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The Ethics Of Willful Ignorance, Rebecca Roiphe

Rebecca Roiphe

In general, courts, legislatures, and regulators do not excuse individuals, including lawyers, from legal obligations because they turned a blind eye to the underlying facts. By defining knowledge as “actual knowledge,” the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, however, allow lawyers to avoid responsibilities to the community and the public by remaining ignorant of the relevant facts. For example, lawyers do not face disciplinary charges for assisting in client fraud as long as they avoid information that might lead them to know about the criminal conduct. David Luban, one of the leading scholars in the field, has defended the ABA’s …