Issues
Let’s talk about that Shakespeare quote. You know the one. When you went home for Thanksgiving 1L year, it’s the one a drunk relative threw at you, only half-joking.
“First thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” - Dick the Butcher.
Dick the Butcher is a pretender to the throne and would-be tyrant. Of course he wants the lawyers gone. The whole point is that, instead of long but fair legal processes, the tyrant takes shortcuts the lawyers will not allow.
Let’s show the world why, exactly, Dick the Butcher wants us dead. Why every would-be tyrant attacks the lawyers and legal institutions. Why Donald Trump, in his lust for power and wealth, has prioritized attacks on courts, judges, and law firms. Let’s stand up and fight.
The Rule of Law
The basis of a free, prosperous, safe society, this is under attack. Institutions meant to defend it have crumbled, and large law firms like Paul, Weiss, Skadden, Milbank, and Wilkie Farr have given in out of cowardice.
It is up to us, the future of this profession, to fight. That means fighting for liberal democracy, for our Constitution, for due process, for an independent judiciary, and for three coequal branches.
Currently, the executive is running roughshod, destroying the congressionally mandated structure of the executive branch, destroying our constitutional order. The President is even using the worst dictators and thugs in the world as back-doors to imprisonment and torture with no constitutional safeguards.
It doesn’t end there. The President, ignoring our constitutional system for foreign relations, has also imperiled the rules-based world order, theatening attacks on once-friendly nations, failing to respect the basic principle of territorial integrity, and informally allying with the leaders of the unfree world.
If not young lawyers, who will fight back?
As a self-policing profession, we are defined by our professional responsibility rules.
We must ensure those rules are fair to all. Rules that police only the objective and measurable have resulted in a simple fact: the easiest way to run afoul of the rules is to have a trust account. That isn’t fair. It discriminates against solos and small firms, and protects prestige practices and big firm lawyers.
The easiest way to run afoul of the rules needs to be truly unethical behavior, such as facilitating unlawful government behavior. We need rules that make clear, in no uncertain terms, that that conduct is unethical, and that not every legal claim (on the plaintiff side) deserves representation. There is no right to representation for cases intended to establish a dictatorship, overthrow elected officials, or assault the courts.
We must make sure that those who would attack democracy and undermine its principles may not do it with the tools of our profession.
Wev’ve seen the rot at the perceived top of our profession. Let’s clean it up.
Professional Responsibility
Legal Education
Legal education has two parts: the education we, as a profession, provide to others about the importance of what we do, and the professional education lawyers must undergo.
What we tell the outside: We must, now more than ever, make sure the world understands why what we do matters, why “technicalities” matter, why, yes, criminals must walk in the absence of due process. Without our instruction, they too easily fall prey to illiberal attacks on the rule of law, and with it, liberal democracy.
How we train our own: We must ensure our schools focus more than they ever have on the rule of law. No lawyer should graduate without a firm basis in constitutional protections, structure, and due process - and their importance. Not just the skeleton, but the principles, must be mandatory parts of the curriculum. Make sure every lawyer can teach these, too, with mandatory courses or clinics in public education. And, of course, the ABA must protect DEI in our law schools, and we must graduate lawyers who can explain its importance.
As a former teacher, I am uniquely prepared to tackle these issues
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