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ROLE OF A LAWYER IN SOCIETY

• by Social Laws Today
• March 5, 2021
• 6 minutes read
• 3 years ago

Yerram Geetha : ROLE OF A LAWYER IN SOCIETY

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

A lawyer is a representative of the client or a neutral third party, a law enforcement officer, and a public servant who is especially responsible for the standard of justice. Without attorneys, you will have nobody to defend you from the corruption of the law.

It was normal for individuals to beat people until this was opposed by prosecutors and they admonished it. Then it was common for no one to remind them that they had the right to remain silent, and the right to a lawyer, while they were in jail and questioned. In today’s world, legal disputes typically arise on a daily basis. More certainly, you do not have the time to deal with all of them.

In order to take care of your whole legal situation, it is very good to have a solicitor; it is one sure way to free yourself from needless headaches. Suppose you are running a business, you might need a good business law Attorney for Incorporation or filing for bankruptcy . If you are getting a divorce, it’s important to hire a good divorce lawyer. Similarly, if you are facing eviction or foreclosure, you need a lawyer who is good in eviction Law. And if you do not have issues now, finding an attorney is a very good idea.

Role of a Lawyer in Society

The world in which individuals exist is full of acts and choices deemed right and wrong. Some acts are considered right and wrong by the rules, but they also recognize various cultural and moral acts in this way. Because of these distinct laws and beliefs, the uncertainty and debatable scenarios easily become known.

The laws of society are set in place to ultimately protect people.

Attorneys give clients a sense of security in achieving their life goals, knowing someone would have their back if they need assistance. In fostering social harmony, lawyers play a vital role by enforcing the law in a way that responds to the fundamental requirements of justice, i.e., fair outcomes achieved by rational procedures.

Society’s Advisor:

Prosecutors seek to protect citizens and businesses in civil courts and to promote justice in criminal trials. Lawyers work with their clients as advisors, educating them about their liberties, and legal practices, and also empowering them to navigate the often-confusing legal system.

People will have to research the law and past court rulings without counsel and a competent legal network to learn how those decisions are made and understand how those judgments and laws relate to their circumstances.

Also Read: How to become a good lawyer in India

Confidentiality keeping:

Some conversations will be confidential with the lawyer, ensuring that a prosecutor will not discuss the case with others without your permission, including the police or the trial, under the specialized legal network.

There are certain times when the prosecutor is going to warn others about you or the case.

Legal services are provided by lawyers

Legal services are characterized as government law-related services or legal issues, such as providing legal advice, filing a lawsuit, defending against criminal charges, etc., which are provided by lawyers.

Attorneys are divided into two major classifications: defense lawyers and prosecutors. In courts, prosecutors represent and prosecute the accused or victims. One can quickly employ an attorney to get assistance with legal matters with the help of attorney network services.

The lawyers should be willing to counsel their clients and attend to legal matters outside the courtroom realm with the aid of the professional legal network and its offerings.

Lawyers are in a unique position to support their legal concerns with persons, associations, and organisations and to promote the public good. Public interest attorneys advocate civil movements for the common benefit of society to help those in need of legal aid who may not be able to afford lawyers otherwise. In order to support people with low wages, personal lawyers also do Bono work.

Lawyers are at the law court’s conventional mass mouthpiece. You may be unable to know what the constitution stipulates in your case. Your stake will be protected by competent counsel. The legal profession is, for the most part, self-governing. While self-government powers have also been granted to other professions, the legal profession is unique in this regard because of the strong association between the practice and the government and law enforcement systems. This correlation is reflected in the fact that absolute control over the legal profession is concentrated overwhelmingly.

Challenges to become a lawyer

As regards time commitment and financial investment, it is a massive undertaking to become a lawyer. It can be a difficult struggle to pass the bar and law school. Your inspiration will always depend on knowing what’s really good about this profession and also being able to see it out there on the horizon.

Poverty eradication, inequality and ignorance

Furthermore, lawyers are supposed to play a vital role in ensuring that, by the law, the less fortunate in society are enabled to advance their livelihood. To guarantee equality and social development, some initiatives could be implemented by lawyers. As a means of upholding human rights, activists are often expected to provide free services to a vulnerable community.

Justice preservation

When a prosecutor takes up a case, he is responsible for ensuring that the technicalities of the law do not lead to a miscarriage of justice. An attorney has a responsibility to use the law in a manner that preserves the rule of law, contributing to the administration of justice and the protection of rights. For the personal advantage of a lawyer, the experience and ability of a lawyer should not be retained but should be held in trust for the wider society.

Legislative liability

Inmate lawyers should be at the forefront of ensuring the establishment and preservation of a responsible legislature aimed at promoting rights and freedoms. Responsible legislation requires the establishment of a legislative system that respects citizens’ freedoms and rights. Advocates should also ensure that the laws enacted are not oppressive to society or racist.

Disciplinary proceedings

Codes of professional conduct for lawyers In compliance with national law and customary and accepted international norms and standards, the legal profession shall create codes of professional conduct for lawyers by its appropriate bodies, or through legislation.

In their professional capacity, claims or complaints made against lawyers shall be processed expeditiously and reasonably in compliance with appropriate procedures. Lawyers are entitled to a fair hearing, including the right to the support of a lawyer of their choosing. Disciplinary proceedings against lawyers shall be brought before, and subject to independent judicial review, an unbiased disciplinary committee appointed by a legal professional, before an independent regulatory authority or before a judge.

All disciplinary proceedings shall be established in compliance with, and taking into account, the Code of Professional Conduct and other accepted principles and ethics of the legal profession.

• https://www.slideshare.net/tabrezahmad/legal-education-in-india-2634245
• https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3206&context=mulr
• https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/roleoflawyers.aspx
• http://www.legalserviceindia.com/legal/article-4237-what-is-the-role-of-a-lawyer-in
• https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft8g5008f6&chunk.id=d0e28338&toc.id=&brand=ucpress

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These two sets of case studies show law firms having an impact on questions of broad social importance, through pro bono work and new initiatives.

They were researched, compiled and ranked by RSGI. “Winner” indicates the organisation won an FT Innovative Lawyers North America award for 2022.

Equity and racial justice

WINNER: Sidley Austin Originality: 9; Leadership: 10; Impact: 8; Total: 27 The property of Bruce’s Beach in California was taken from an African-American family through a racially motivated eminent domain action in 1924. The firm’s real estate partner, George Fatheree, approached the Bruce family and worked with them to have the land returned. The firm engaged a genealogist to determine legal heirs, advised on new legislation allowing the land’s transfer and changes to its use, and structured the exchange to avoid excessive tax liability. This has created a blueprint that can be replicated when returning land in other cases of racially motivated property theft.

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer O: 9; L: 8; I: 9; Total: 26 The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado campaign group asked the firm to challenge the action of Denver police when responding to local protests in 2020 following the death of George Floyd, who was killed after arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Video footage was used in evidence. The jury found in favour of 12 clients who suffered physical and emotional injuries. The city was held liable for violating the civil rights of protesters and the clients were awarded $14mn.

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel O: 7; L: 8; I: 9; Total: 24 The State and the City of New York had not raised pay rates for assigned legal counsel in more than 18 years. A pro bono team at the firm challenged this. The court ruled that the constitutional right of children and poor adults to effective counsel was suffering and ordered the state to increase counsel pay.

Kirkland & Ellis O: 8; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 23 The firm represented a coalition of students from Maryland’s historically black colleges and universities. It argued that Maryland provided fewer resources in comparison to other places of higher education. In May 2021, after 12 years, the coalition was awarded a $577mn settlement.

McGuireWoods O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21 In May, the firm published part two of a report into zoning and planning laws in Virginia and how they have perpetuated racial segregation. The study proposes possible policy solutions.

Orrick O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20 In 2021, the firm launched the Racial Justice Fellowship scheme, As part of this initiative, five lawyers are put into full-time placements with civil rights and economic empowerment organisations for one year.

White & Case O: 6; L: 6; I: 7; Total: 19 The firm’s Racial Justice Task Force has focused on criminal-justice reform, education, and economic empowerment.

WilmerHale O: 6; L: 6; I: 7; Total: 19 The firm’s Racial Justice Reform Initiative dedicates pro bono hours to supporting civil rights organisations on questions ranging from prisoner welfare to voting rights.

Responsible business

WINNER: Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough Originality: 8; Leadership: 9; Impact: 7; Total: 24 The firm is the founder and orchestrator of the Rural Healthcare Initiative, a collaboration of professional services and law firms providing pro bono education and consultancy services for struggling rural hospitals. The RHI has consulted with rural community hospitals and their boards in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Montana. Commended: Bob Wilson

DLA Piper O: 7; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 23 The firm is working with the International Association of Women Judges to assist with asylum and immigration paperwork for female judges fleeing Afghanistan after the US withdrawal of troops in 2021.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore O: 6; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 22 The firm’s incarcerated survivors’ initiative is a pro bono legal clinic. As well as setting precedents in several cases since the establishment of New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, which allows for resentencing if the offender was a victim of domestic violence, the firm is taking a systemic approach to promoting “decarceration”

Reed Smith O: 8; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 22 Part of the firm’s Global Environmental Sustainability Plan 2024 includes changing its billable hours policy. This allows employees to use 25 hours of their existing 140 hours of billable credit each year for non-billable work in sustainability-related leadership, advocacy, training, and development.

McDermott Will & Emery O: 8; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 21 In collaboration with tech company Meta, the firm is promoting diversity among inventors in patent applications. It also helps promote idea generation techniques that eliminate bias and supports the launch of the patent Diversity Pledge.

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius O: 7; L: 7 I: 7; Total: 21 After the US Supreme Court struck down Roe vs Wade, which had enshrined the constitutional right to abortion since 1973, the firm established a task force on reproductive rights. A portal provides businesses with up-to-date information state-by-state, and a hotline offers free legal advice.

Baker McKenzie O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20 The firm collaborated with in-house legal teams to produce state-specific editions of the Homeless Youth Handbook, an online legal guide — 13 have been created so far.

Dechert O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20 The firm used its expertise in creating offshore funds to establish a $20mn feeder fund for social impact investment in seed-stage businesses in India, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda.

Hogan Lovells O: 7; L: 6; I: 7; Total: 20 The firm requested, designed and negotiated a US-wide exemption for 11 product-specific Ukrainian steel tariffs.

McGuireWoods O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20 The firm’s Appellate Justice Initiative helps poor litigants navigate the appellate process, including more than a dozen pro bono appeals.

Orrick O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20 The firm partnered with campaign group Common Future to create an $800,000 loan fund for businesses owned by black and indigenous individuals, and people of colour.

Davis Wright Tremaine O: 6; L: 6; I: 7; Total: 19 The firm’s Tech Equity Hub 12-week accelerator programme provides tools, mentoring and community support for female black and Latina company founders.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19 The firm has created a proprietary pro bono clinic platform that has expanded its reach to vulnerable communities.

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International Edition

This volume marks the fifth annual volume published by the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy dedicated to Access to Justice. Each year, the special issue includes articles from nationally and internationally prominent academics and practitioners—from diverse backgrounds in areas such as international human rights, the economics of poverty, racial justice, capital punishment, clinical legal education, government public service, and pro bono private practice—who share a commitment to access to justice.

Many of the articles are drawn from presentations in the School of Law’s annual Public Interest Law Speakers Series, entitled Access to Justice: The Social Responsibility of Lawyers . This Series introduces our community to the ideas of outstanding academics and practitioners, highlights the responsibility of lawyers to ensure access to justice, and provides a forum for the law school and the wider University community to engage in a discussion of legal, social, and ethical issues that bear upon access to justice. This Series, begun in 1998–99, was developed in celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the School’s nationally recognized Clinical Education Program, through which many of our students are introduced to public service and public interest law practice.

Some of the articles are drawn from the Clinical Education Program’s annual Access to Equal Justice Colloquium on Creating Collaborations Between the University and the Community to Improve Access to Justice in Our Region . This colloquium, initiated in 2000–01 by the Association of American Law Schools, brings together civil and criminal attorneys; community leaders; government officials; judges; and faculty, staff, and students from local law schools and universities to collaborate on improving access to justice and the delivery of legal services in the region.

This volume, like the prior four volumes, provides a truly inspirational look, through the words and stories of real leaders, at the broad social justice responsibilities and aspirations of lawyers to foster access to justice for all.

Access to justice, Equality, Social responsibility, Legal profession

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• Contributors

Lawyers as Professionals and Citizens: Key Roles and Responsibilities in the 21st Century

Ben W. Heineman, Jr. is a former GE senior vice president for law and public affairs and a senior fellow at Harvard University’s schools of law and government. This post is based on an essay by Mr. Heineman, William F. Lee , and David B. Wilkins ; the complete publication is available here .

We have written a detailed essay presenting practical vision of the responsibilities of lawyers as both professionals and as citizens at the beginning of the 21 st century. Specifically, we seek to define and give content to four ethical responsibilities that we believe are of signal importance to lawyers in their fundamental roles as expert technicians, wise counselors, and effective leaders: responsibilities to their clients and stakeholders; responsibilities to the legal system; responsibilities to their institutions; and responsibilities to society at large. Our fundamental point is that the ethical dimensions of lawyering for this era must be given equal attention to—and must be highlighted and integrated with—the significant economic, political, and cultural changes affecting major legal institutions and the people and institutions lawyers serve.

We have chosen to write this essay as a joint statement from a former general counsel of a global corporation, a former managing partner of an international law firm, and a professor of the legal profession at a major law school. We therefore focus our discussion on the four ethical duties in the institutions we know best—corporate legal departments, large law firms, and leading law schools—and on the important connections among them. But we also hope that both the ethical framework we propose and our commitment to a shared responsibility for giving it practical effect will have resonance in the many other important settings in which lawyers work. The four duties are, we believe, central to what it means to be a lawyer, even as the practical expression of these responsibilities will undoubtedly vary by context and will require new and greater collaboration that reaches across many of the profession’s traditional divides.

In presenting our views, we are mindful of the dramatic changes in both the legal profession and in society that make the realization of our—or any other—ethical vision of lawyering especially difficult today. There is widespread agreement that the legal profession is in a period of stress and transition; its economic models are under duress; the concepts of its professional uniqueness are narrow and outdated; and, as a result, its ethical imperatives are weakened and their sources ill-defined. We are also mindful that some will resist the invitation to review and address the broad array of ethical issues we raise in a time in which so many of the profession’s traditional economic assumptions are in question. Nevertheless, we reject the idea that there is an inherent and irresolvable conflict between “business” and “service.” To the contrary, we believe that, while tradeoffs about resource allocation will certainly be required, the proper recognition of each of the four ethical duties we explore is ultimately essential to the sustainability of “business”—whether that is the “business” of companies, law firms, or law schools, or more broadly, the health of our economic and political system as a whole. We therefore hope that this essay will stimulate an integrated discussion among the broad range of actors with a stake in the future of the legal profession not just about the pressing economic issues in major legal institutions but also about the equally pressing concerns relating to ethical responsibilities.

The essay has six parts.

We first set out our basic framework. It explicates lawyers’ three fundamental roles as expert technicians, wise counselors, and effective leaders. It describes the sources and broad definitions of lawyers’ four responsibilities: duties to clients and stakeholders; duties to the legal system; duties to one’s own institution; and duties to the broader society. To effectively discharge these responsibilities, it argues that lawyers must not only have “core” legal competencies but also “complementary” competencies involving broad vision, knowledge, and organizational skills that, while not unique to lawyers, are essential to the counseling and leadership roles. This Part thus describes how our framework goes beyond the limits of the bar’s formal ethical rules and challenges lawyers as both professionals and as citizens.

Second, we describe the context for our analysis. While recognizing the profound importance of other entities, we explain that we have chosen leading companies, law firms, and law schools as the focus of our analysis because of their influence in setting norms for lawyers, their role in providing counselors and leaders across society, and their standing in public perception of the law. It outlines our assumptions about the large-scale forces transforming the economics of these institutions. These include accelerating competition, costs, technology development and transparency—and, in the case of companies and firms, undue focus on short-term profit maximization and profits per partner. All these factors gain greater force from globalization. A final contextual dimension is the cost and paradox of regulation of the legal profession: increasing the cost of becoming a lawyer while reducing the competition from other more effective and efficient providers of legal or legally related services. And, while noting that efforts to discharge the four responsibilities will entail allocation of resources and trade-offs, we maintain that forging a new, contemporary partnership between “service” and “business” is essential to the success, sustainability, and durability of these institutions.

Third, we discuss corporate law departments. Due to major trends in recent decades—the General Counsel becoming the senior counselor to boards and CEOs and the shift of power over money and matters from outside law firms to inside law departments—the General Counsel and inside lawyers have a special obligation to give practical meaning to the four responsibilities in leading corporations. The overarching theme of this Part is that the purpose of corporations, especially transnational ones, is the fusion of high performance with high integrity. Integrity is defined as ensuring robust adherence to formal rules, establishing binding ethical standards, advocating balanced public policy and fair political processes, and instilling the values of honesty, candor, fairness, reliability, and trustworthiness in employees. The General Counsel should also have a broad scope beyond law to include ethics, reputation, and geopolitical risk and should function as expert, counselor, and leader to assist the board and the business leaders in establishing an integrity culture in the institution. The General Counsel and all inside lawyers should aspire to be “lawyer-statespersons” who ask first “is it legal” but ask last “is it right,” and who can resolve the central tension of being both a partner to the business leader and the ultimate guardian of the corporation’s integrity. Inside lawyers have a special calling to surface, analyze, and recommend actions relating both to the corporation’s employees and to other stakeholders that go beyond what the formal legal and accounting rules require and that address the many ethical issues facing global business in challenging environments. Finally, inside lawyers must recognize that they have a shared responsibility—and the obligation to share costs—with firms to provide challenging experiences and training for young lawyers. They must also use their influence (through, for example, new supplier guidelines) to encourage law firms to join with companies in addressing vital issues like provision of pro bono services, diversity, and needed reforms in the legal system both at home and abroad by making these issues important considerations in firm retention.

Fourth, we address law firms and the imbalance between “service” and “business” that has resulted from a myopic focus on short-term economics. To be sure, there have been benefits to the profession from increased transparency concerning operation of firms and the resulting increased competition among firms. But the relentless focus on short-term economic success has adversely affected the culture and institutional integrity of firms; the training, mentoring, and development of young lawyers; the ability of firms and their lawyers to service the poor and underprivileged; and the ability of firms and their lawyers to devote time to the profession and the broader needs of society. We urge a rebalancing of the sometimes competing goals of “economic” and “professional” success. This rebalancing will require leadership and vision which will (1) affirm the priority of excellence and quality over mere hours generation; (2) articulate a vision for and create a culture which revives and restores the institutional fabric of firms; (3) affirm the commitment to meaningful mentoring and development of young lawyers; (4) affirm the commitment to the profession, including pro bono services and the “Rule of Law”; and (5) affirm the role of lawyers as the architects of a well-functioning constitutional democracy. This rebalancing will not be easy and will require commitment to long-term goals and values, even at the expense of short-term economics.

Fifth, we turn our attention to the implications of our framework for “leading” law schools. We begin from the premise that law schools play a critical—but not exclusive—role both in teaching students to become expert technicians, wise counselors, and astute leaders, and in generating knowledge about law and legal institutions (including about the legal profession itself), and about the relationship between these institutions and the health and welfare of the broader society. To achieve these twin goals—and to find a proper balance between the two—law schools should reexamine how they are preparing students for the challenges that they will face throughout their increasingly diverse careers, and how faculty members understand their obligations to the legal framework and society, and to the law school as an institution. With respect to educating students, we urge law schools to create courses that focus directly on teaching lawyering roles and responsibilities in specific contexts and that explore key complementary competencies. We also advocate breaking down the artificial barriers that currently exist between “theory” and “practice,” and between “law” and other disciplines, by developing new teaching materials (for example “business school” style case studies), new faculty (for example, Professors of Practice with significant experience outside of the academy, and team teaching with faculty from other disciplines), and a new integration between the placement function and the core educational objectives of the school. To achieve these goals, we put forward a number of specific reforms designed to restructure and refocus the third year of law school, while rejecting calls to eliminate it altogether. Finally, we underscore the critical need for deans and faculty to rededicate themselves to articulating a broad but nevertheless common understanding of the purposes of legal education and legal scholarship that gives appropriate recognition to the role that law schools—and law professors—play as part of the legal profession in addition to their role as an important part of the academy. Faculty and administrators should then use this purpose to guide the difficult tradeoffs around hiring, promotion, curricula, research, funding, and the allocation of other scarce resources that will inevitably be required to begin to achieve these common goals.

Finally, we briefly discuss ways in which leading corporate law departments, law firms, and law schools can collaborate jointly to address the needs of young lawyers, to act on the needs of the legal system and society, to bridge the divide between the profession and the professoriate, and to develop better information on lawyers and the legal profession both here and abroad. It sets out next steps which include seeking short, written comments from leading thinkers which will be published early next year and holding a conference to discuss the issues raised both in this essay and in the comments at Harvard Law School in the first half of 2015.

The complete publication is available here .

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A Matter of Perspective: A Lawyer’s Place in Society

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By Michael Serota, ABA Student Lawyer Journal

I hate lawyers,” she said. “All of them?” I replied, in disbelief. “All of them.” This was the breakfast conversation I was part of on New Year’s Day. While most were still sleeping, I was the unfortunate recipient of one woman’s frustration with both her private attorney and the legal system, which stemmed from an ongoing family dispute over her parents’ estate.

As a third-year law student at Berkeley Law School, and a future member of the legal profession, I attempted to point out that all lawyers do not deserve her fervent hatred, and that even the lawyers involved in her own dispute might very well be doing the best they could. She stood unwavering, however, issuing an across-the-board indictment of the entire profession based only on her personal experience dealing with one lawyer on a highly emotional issue.

This was one of many conversations I have had in the last year regarding the lawyer’s place in society, and I have yet to even become a member of the bar. It seems that my excitement about the law and my optimism for the next generation of lawyers makes me an easy target for those who seek to disparage the legal profession. As I found out on New Year’s Day, the number of people disgruntled with my chosen profession only continues to grow.

Sometimes it seems inevitable that lawyers will be held in disrepute as long as the media continues to reduce the legal profession to its simplistic caricatures: the greedy partner at the top law firm in the flashy car; the rough-and-tumble district attorney; the seedy criminal defense attorney. However, my own experience has shown that individuals who take a few moments out of their days to try to understand the work that lawyers do come to see the much more nuanced role that lawyers play in our society.

Last semester, I participated in Berkeley Law School’s Juvenile Hall Outreach Program, in which groups of law students travel to the nearby Alameda County Juvenile Hall to teach young men in lock-up about their constitutional rights. During our first session, my group of 13- to 18-year-old men unsurprisingly had little to say regarding the utility of the legal profession as a whole, or of their own attorneys. It was revealing to see, though, that when these same young men were asked to role-play as the judge and opposing counsel in hypothetical criminal cases, their attitudes toward the legal profession changed.

When pushed to make arguments for and against a finding of guilt in each scenario, or to justify their inal case holding, the students recognized the competing concerns of the criminal justice system and how difficult it is to ensure fairness to all parties involved. In fact, some of the students were far more sympathetic to the role of the prosecutor than to that of the defense attorney, and many made strong arguments in favor of public safety, punishment, and deterrence. In a very short period of time, and in one simple exercise, the students walked away with a deeper understanding of the complexities inherent in our legal system and with a greater respect for the legal profession.

I took two main points away from this exercise. First, many nonlawyers, especially those caught in the midst of a legal dispute, fail to appreciate the complexities and the competing interests that must be balanced to constitute a just legal system. When individuals are embroiled in litigation or in a criminal prosecution, it is easy for them to become consumed by their vested interests and by the strong emotions involved. Regardless of the outcome, many walk away feeling slighted, and lawyers are easy targets for this frustration.

Second, as individuals, we have the tendency to allow one bad personal experience, the experiences of people we know, and media portrayals to constitute our entire worldview. This is undoubtedly how my New Year’s Day friend’s fervent hatred of all lawyers developed, resting on an erroneous assumption that her experience with one attorney in a contentious family dispute should translate to anyone with a law degree.

It is clear that poor individual experiences with lawyers, and the media’s tendency to portray the legal profession simplistically and negatively, will not disappear in the near future. Neither will the human tendency to stereotype and generalize. But through educating individuals about the complexities and competing interests involved in our legal system, I believe that the societal tone might slowly shift.

There is great value in pushing people to understand that which they criticize. Whether or not people think favorably of the legal profession, my experiences have shown that both adolescents and adults can use role playing to help them appreciate how difficult it is to balance the spectrum of interests that make up a legal dispute. The more individuals see the world through the eyes of the lawyer, the more they will be able to appreciate the challenges inherent in the job, and the more they will respect the legal profession.

This May, thousands of law students will graduate from law school and embark upon their legal careers. Graduation will be a bittersweet event, combining the excitement of entering a profession filled with possibility, with the unfortunate reality of being viewed by society through lawyer stereotypes. Until this changes, my advice is to make sure to bring the Socratic Method to holiday parties.

Michael Serota is a third-year student at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

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Introduction: The Social Responsibility of Lawyers

1999, Washington University Journal of Law and Policy

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This paper builds on presentations offered by the authors during a panel at the Society of American Law Teachers 2014 Teaching Conference:For the law professor committed to social justice, the greatest demand for change should come from within. Indeed, the need to transform legal education most acutely impacts the public served — or often ignored — by the legal profession. This is a truth that can’t be forgotten as law schools explore, promote, and implement changes in legal education. Academic activists should be first in line to lead the way to promote the democratization of both access to law school and access to legal services. Too often, however, law schools and educators replicate the hierarchies that they rail against. The so-called rankings of American law schools have become particularly pernicious, with practices that drive up cost, decrease minority enrollment, and ignore many of the key factors that help law schools cultivate students that will engage in socially respons...

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Legal Ethics (2nd edn)

• Table of cases
• Table of statutes and professional codes
• 1. Ethical theories
• 2. The social context of the legal profession
• 3. The regulation of the legal profession
• 4. The lawyer–client relationship
• 5. Confidentiality
• 6. Conflicts of interests
• 8. Negligence and lawyers
• 9. Litigation
• 10. Alternative dispute resolution
• 11. Third parties
• 12. Business ethics
• 13. Lawyers’ social responsibilities
• 14. Gender, race, and diversity in the legal profession
• 15. Applying ethical theories

p. 391 13. Lawyers’ social responsibilities

• Jonathan Herring Jonathan Herring Professor in Law at Exeter College, University of Oxford
• https://doi.org/10.1093/he/9780198788928.003.0013
• Published in print: 09 March 2017
• Published online: September 2017

This chapter examines the responsibilities that lawyers have to society and the greater good. While the professional codes tend to focus on duties to clients, there are some limited duties to the public good. These are found in the duties under the criminal law, and the broader duty to the court and justice system. Lawyers also recognise an obligation to the greater good by means of their pro bono work. However, this is not undertaken by every lawyer.

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• criminal law

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The ethical responsibility of public lawyers at a time when most americans distrust their government (white paper).

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Author: R. A. Cuevas Jr.

White Paper: The Ethical Responsibility of Public Lawyers at a Time When Most Americans Distrust Their Government

R. A. Cuevas, Jr. *

Under our democratic system of governance, decisionmakers for government institutions have a duty to foster the trust of society at large in the decisions they make on behalf of their institutions. For inside—i.e., public—lawyers, this duty to foster trust constitutes an ethical responsibility requiring them, during their decision-making processes, to take into account the extralegal considerations affecting the public’s willingness to trust and accept their decisions. At a time when the majority of the American public does not trust its government, and while claims of “fake news” seek to deepen that distrust by undermining the credibility of government institutions, inside lawyers must give practical effect to this ethical responsibility.

I.  INTRODUCTION

The professor who taught my introductory political science course at the University of Florida was fond of reminding his students that “[d]emocracy is government the hard way.” [1]   This was a shorthand acknowledgement that in order to function successfully over time, a representative democracy must continue to earn and renew public trust in the institutions through which it governs. [2]  

According to a 2015 Pew Research Center poll, only nineteen percent of Americans said they trust the federal government to do what is right just about always or most of the time. [3]   Further, only nineteen percent said that government is “run for the benefit of all people.” [4]  In light of such low levels of trust, some are questioning whether our system of governance can remain viable. [5]

The use of the term “fake news” in our political discourse exacerbates this situation, for as noted by political reporter Glenn Thrush, the goal of those who make claims of “fake news” is to undermine the credibility of our country's institutions. [6]  Russian dissident Garry Kasparov has pointed out that challenging our ability to believe in facts and what is true begins to destroy the notion of truth and to make it difficult for the public to trust in decisions made by government institutions. [7]  

In light of this distrust, this essay focuses on the ethical responsibility that inside lawyers—those who act as decisionmakers for government institutions—have to society at large to foster trust in the decisions they make. [8]

II.  THE INSIDE LAWYER’S ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY

A society functions through private and government institutions.  Public trust in these institutions is required in order for a democratic system of governance to succeed in governing a society. [9] [10] [11]  With regard to the necessity for public trust in decisions of government institutions, it has been noted that “[t]rust in public institutions and in official decisionmakers is a major value democratic governments are supposed to achieve.” [12]  Those who make decisions on behalf of government institutions therefore have a duty to society at large to foster public trust in their decisions.  

For an inside lawyer who performs the role of decisionmaker for his or her government institution, this duty constitutes an ethical responsibility to society at large that is in addition to the other ethical responsibilities the lawyer has in performing this role: to clients and stakeholders; to the rule of law; and, to his or her government institution. [13]

III.  WAYS TO GIVE PRACTICAL EFFECT TO THIS RESPONSIBILITY

The social science literature indicates that the public's willingness to trust in and accept a decision of a government institution as legitimate is dependent on two factors: (1) its sense that there is some minimum degree of shared truth about the matter decided, and (2) its sense that the decision-making process employed was fair and impartial. [14] [15] [16]  In order to foster trust in the decision the inside lawyer makes on behalf of his or her government institution, the lawyer must address these two factors.

Applying the first factor means that the inside lawyer needs to consider whether some minimum degree of shared truth regarding the matter that is being decided exists or whether a basis for some degree of shared truth can be identified. [17]  It further means that if necessary, the lawyer needs to be prepared to articulate what the facts of the matter are on which he or she is relying for that determination, and why the lawyer has accepted them as true.  

In regards to the second factor, Tom R. Tyler has identified attributes of a decision-making process that the public views as indicia that the process is fair and impartial—in other words, a process that produces decisions the public is willing to trust and accept.  These attributes are as follows: whether the decisionmaker is seen as (1) having been honest in the way the decisionmaker went about making the decision; (2) having considered differing points of view; (3) having sought the kind of information necessary to make an informed decision; (4) having tried to be fair; (5) and having evinced a concern for protecting the average citizen's rights. [18]  

In other words, the inside lawyer needs to ensure that these attributes are part of the decision-making process, and he or she must be prepared to demonstrate how such is the case if necessary. 

IV.  CONCLUSION

When performing the role of decisionmaker for a government institution, an inside lawyer can find himself or herself thrust into the fray regarding the trustworthiness of government.  This can occur when those opposed to decisions that the lawyer makes seek to undermine the decision’s legitimacy by claiming that it is based on facts that are “fake news,” or by claiming that it is the result of an unfair or “rigged” decision-making process. Taking into account the extralegal considerations cited in this essay can afford a means of countering such claims in the event they are made and provide a basis for the public to trust in and accept the decision.  This is important for the continued viability of our democratic system of governance.

*   J.D. College of Law of the University of Florida (1970); B.A. University of Florida (1967).  Former County Attorney for Miami–Dade County (2007–2015).

[1]   Dr. Ernest R. Bartley, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and former Professor of Political Science, University of Florida.

[2]   See infra Part II.

[3]   Pew Res. Ctr., Beyond Distrust: How Americans View Their Government 18 (Nov. 23, 2015), http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2015/11/11-23-2015-Governance-release.pdf (noting that in 1964, 77% of the public said that they could trust the federal government to do what is right just about always or most of the time, and by 2015, that the percentage had decreased to 19%).

[4]   Id. at 35 (noting that between 1964 and 2015, the percentage of the public that said government was "run for the benefit of all people," had decreased from 64% to 19%).

[5]   Jeff Greenfield, Has the U.S. Motto Become “In Nothing We Trust?” (essay on the PBS Newshour, February 5, 2016) (asking how does a nation thrive when year after year, our motto is, “in nothing we trust?”); Ivan Krastev, In Mistrust We Trust 3, 19 (TED Book 2013) (noting the loss of trust in democratic institutions and asking if democracy can survive without trust).

[6]   See, e.g., Hardball with Chris Matthews: The Real World Impact of Fake News (discussion with Glenn Thrush of Politico) (MSNBC television broadcast Dec. 6, 2016), transcript at p. 28. (where political reporter Glenn Thrush notes that the goal of those who make claims of “fake news” is to undermine the credibility of the country's institutions).

[7]   Stay Tuned with Preet, Putin, Pawns and Propaganda (with Garry Kasparov) , WNYC Studios (Dec. 6, 2017), http://www.wnycstudios.org/story/putin-pawns-and-propaganda-garry-kasparov.

[8]     See infra Part II.

[9]   Michael Ignatieff, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School, Representation and Responsibility: Ethics and Public Office, address at the University of Oxford (May 30, 2013), The Tanner Lectures On Hum. Values, at 112–113, http://tannerlectures.utah.edu/Ignatieff%20Tanner%20Lecture.pdf (noting that trust in representative institutions is necessary for democracy to work).

[10]   See Ben W. Heineman, Jr., William F. Lee & David B. Wilkins, Lawyers as Professionals and as Citizens: Key Roles and Responsibilities in the 21 st Century , at 22, 64 (2014), https://cip.harvard.edu/assets/Professionalism-Project-Essay_11.20.14.pdf (noting in the corporate sphere that inside general counsel is in a position to play a key role in a corporation's realization of the ideals of high performance with high integrity that “creates fundamental trust” among the various groups participating in or affected by corporate activities, including the general public, that “is essential to sustaining the corporate power and freedom that drives the economy . . . .”; further noting the importance of teaching law students the broader ethical values that are central to the identity, prestige and power of the legal profession because the profession's adherence to these ideals contributes to “the fundamental trust upon which our shared economic, political, and social order is based”).  

[11]   See also Ben W. Heineman, Jr., How Global Corporations Should Confront Pervasive Distrust , fortune, at 2 (July 12, 2016), http://fortune.com/2016/07/12/corporate-citizenship-trust (noting that “trust . . . is the foundation for business durability and sustainability”).

[12]   Mathilde Cohen, Reason for Reasons , at 14 (Fall 2007), electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1401707 .

[13]   See Heineman, Jr., Lee & Wilkins, supra note 10, at 11–12, 22, 64.

[14]  Ignatieff, supra note 9, at 112–113.

[15]  Tom R. Tyler, Governing amid Diversity: The Effect of Fair Decisionmaking Procedures on the Legitimacy of Government , 28 L. Soc’y Rev. 809, 827–829 (1994).

[16]  Tom R. Tyler & Johnathan Jackson, Popular Legitimacy and the Exercise of Legal Authority: Motivating Compliance, Cooperation and Engagement , Psychol., Pub. Safety & the L., at 6–7 (2013),  https://www.yale.edu/system/files/area.center/justice/document/ssrnpopularlegitimacy.pdf . 

[17]   Ignatieff, supra note 9.

[18]   Tyler, supra note 15, at 824, 827–829.

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Ethics in Practice: Lawyers’ Roles, Responsibilities, and Regulation

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Lawyers’ ethics have been condemned for centuries, but they received little scholarly scrutiny until the last few decades. Ethics in Practice brings together leading experts in the emerging field of legal ethics to discuss the central dilemmas of practicing law. This collection cuts across conventional disciplinary boundaries to address the roles, responsibilities, and regulation of contemporary lawyers. Contributors address common concerns from diverse perspectives, including philosophy, psychology, economics, political science, and organizational behavior. Topics include the nature of professions, the structure of practice, the constraints of an adversarial system, the attorney-client relationship, the practical value of moral theory, the role of race and gender, and the public service responsibilities of lawyers and law students. Unique in both its breadth and its depth, this book redefines debates that are of enduring significance for both the profession and the public.

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Find repository resources, search the vu research repository, the social responsibilities of lawyers the future of regulation.

Arup, Christopher (2004) The Social Responsibilities of Lawyers The Future of Regulation. Other. Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.

My paper examines the social rights and responsibilities of lawyers in the contemporary Australian context. That context is the relationships between lawyers, the state, commerce and the public. The content of the regulation of legal practice is drawn from several sources. Much is determined on the State level and I shall work with the example of my State, Victoria. The sources of regulation include State legislation, the common law of the courts, and the practice rules of the state registered lawyers associations, the Law Institute of Victoria and the Victorian Bar.1 The sources establish rights of practice for qualified lawyers. In return for these rights, it identifies standards of professional conduct, so we may say that the individual practitioner assumes duties to his client, the courts and tribunals, other practitioners, and members of the community. Those duties encompass honesty, candour, diligence, courtesy and fairness. The practitioner must also maintain the client's confidences and avoid conflicts of interest, either between the practitioner and the client or between two or more clients. In this paper on social responsibility, I look not so much at the particular duties of the lawyer in everyday practice, as they are being discussed in my colleagues' papers. Instead, my focus is on the broad changes in the structure and style of legal practice. My argument is that regulation must adapt if it is to remain effective and responsive.

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"Protect, Respect, Remedy": What is the Lawyer's Social Responsibility?

F. Peter Phillips

• March 19, 2013

The current issue of IBA Global Insight (Feb/March 2013) features an excellent article by Rebecca Lowe that, on first glance, studies the defenses to liability under the Alien Tort Claims Act as presented by the U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum .  The article, however, is both broader and deeper, questioning whether the legal arguments in the Kiobel case implicate the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, recently promulgated by UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Business and Human Rights, John Ruggie.

The problem is neatly articulated by Ruggie, and the problem has a lot to do with lawyers: Are a legal advisor’s responsibilities confined to litigation strategy in a particular case, or is it also the lawyer’s job to assist the client to confront “the entire range of risks” including not merely business reputation but also “collateral damage to a wide range of third parties?”

The Guiding Principles were endorsed by the UN in 2011 and have been absorbed into the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the ISO guidelines, and the work of the European Commission in this area.  The Principles call on (i) governments to protect human rights from encroachment; (ii) companies to respect human rights in areas in which they operate; and (iii) all stakeholders to ensure the availability of grievance mechanisms for claims sounding in human rights.

The article asks whether leading international law firms — notoriously conservative and slow to adopt change — might be drags rather than leaders in this field as they discount (or, worse, remain ignorant of) their clients’ responsibilities to act consistent with broadly recognized standards of socially responsible behavior.  While no one argues that law firms should be moral arbiters, at the same time most would (presumably) concede that moral considerations, and norms of international law, ought to inform legal advice if that advice is to be deemed comprehensive.

Moreover, global law firms are themselves actors on the world economic stage.  In addition to the professional and ethical commitments they owe to their clients, don’t they also owe independent obligations to the communities effected by their own conduct?  “With the 100 largest firms taking a total revenue of $74bn in 2010, their influence cannot be understated,” writes Lowe, adding: “lawyers’ ability to shun the spotlight may be on the wane.”

Corporate activity and human rights is no longer an esoteric field, a favorite of NGOs and the soft-hearted.  Thanks to the ever-widening acceptance of the Ruggie Principles, lawyers who advise their global clients on tax and corporate structure may soon be obligated to advise them on their responsibility to the communities in which they do business.

This is a cultural issue. Not only for lawyers. From the point of view of most of clients (in Italy), lawyers should be the dogs of war. Clients presume a good lawyer should come back to them with the bleeding heart of their enemies. In such scenario, it is very difficult to explain to parties that there are alternative ways to be considered. And, coming back to the problem raised in the article, explaining the “other risks” would be misunderstood in some cases. Bu of course, if ther is a culturale issue, probably tha solution will be that lawyers will “educate” theri clients.

Lawyer’s job is a very tough job. it’s very difficult to sort out other people’s matters and take responsibility to provide the claims which his client expects. Corporate matters are more difficult to handle. A solicitor may or may not be able to decide upon a certain situation until and unless he has deep knowledge of respective corporation. That means he has business to watch for along with legal issues but a good solicitor can save a lot of money of his client by assisting and suggesting him rightful decisions.

One the toughest jobs to handle is that of a lawyer. You need deep business knowledge of the company to be able to suggest the right decisions. Corporate matters are more difficult because a lawyer needs to find out what people are expecting as claims from him before starting any work on the special situation.

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