31(b)log: #METC - Who Do The Rules Protect?

Excited about ethics? ?Check! ?Ethics in Military Justice kicked off yesterday and luckily our in-class discussion was more lively than #METC on Twitter (come on, people! is no one interested in the ethics of Judge Advocates!). ?Here are some issues that continued to resonate for me after class...

Are the rules (our professional ethics) designed to protect us from our clients or our clients from us? ?The popular image is that the rules protect our clients from potentially predatory attorneys, taking advantage of innocent clients ignorant of the mysteries of the law.? But is this the case?? If it were true, wouldn't attorney discipline be swift, meaningful, and widespread?? Instead, we have lax rules (we'll discuss more in Week 7)?and a profession populated by (too many) lackluster attorneys.? Perhaps the rules are designed to protect us/our profession from too much oversight and regulation by non-lawyers.? To that end, we would want the largest possible population of lawyers to count on, even if it meant putting up with a few bad apples.? What do you think??

And how does the dual nature of the Soldier-attorney work when it comes to professional obligations?? Does a Warrior Ethic influence our attorney ethics?? Does it supersede, influence, or stand as a separate set of obligations and guides of behavior?? Is the expectation of virtuous behavior (part of the Warrior Ethic) mean there is a higher standard when it comes to judge advocates, with regard to their legal practice?? Is it enough to meet the ethical minimum, or should we aspire/expect to be ethically perfect?

LTC Grimes

Source: http://tjaglcs-adc.blogspot.com/2013/03/metc-who-do-rules-protect.html

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