What is “Legal Ethics”?
You have a choice of instructors for Professional Responsibility. So it is fair that each instructor offer you a “Truth in Advertising” summary of his own approach to the subject matter. Mine is indicated by my preferred title for the course. This is a course on applied ethics. We will cover the Rules of Professional Responsibility (see below) but we will do much more. I introduce this syllabus by asking whether you think there is a difference between saying, “A good person does not steal”, and saying, “If you steal you are likely to be caught and punished”? I think there is a big difference between these statements, and my bias in this course is entirely for the first kind of statement. I approach our subject not principally as a matter of staying out of trouble, but as a matter of being good. Here are the three main questions we will explore: What an American lawyer must and must not do (Professional Responsibility rules). What an American lawyer should and should not be (ethics and
You have a choice of instructors for Professional Responsibility. So it is fair that each instructor offer you a “Truth in Advertising” summary of his own approach to the subject matter. Mine is indicated by my preferred title for the course. This is a course on applied ethics. We will cover the Rules of Professional Responsibility (see below) but we will do much more. I introduce this syllabus by asking whether you think there is a difference between saying, “A good person does not steal”, and saying, “If you steal you are likely to be caught and punished”? I think there is a big difference between these statements, and my bias in this course is entirely for the first kind of statement. I approach our subject not principally as a matter of staying out of trouble, but as a matter of being good. Here are the three main questions we will explore: What an American lawyer must and must not do (Professional Responsibility rules). What an American lawyer should and should not be (ethics and
