Taylor Cohen
Allen Taylor
3. What kind of ethical difficulties does the ABA code of ethics create for the conscientious lawyer?
One of the ethical difficulties that the ABA code creates for the conscientious lawyer occurs when the lawyer gets a guilty client off on a crime that they know they committed. Another ethical difficulty occurs because the code states that they must defend their client even if they know they are guilty, they must do everything they can to win an acquittal but they also have an ethical obligation to prevent another crime from happening. The dilemma occurs when they know their client will commit the same crime again. The conscientious lawyer is also instructed by Canon 7 not to make his own decision about what is just. He cannot take on the role of judge or jury. He must leave it in the hands of the Judge or jury to decide his client’s guilt or innocents. If a lawyer finds it difficult to handle such a situation they can take solace in the belief of Samuel Johnson whose belief it was that the truth is decided by the court’s verdict not the conscious of the lawyer. Dr. Johnson states that even if you, the lawyer on a case feels that his/her arguments are weak they don’t know if they might convince the judge anyway and if it does then the lawyer was wrong and the judge was right.
Elliot D. Cohen
1. According to Cohen, what are the salient marks of a morally good person?
According to Cohen the salient marks of a morally good person are that they are just. They treat others justly when distributing goods or services. They do so in a manner that shows no partiality to one particular group over another unless their need is greater. The morally good person is truthful. They demand some measure of moral courage. They tend to do what they deem as morally right even if that means suffering hardships for their stand. They have respectable monetary habits. A morally good person is disposed to good for others. They do it not for themselves but just because it is
3. What kind of ethical difficulties does the ABA code of ethics create for the conscientious lawyer?
One of the ethical difficulties that the ABA code creates for the conscientious lawyer occurs when the lawyer gets a guilty client off on a crime that they know they committed. Another ethical difficulty occurs because the code states that they must defend their client even if they know they are guilty, they must do everything they can to win an acquittal but they also have an ethical obligation to prevent another crime from happening. The dilemma occurs when they know their client will commit the same crime again. The conscientious lawyer is also instructed by Canon 7 not to make his own decision about what is just. He cannot take on the role of judge or jury. He must leave it in the hands of the Judge or jury to decide his client’s guilt or innocents. If a lawyer finds it difficult to handle such a situation they can take solace in the belief of Samuel Johnson whose belief it was that the truth is decided by the court’s verdict not the conscious of the lawyer. Dr. Johnson states that even if you, the lawyer on a case feels that his/her arguments are weak they don’t know if they might convince the judge anyway and if it does then the lawyer was wrong and the judge was right.
Elliot D. Cohen
1. According to Cohen, what are the salient marks of a morally good person?
According to Cohen the salient marks of a morally good person are that they are just. They treat others justly when distributing goods or services. They do so in a manner that shows no partiality to one particular group over another unless their need is greater. The morally good person is truthful. They demand some measure of moral courage. They tend to do what they deem as morally right even if that means suffering hardships for their stand. They have respectable monetary habits. A morally good person is disposed to good for others. They do it not for themselves but just because it is