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    The Duty of Lawyers - Huffington Post

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    The document discusses the importance of lawyers upholding their duty to advance justice and the rule of law in society. It argues that lawyers should work to preserve constitutional principles like habeas corpus, privacy, and the separation of powers, and should speak out when they see these principles being violated. The document also encourages law students to get involved in public service and not allow law school to diminish their idealism, as the legal profession risks prioritizing money and prestige over upholding justice.

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    The Duty of Lawyers - Huffington Post

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    fowlercxleudtlla
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    The document discusses the importance of lawyers upholding their duty to advance justice and the rule of law in society. It argues that lawyers should work to preserve constitutional principles like habeas corpus, privacy, and the separation of powers, and should speak out when they see these principles being violated. The document also encourages law students to get involved in public service and not allow law school to diminish their idealism, as the legal profession risks prioritizing money and prestige over upholding justice.

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    The document discusses the importance of lawyers upholding their duty to advance justice and the rule of law in society. It argues that lawyers should work to preserve constitutional principles like habeas corpus, privacy, and the separation of powers, and should speak out when they see these principles being violated. The document also encourages law students to get involved in public service and not allow law school to diminish their idealism, as the legal profession risks prioritizing money and prestige over upholding justice.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    42 views2 pages

    The Duty of Lawyers - Huffington Post

    Uploaded by

    fowlercxleudtlla
    The document discusses the importance of lawyers upholding their duty to advance justice and the rule of law in society. It argues that lawyers should work to preserve constitutional principles like habeas corpus, privacy, and the separation of powers, and should speak out when they see these principles being violated. The document also encourages law students to get involved in public service and not allow law school to diminish their idealism, as the legal profession risks prioritizing money and prestige over upholding justice.

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    The Duty of Lawyers | Huffington Post

    Although law school curriculums have improved greatly since the 1950s -- when they were largely
    shaped by the job market and business interests -- there is still an immense need for law professors
    to instill idealism in their students.
    Who has the power to stop this descent into a nation of reckless leadership and lawlessness?
    1. You can act as a positive force in society as a lawyer. A lawyer's role can be to advance systems of
    justice, to enlarge the peoples' access to justice and to improve the administration of justice.
    This Blogger's Books and Other Items from...
    Habeas corpus has been tarnished by the inhumane and unjust treatment of prisoners in
    Guantanamo Bay including many already cleared by the government but still jailed. Infinite
    detention has tarnished our legal system. Some dictocrats even argue that American citizens should
    be subjected to indefinite imprisonment.
    Drone attacks in foreign nations are justified by secret legal memos. The president, without any
    Congressional authorization, can target any "suspected terrorist," including American citizens.
    Being a lawyer should include public service. Our nation is in dire need of more lawyers speaking
    out to uphold their oath of office and working to restore constitutional authorities and legal facilities
    and boundaries.
    Our elected officials have failed in their duty to uphold the rule of law. This malfeasance has led to
    secret law, secret courts, secret evidence, secret budgets and secret prisons under the guise of
    "national security." There is surveillance of attorney-client communications, unauditable secret
    expenditures for foreign military exploits, dragnet snooping of electronic and telephone data and
    even redacted published judicial decisions.
    What happens when the rule of law increasingly bows to the whims and violations of unaccountable
    public officials?

    In the United States, we are seeing the rule of law eroded by those at the top levels of our
    government. We are witnessing the dismantling of the guiding principles of justice and the rule of
    law. Our legal system has been gamed to preferentially serve the needs of the few rather than those
    of the many.
    The million lawyers of America do. Lawyers know how to apply law to power. They know how to use
    the courts and how to lobby. They can cut through the jungle of legalese. They know when the laws
    are being violated and the remedies for the victims. They know how to draft legislation. They have
    contacts and resources. It's only a matter of more of them utilizing these powerful tools.

    3. Do not allow law school to break your idealism. The legal profession will tempt you with money
    and the illusion of prestige. Our country needs more lawyers working to preserve the rule of law,
    rather than serving clients who subvert it.
    The rule of law should be a persistent guard against -- rather than an instrument of -- unfair
    advantage or injustice for those with power, money and influence.
    (Autographed copies of my latest book Told You So: The Big Book of Weekly Columns are available
    at Told-You-So.com)

    Three points every current law student should take to heart.


    The million-plus practicing lawyers and their many bar organizations should be on the ramparts
    defending against the insidious rejection of due process, probable cause, habeas corpus and privacy
    that come out of our Constitution.
    2. You can make a difference to society today as a law student. Find a public cause and devote some
    time to advancing justice.
    On the other hand, a lawyer represents the professional side. A lawyer's duties extend beyond the
    needs of their clients to the vital needs of the public interest and the justice system. Lawyers are
    deemed "officers of the court." They can and should be sentinels and guardians for the just rule of
    law.
    Being a lawyer is about much more than billable hours. Consider the differentiation of the terms
    lawyer and attorney. An attorney represents their clients; they represent the more vocational side of
    the law. It is this side of the legal profession that is driven by the big-client imperative, those
    profitable corporate industries that dominate the time and talent of many in the legal field.

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