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 invite you to join a distinguished panel from the bench, bar, and academy for a discussion of the professional obligation and public good of representing unpopular clients and causes.

Light refreshments and hors d’oeuvres will be served.

Approval is pending for New York CLE credit for attendance at this event. Update to follow.

Panelists:

• The Hon. Richard J. Sullivan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

• Professor Philip Hamburger of Columbia Law School

• Erin E. Murphy, Esq., Partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Clement & Murphy, LLC