Why Should Lawyers Represent Unpopular Clients?

The Morningside Institute

In the past, a lawyer might have taken for granted, as one ABA report explained, that “one of the highest services the lawyer can render to society is to appear in court on behalf of client whose causes are in disfavor with the general public." But not today, when lawyers across the profession increasingly face boycotts, protests, and public shaming campaigns for zealously advocating on behalf of unpopular clients and causes. Are fundamental norms—including professional independence, commitment to service pro bono publico, access to justice, and the adversary system as a truth-seeking process—thereby under attack? Or is it appropriate that lawyers should be held to account in some way for the broader impact of their legal work?

The Morningside Institute and the Columbia Law School Center on Law and Liberty hosted this panel with the Hon. Richard J. Sullivan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Professor Philip Hamburger of Columbia Law School, and Erin E. Murphy, Esq., Partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Clement & Murphy, LLC on October 13, 2022. The Morningside Institute brings scholars and students together to examine human life beyond the classroom and consider its deepest questions through the life of New York City. For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.