Lawyers Conscience

When Thomas Paine declared in 1776 that royal rule had ended in America, he set the country on a path where people govern themselves through law. That idea remains the dominant American account of how political power operates. Because law sits at the center of that system, lawyers became deeply involved in wielding power. Legal ethics scholar David Luban went so far as to conclude that lawyers effectively are the law.

Since the Revolution, American lawyers have justified their role in this system by pointing to the ethical standards of their profession. Those standards require lawyers to put the public good and the interests of paying clients ahead of their own. Such duties placed lawyers in a commercial marketplace where they sold their services, yet obligated them to values that set them apart from ordinary commerce.

This book examines the story of that power and of the ethical constraints intended to ensure it is used properly. It is the first book to trace the history of American lawyer ethics, from the mid-eighteenth century to the present-day professionalism crisis confronting the legal profession.