Ethical Responsibilities to Protect the Rule of Law  

This ethics session will explore the core ethical obligations of lawyers.  These principles are especially compelling when the lawyer faces adversity, and helpfully inform the lawyer's analysis of how particular ethical rules may apply in fraught circumstances.  These highest-order ethical obligations include fidelity to the Constitution and rule of law, professional independence, candor in advisement, and refusal to participate in conduct that is illegal, unethical, fraudulent, or otherwise wrong.  Special attention will be paid to the reasons that lawyers — like others in positions of trust — compromise their integrity, and what one can do to guard against succumbing to pressures and incentives to betray one's ethical obligations.

Consider reading Professor Rudesill's recent Bench and Bar Article "Ethical Advice for These Times, and All Times"