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The Lawyer As Truth-Teller: Lessons From Enron, Thomas G. Bost

Pepperdine Law Review

The teaching and practice of law assume and are shaped by the standard vision of lawyer conduct and ethical responsibility. Under the standard vision, which is reflected in the various codes of professional responsibility governing lawyers, the lawyer is a "neutral partisan" for his or her client: "neutral" in that he does not let his moral values affect his actions on behalf of his client; "partisan" in that she does whatever she can within the limits of the law to advance her client's stated interests. Because the standard vision is readily understood by most lawyers as imposing a code of …