Taking the Ethical Duty to Self Seriously: An Essay in Memory of Fred Zacharias
18 Pages Posted: 10 Oct 2011 Last revised: 22 Jul 2013
Date Written: January 1, 2011
Abstract
Drawing on Fred Zacharias scholarship, this essay briefly considers the lawyer's ethical duty to self. Although the concept of a "duty to self' has been explored in philosophical and religious scholarship, less attention has been paid to the role of the ethical duty to self in the work of lawyers. In a 1976 law review article, Professional Ethics and the Lawyer's Duty to Self, Professor John Flynn called for "greater concern for the lawyer's duty to self." As Flynn stated in his conclusion: "Lawyers face a particularly difficult conflict of irreconcilable role definitions since they owe duties to their clients, the courts, the profession, and society at large as well as to themselves… [T]hese role definitions… should be weighed in light of one's concept of self and those values… one perceives as essential to the maintenance of personal integrity."
Since the appearance of Flynn's article, a number of legal scholars, including, significantly, Fred Zacharias, have looked at the lawyer's duty to self and its relationship to other ethical obligations. Building on this work, this essay suggests that, although the Model Rules place substantial emphasis on the lawyer's duty to the client, the Model Rules do not advocate a form of ethical monism that excludes consideration of other ethical obligations such as the lawyer's duty to self.
Keywords: Ethics, Fred Zacharias
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