On Choosing Clients and Careers: A Speculative Essay on the Problems of Initial Choice

This paper deals with the moral dimensions of initial choices of careers and clients. Although the foregoing tale is addressed to the initial choice of career, similar considerations enter into the initial choice of clients. The problems of initial career choice were highlighted because they are more immediate to law students.\u27 In addition, one\u27s choice of career may have a significant effect on future choices of clients. In order for a lawyer to make an initial choice of either career or client, moral questions of the first rank must be answered. The purpose of this paper is to discuss these questions and the means by which they may be answered. First, the American Bar Association Code of Professional Responsibility (the Code) will be examined in order to illuminate the ethical foundations of the lawyer\u27s relationship to society and clients. This examination will be followed by a discussion of the moral foundations of lawyersociety and lawyer-client relationships. The paper will conclude with suggestions for resolving the moral problems encountered by young lawyers