As I write this, I am working from home in my pajamas. Not “athleisure,” not “business on top, sweatpants on the bottom.” Actual pajamas. Flannel. And my feet are inside a brand-new Christmas foot massager that hums away my arch pain.

Meanwhile, I am complaining to my wife. I am airing my grievance that standards have changed. That professionalism, as I once understood it, has shifted beneath my feet (which, again, are being kneaded by a machine that did not exist when I went to law school).

And here is the truth. We have all agreed it has changed. Quietly. Collectively. Without a meeting, a memo, or a footnote.

Once upon a time, professionalism meant something fairly concrete. You showed up somewhere. You wore certain clothes. You used certain titles. You did not appear on screen from your spare bedroom while a dog barked in the background and your coffee mug advertised your child’s elementary school fundraiser.

Professionalism at one time meant wearing a suit and tie and working in an office five days a week. A lawyer would not dream of meeting with a client dressed in anything other than a suit. But today professionalism is not so much defined by what we wear or where we work. 

We now operate in a new normal, a world where the known rules are thinner and the unknown expectations feel thicker. Norms are being negotiated in real time. We are feeling our way into what is acceptable, appropriate, or professional.

What, then, should professionalism mean in this new normal?

It should mean respect for the court and the legal process and for our adversaries, even when they are difficult, unreasonable, or wrong. Professionalism is revealed in whether we can disagree without demeaning, advocate without belittling, and push our position without personalizing the conflict. Civility is not weakness. It is discipline. It is the ability to keep the focus on the merits rather than the emotions.

Professionalism should also mean honesty, especially when honesty is inconvenient. It is being candid with the court even when the law is not on our side. It is being straightforward with clients about risks, costs, and likely outcomes rather than telling them what they want to hear. It is dealing fairly with opposing counsel instead of hiding the ball or exploiting technicalities for sport. Trust is still the currency of the profession, and it is built slowly and destroyed quickly, regardless of whether the lawyer building it is sitting in a corner office or at a kitchen table.

At its core, professionalism is about care. It is about caring for our clients as people, not just files or billing entries. It is about representing their interests zealously but also responsibly. Zeal does not require hostility. Advocacy does not require incivility. Some of the most effective lawyers I know are those who can be firm without being abrasive, persistent without being punitive, and strategic without being scorched-earth. Professionalism lives in that balance.

And professionalism should include excellence, tempered by humility. It is striving to do high-quality work, to be prepared, thoughtful, and competent, while recognizing that none of us gets it right all the time. It is being willing to learn, to listen, and to acknowledge mistakes when they occur. The profession is demanding enough without pretending that perfection is the price of admission.

These are not aesthetic standards. They are ethical ones. They have nothing to do with dress codes, office locations, or whether a dog wanders into the frame during a virtual hearing. They have everything to do with character, judgment, and restraint. In a world where the old external markers of professionalism have faded, what remains is the substance, and that substance matters more than ever.

Professionalism was never really about the suit. The suit just made it easier to recognize. In the new normal, professionalism is defined by how we treat others, how we honor our obligations, and how we carry ourselves when no one is policing the optics. We may no longer agree on what lawyers should wear or where they should work, but we can still agree that professionalism is measured not by appearances, but by conduct. And that standard, thankfully, still fits.