Cause and consequence: confronting ethical challenges in models of morally informed legal practice

Restricted until 29 Jul. 2011.Many attorneys reject the largely instrumental role that has come to define contemporary legal professionalism. Instead they seek to structure a professional practice that allows them to effectuate their social ideals through their work. This study critically examines various theoretical models created to structure such morally informed legal practice. The author finds that the most popular of these models contain flaws that create insurmountable ethical dilemmas for the attorney working within them. He then argues for the position that morally informed legal practice is possible within the current framework of professional ethics only if the focus of such practices becomes the moment of engagement in a matter. Such a change shifts the morally significant decision for an attorney to a more clearly delineated and temporally prior moment than that which is currently the focus of ethical debate and regulation. The endorsement of and identification with the ends of representation can effectively transform the purely instrumental nature of current professional practice, thereby having significant ramifications for internal professional norms. Moreover, such a change is capable of occasioning dramatic changes in the satisfaction and sustainability of the work lives of many legal professionals