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Full-Text Articles in Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility

Government Lawyers In The Liberal State, W. Bradley Wendel Feb 2008

Government Lawyers In The Liberal State, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

Criticism of the “politicization” of the role of federal government lawyers has been intense in recent years, with the scandals over the hiring practices at the Department of Justice, and the advice given to the administration by lawyers at the Office of Legal Counsel, concerning various aspects of the post-9/11 national security environment. Unfortunately, many of these critiques do not hold up very well under scrutiny. We lack a coherent account of what it means to “politicize” the practice of interpreting and applying the law. This paper argues that our evaluative discourse about the ethics of government lawyers is inadequately …


Re-Defining Pro Bono: Professional Commitment To Public Service, Gary A. Munneke Jan 2008

Re-Defining Pro Bono: Professional Commitment To Public Service, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article suggests that the current version of Rule 6.1 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct has not achieved its objective of fostering universal public and pro bono service among lawyers, and proposes a change to the current rule that hopefully will be more successful in achieving these laudable objectives. From the earliest days of the Anglo-American legal profession, lawyers have understood public, or pro bono publico, service to be fundamental to their identity as professionals. During the last half of the 20th century, however, this evolution became a revolution, as pro bono increasingly came to be identified with …