NCJ Number
72794
Journal
Indiana Law Journal Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Dated: (1979) Pages: 627-635
Date Published
1977
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This essay focuses on legal ethics, with commentaries on emotional aspects of ethical decisions, limitations on attorneys' freedom of choice, the position of the individual attorney as a member of a group, and the implications of client-oriented values.
Abstract
Much of legal ethics literature tends to obscure rather than illuminate professional responsibility problems. It tends to ignore the proposition that attorneys' actions and decisions are the result of interaction processes among attorneys, clients, and the groups to which they belong. Emotional problems can arise for the attorney because the law can be unclear, unpredictable, and unjust. Further, the law is a helping profession in which practitioners are faced with subtle and difficult conflicts of interests among themselves, their clients, and society, frequently involving distressing human circumstances. Coping with the resulting internal conflicts is part of every attorney's personal agenda. In addition, practitioners are faced with situations where their freedom of choice is limited. For example, young attorneys are sometimes instructed by their employers (i.e., senior partners in the firm) to perform tasks considered unethical, such as file groundless motions. In addition, attorneys' membership in professional groups is both seductive and coercive, and working in groups is notoriously difficult. Attorneys are responsible not only for their own actions but for the actions of other attorneys as well, as the profession is basically self-governed. Finally, in their advocacy and advancement of a client's interests, attorneys should neither implicate themselves in wrongdoing nor confuse or obstruct the search for truth. A realistic goal in the attorney-client relationship must be the greatest possible truth and candor, recognizing that absolute candor is not possible. Footnotes are included.