One can reply that counsel differ in
that regard, but that generally such rules are fairly well observed. The
earnestness of advocacy often blinds them to the proprieties and the
requirements of candor and fairness. They fall into the same errors that
their clients do, though with a better knowledge of their duties in this
regard. They share what has been characteristic of our entire people in
the last two decades. The minds of the great majority have been focused
on business success, on the chase for the dollar, where success seems to
have justified some departure from the strict line of propriety or
fairness, so long as it has not brought on criminal prosecution or
public denunciation.
More than this, the tendency of legislatures, too often controlled by
lawyers engaged in active practice, has been to distrust judges and to
take away from them the power to control in the court room, as they do
in the English and Federal courts. This has had a tendency to transfer
to counsel greater discretion in respect to their conduct of cases and
greater opportunity to depart from ethical rules with impunity in the
somewhat reckless spirit of the times.
Pages:
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53