy office of Noland Hamerly , Etienne & Hoss , a professional corporation of attorneys at law . Lloyd ’ s practice emphasizes real property , water , public agencies and business and nonprofit organizations .
LEADERS
April 4 was an exciting day for me and an important day for Gilroy . About twenty-five present and future leaders of our community spent an afternoon discussing ethics and character in their lives and work . The 2011 Class of Leadership Gilroy received an overview of ethics and the Character Counts ! Program , heard from community leaders in journalism , public safety , law , finance and banking and education and then discussed ethical dilemmas in each of those professions . Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Gilroy and organized by the Leadership Gilroy Board , the afternoon had the following objectives :
• To gain an understanding of ethics
• To learn how ethics plays an important role in various professions
• Learn the importance of a code of conduct as a citizen , community , student , employee , employer , etc .
• Be introduced to ethical decision making models
• Be introduced to the “ Six Pillars of Character ” ( Trustworthiness , Respect , Responsibility , Fairness , Caring and Citizenship ) of the Josephson Institute and learn how these pillars are supported in our community .
As the sixteen cass members listened to presentations by Mark Derry of the Gilroy Dispatch , Jim Gillio , Acting Captain of the Gilroy Police Department , Thomas Rossmeissl of Terra Law LLP , Susan Black of Pinnacle Bank , and Fred Tovar of Stanford University , and the Gilroy Unified School District Board , they gained a greater appreciation of the need for character education and constant review of what it means to do the right thing in every part of our lives and the decisions we make every day . I am deeply grateful for the generosity and commitment that allowed this unit on character and ethics to be added to the Leadership Gilroy curriculum .
BEYOND
An intriguing example of how ethical decisions pervade our lives that has been gaining attention and coverage in articles and interviews involves the increasing digital presence many of us are creating and what happens to that presence after our physical life ceases . This of course has always been an issue for those creative people whose creations live on . Today many more of us have pictures , musings , accounts – all kinds of personal information – stored in places we will never see . These “ digital assets ” are discussed in articles on Internet web sites like “ the digital beyond ” and books like Your Digital Afterlife and events like the Second Annual Digital Death Day to be held in the San Francisco Bay Area in May . The conference will consider topics like “ The archiving , networking and post mortem engagement of ‘ digital remains .’ This leads us to consider what place digital information has in our lives legally , sentimentally and historically .” ( http :// digitaldeathday . com /).
Ethically , the pillars of character involved with decisions and planning for the disposition of our digital assets are perhaps Responsibility and Caring . We should deal responsibly with our assets , digital and otherwise , and we should care about whoever will have to deal with our assets after us .
We probably think about and value bank , brokerage , insurance and similar accounts that we have set up to keep track of financially significant assets . We may not give a fig about a particular digital page or information account that we created and populated with pictures and personal information . The former likely will find their way into our wills , trusts or other instructions . The latter may be left for those we leave behind to deal with on their own . But any of our “ digital assets ” likely will require passwords or similar access keys . It is tough enough when I forget a password … what about my poor executor or trustee who doesn ’ t even know where to start looking because I didn ’ t leave instructions or information about the passwords and keys ? Services like “ Legacy Locker ” can help to preserve the keys . There may be differences of opinion between those I leave behind about whether that picture or comment I posted or alter ego I created should live on or be consigned to the digital shredder . Leave instructions .
As we become more aware of how much information and digital assets we have to deal with , we should each consider and take steps to pass on the digital keys to those assets , and instructions and authority for someone to deal with our digital lives .
It ’ s the right thing to do .
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