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In his book, The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything, Stephen M. R. Covey writes of a theoretical tax that is imposed in low trust environments—what he calls the “trust tax.”

Trust, Covey argues, greases the wheels of commerce and society while its absence slows those wheels. For Covey, low trust imposes an often-unseen tax of time, effort, expense and conflict on unwilling recipients of the tax.

Covey provides a brilliant example of a trust tax to illustrate his point: the “shoe bomber.” Those of us old enough to remember will recall that the shoe bomber, true to his alias, tried to rig a bomb to his shoes and then board a plane.

Before this, passengers moved more swiftly through airport security, not being bogged down with the need to scan shoes in the screening devices. After the shoe bomber—because of the fear that others would do the same—the low trust environment levied an annoying “shoe removal trust tax” on everyone at a security checkpoint.

Lawyers know the time-consuming tax associated with low trust environments. Many examples will come to mind. The untrustworthy negotiator who is not true to his word and, therefore, requires confirmatory written communications with even the simplest of exchanges. The litigator who withholds discoverable documents and requires extensive motion practice before making the production. The client who, because of unscrupulous business practices, motivates his counsel to write internal memoranda to document even the most basic advice. The list goes on.

But who pays this tax? It’s simple: Lawyers pass on this trust tax to their clients. The costs associated with low trust in legal environments are borne by clients often in the form of billable hours and constant delays.

The costs are generally not borne by the lawyers who created the low trust environment. In fact, lucrative litigation is often premised on the assumption that no one can be trusted, even though our opponents are often trustworthy officers of the court. In some ways, the trust tax is a profit center for a law firm.

We are in a profession that often pits its financial incentives against the very clients it seeks to serve. The billable hour is the enemy of efficiency. Instinctively understanding this tax, clients will often say, “The lawyers are the only ones winning here.”

On the other hand, an efficient and trustworthy lawyer may be punished by his or her firm for not meeting billable requirements. There is a tension between the needs of the client and the financial interests of legal counsel.

What, then, are the ethics of levying this trust tax on our clients? Is this even rightly called an ethical issue? We speak of collegiality, civility and candor in the profession, often for our own self-preservation because of the difficulty of working in the toxic environments surrounding the legal profession. But should we also speak of collegiality, civility and candor because our clients do not deserve to be taxed for our own poor behavior?

With fewer personal relationships and heightened polarization in the profession, the issue of trust won’t resolve itself anytime soon—if ever. But what if our clients could be educated about the trust tax so they could demand conduct avoiding the trust tax? But how?

Simple awareness of the existence of the trust tax may be the logical first step. Without awareness, there can be no change.

For example, before Carl Jung developed the concept of synchronicity, people experienced synchronicities that went unnoticed. Now, however, that most people are aware of the concept of synchronicity, more of us can notice it when it happens.

The same could hold true for the trust tax. Awareness of the trust tax will help the legal system and clients see it when it is being needlessly levied. With this awareness, being trustworthy counsel will be seen as a strength that clients seek out. And “no new trust taxes” will be the mantra of clients who deserve an efficient and effective legal system.

Tom Williams is a member of Stoll Keenon Ogden. An advocate for restorative justice, Williams was recently featured on the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center’s podcast in an episode entitled “Big Love: Attorney Tom Williams on Contemplative Practice, Compassionate Justice and the Lawyer as a Healer.” Williams and his wife, Sarah, live in Louisville, Kentucky, and have three children—Lilly, Lincoln and Nelson.

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This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Association.