Abstract

Lawyers like to refer to themselves as officers of the court. Careful analysis of the role of the lawyer within the adversarial legal system reveals the characterization to be vacuous and unduly self-laudatory. It confuses lawyers and misleads the public. The profession, therefore, should either stop using the officer of the court characterization or give meaning to it. This Article proposes certain modifications of the existing rules of professional responsibility that would bring lawyers' actual obligations more in line with those suggested by the label of officer of the court.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1989

7-9-2014

Notes/Citation Information

Vanderbilt Law Review, Vol. 42, No. 1 (1989), pp. 39-91

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