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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Ethics And The “Root Of All Evil” In Nineteenth Century American Law Practice, Michael Hoeflich
Ethics And The “Root Of All Evil” In Nineteenth Century American Law Practice, Michael Hoeflich
St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics
This Article discusses the bifurcated notions on the purpose of working as an attorney—whether the purpose is to attain wealth or whether the work in and of itself is the purpose. This Article explores the sentiments held by distinguished and influential nineteenth-century lawyers—particularly David Hoffman and George Sharswood—regarding the legal ethics surrounding attorney’s fees and how money in general is the root of many ethical dilemmas within the arena of legal practice. Through the texts of Hoffman and Sharswood, we find the origins of the ethical rules all American attorneys are subject to in their various jurisdictions.
Philosophical Legal Ethics: An Affectionate History, David Luban, W. Bradley Wendel
Philosophical Legal Ethics: An Affectionate History, David Luban, W. Bradley Wendel
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
The modern subject of theoretical legal ethics began in the 1970s. This brief history distinguishes two waves of theoretical writing on legal ethics. The “First Wave” connects the subject to moral philosophy and focuses on conflicts between ordinary morality and lawyers’ role morality, while the “Second Wave” focuses instead on the role legal representation plays in maintaining and fostering a pluralist democracy. We trace the emergence of the First Wave to the larger social movements of the 1960s and 1970s; in the conclusion, we speculate about possible directions for a Third Wave of theoretical legal ethics, based in behavioral ethics, …