Moral Responsibility in Professional Ethics (original) (raw)

1983, Profits and Professions

Professor Postema argues for a new conception of professional ethics in wlhich lawyers must acknowledge personal responsibility for the consequences of their professional conduct. He suggests that a new code of professional responsibility is required because the current Code allows lawyers to ignore the social and moral costs of their actions, and do as professionals what they would not do as indiciduals. Lawyers, like other professionals, acknowledge gravely that they shoulder special responsibilities, and believe that they should conform to "higher" ethical standards than laypersons. 2 Yet, lawyers also claim special warrant for engaging in some activities which, were they performed by others, would be likely to draw moral censure. 3 Skeptical of this claim to special license, Macaulav asked "'[w]hether it be right that a man should, with a wig on his head, and a band round his neck, do for a guinea what, without these appendages, he would think it wicked and infamous to do for an empire."1 4 This conflict may trouble the layperson, but for the lawyer who must come to grips with his professional responsibilities it is especially problematic. Montaigne offered one solution, the complete separation of personal and professional lives. "There's no reason why a lawyer ... should not recognize the knavery that is part of his vocation," he insisted. "An honest man is not responsible for the vices or the stupidity of his calling." 5 The key to maintaining both professional *Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A.B., Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Law Review HeinOnline-55 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 63 1980 7 See M. Freedman, Lawyers" Ethics in an Adversary System 27-42 (1975). 8 See Code, supra note 2, Canon 4, especially EC 4-1, EC 4-5, DR 4-101(A). DR 4-101(B). DR 4-101(C)(3). 9 See id. Canon 7, especially EC 7-27, DR 7-102(A)(4). (5). DR 7-IO2tBhlI). Also see ABA Project on Standards Relating to the Prosecution Function and the Defense Function § 7.7 (Approved Draft 1971). 1o I borrow this term from Wasserstrom, Lawyers as Professionals: Some Moral Issues. 5