Prominent Lawyers Publish Essay Defining And Shaping Ethical Responsibilities Of Lawyers

Harvard Law School's Center on the Legal Profession and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP are pleased to announce the publication of an essay calling for lawyers, as professionals and as citizens, to balance concerns about the current economic transformation of lawyering with a strong commitment to four ethical responsibilities: to clients/stakeholders, the legal system, their own institution and society. The essay is co-authored by three internationally renowned lawyers representing corporate, law firm and academic environments. In their essay, authors Ben W. Heineman, Jr., William F. Lee and David B. Wilkins state: "There is widespread agreement that the legal profession is in a period of stress and transition; its economic models are under duress; the concepts of its professional uniqueness are narrow and outdated; and, as a result, its ethical imperatives are weakened and their sources ill-defined." The authors argue that lawyers, acting in their fundamental roles as experts, counselors and leaders, must revive these imperatives in major corporate law departments, major law firms and leading law schools drawing not just on the core competencies of traditional lawyering but on a set of complementary competencies required for broad counseling and leadership.

The essay, entitled "Lawyers as Professionals and as Citizens: Key Roles and Responsibilities in the 21st Century," is a joint statement based primarily upon decades of experience the authors have collectively had in government, public interest lawyering, law firms, corporate law departments and academia. It sets out a "practical vision" about how to define and implement an ethical transformation at the same time corporations, law firms and law schools are facing an economic transformation. They analyze the nature and limits of formal professionalism, forces changing the legal profession, and the importance of the ethical dimensions which underlie institutional durability and professional satisfaction and which have attracted young people to the law for more than two centuries.

"In this critical time of change, it is imperative that we explore how lawyers can meet the broad and diverse ethical challenges they will face throughout their careers," said Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow. "This essay offers important, specific proposals to achieve this goal in corporations, law firms and law schools. I hope that it will encourage lawyers, academics, and policymakers from all...