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What is here said concerning the usefulness of an investigation of fixed
ethical principles has application to a consideration of what rules of
conduct should prevail in the legal profession. The high social purpose
of the profession, its beneficial function, and the limitations upon its
action that should be self-enforced in order to make the calling an
advantage and not a detriment to the public weal, should be understood.
Indeed, the profession of the law, if it serves its high purpose, and
vindicates its existence, requires a double allegiance from those who
have assumed its obligations, first, a duty toward their clients, and
second, a duty toward the court. And though the two sometimes seem to
conflict, they must be reconciled in the way which will best promote the
effective administration of justice and the peace of society. The path
to be followed in achieving this golden mean in the intricacies of
professional relations is not as manifest as the rule of honesty and
morality in ordinary life. The great problem of government that is never
completely solved and that is changing with changing conditions is how
to reconcile the protection of individual rights, helpful to the pursuit
of happiness and the welfare of society, with the necessary curtailment
of those rights and freedom, by governmental restriction, to achieve the
same object.
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