A lawyer's humanity

Well, the second half of law school has begun - I lived through finals and I have come back for more. This semester, the lineup is Legal Writing III, Copyright, Real Estate Transactions, and Legal Profession.

Legal Profession has been the most thought-provoking class so far this semester, at least for me, because of its implications for my future life as a lawyer. This class is all about the ethical dilemmas you will face as a lawyer, and suggestions for how to act to keep yourself out of trouble with the ARDC.

I stress that it teaches ethics, not morals. Following the ethical rules of professional responsibility will keep you from getting disbarred, they don't necessarily help you sleep at night.

Take our last class, for example, where we talked about the rules of attorney-client confidentiality. We read about a case where a lawyer knew that his client had killed two women, but kept the secret - even when confronted by the parents of one of the dead girls. The court lauded the attorney for keeping his client's information confidential, because if lawyers didn't adhere to confidentiality, their clients could never trust them.

That's all well and good for the justice system, but could you walk around with the knowledge that your client had killed, not to mention the knowledge about where the bodies were buried? Could you honestly tell a bereaved parent that you couldn't tell them any information about the whereabouts of their dead child? Could I?

It seems like ethical rules sometimes ask you to stop thinking like a human, in order to think like a lawyer.

If someone comes into your office brandishing a bloody knife and confessing to the murder of his child, your first instinct would probably be to call the cops...and RUN. But a lawyer is supposed to calmly tell the murderer that he will keep his secret safe, but he should really turn himself in to the police. (The one thing the lawyer cannot do is take the gun and hide it for the client, or advise him to destroy evidence, etc.)

At any rate, the class is interesting, challenging, and more thought-provoking than any class since Torts, which had same sorts of ethical dilemmas related to balancing the interests of society over the individual. I'm looking forward to having my mind bent over what it means to be a lawyer. (I think.)