Professionalism as Bar Politics

The Making of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct

Bibliographic Data

ID22934735
AuthorsTed Schneyer (corresponding author)
Year1989
Volume14
Issue4
Pages677
Publication date1989-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLaw & Social Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0897-6546 • E-ISSN: 1747-4469
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1086/492276
OpenAlexW4239550702
LanguageEN
Citations received2

Based on extensive archival research, this article offers a political account of the six-year process in which the ABA developed its latest ethics code for lawyers, the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The article casts doubt on the validity of several functionalist and critical theories about the provenance and significance of professional ethics codes generally and the ABA's codes in particular. It evaluates the Model Rules process as an instance of de facto law making by a private group. And it identifies a lawyer's “professionalism-in-fact”—a set of common themes in the way lawyers currently think about the field of legal ethics. At the same time, however, the article stresses the ethical pluralism and structural differentiation of today's legal profession and roots the ethical preoccupations of various types of lawyers in the circumstances of their particular practices.

Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Ethical code · Field (mathematics) · Legal Ethics · Legal profession · Pluralism (philosophy) · Political science · Politics · Professional Conduct · Professional ethics · Sociology · Engineering · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal Education and Practice Innovations · Legal Systems and Judicial Processes · Philosophy

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