I recommend Bill Quigley’s “Letter to a Law Student Interested in Social Justice” to anybody considering a legal career and interested in justice.
Also recommended is the book “Against the Tide,” by Debbie Hagan,to those who want to understand the social role of lawyers. It is the story of Lawrence Velvel, Dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, who dreamed of running a law school in the public interest but met resistance at every step from the legal establishment.
Also recommended is a book I’m in the middle of reading, Unequal Justice, which explores the political interests behind the origins of many of the legal institutions we are familiar with, such as law schools, the big law firm, the bar exam, the American Bar Association, and the National Lawyers Guild. It’s dated (from the mid-1970s), but still very interesting and useful.
The comments section here might be a good place to compile recommended resources on this subject.
Posted under Culture, Politics
This post was written by Uri on January 26, 2009
I find it interesting that a lot of legal ethics stance seem to end up requiring more lawyers and more legal hours.
I remember asking a lawyer if there are law firms that would review documents for a startup on an equity contigency, the lawyer immediately replied “oh that would be a conflict of interest, you’d have to hire another lawyer to negotiate the retainer for you”. That is the first one that jumps to mind, but there are many others. Somehow this felt related
one thing i’ve learned is that “legal ethics” is often shorthand for “the rules of the legal profession,” which may be motivated by ethics, but might also be motivated by other considerations, such as creating more work for lawyers or restricting entry into the field. i see conflict of interest rules as being partially ethics-based, partly make-work.