Redefining the Public Profession

Abstract

The Preamble to the best-known source of lawyers' ethical rules - the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct - uses the word public ten times. In particular, the Preamble repeatedly refers to lawyers as public citizens and to the ideals of public service. However, the practice of law rarely has a public focus. Rather, both the practice of law and the ethical rules focus on the client's - and the lawyer's - interests rather than the interests of the public. Indeed, the current Model Rules are intentionally skewed toward a focus on the client's interests, as is evident from examining the ethical rules in such areas as confidentiality and perjury: a public focus often would require revealing client information, whereas the current rules typically require concealment. This Article asserts that the current focus on client interests is harming both the general public and the legal profession, and urges changes to the Model Rules that would, through a change in focus, serve to redefine the profession to create a truly public profession.