The Rainmaker

"A client's not supposed to become personally involved with his client. But there's all kinds of lawyers. And all kinds of clients, too." The Rainmaker portrays Rudy Baylor, a young, prospective lawyer, trying to make it in the legal world. Upon just entering this "new world," he is thrown into the middle of three cases and left to handle them practically on his own. Under much stress and pressure, Rudy makes some important decisions in this movie. Although these decisions were significant, were they ethical? When dealing with his cases involving Kelly Riker, Mrs. Birdie, and Great Benefit, Rudy may have gotten a little too personal and crossed the line between lawyers and clients in some events. These codes of professional responsibility for lawyers were broken in the case with Kelly Riker. Rudy discovered Kelly Riker, an abused patient at a hospital, through his partner, Deck Schefflit. Deck finds Kelly one day while he is seeking potential injury cases at the hospital, whether they are compensatory or punitive. This act alone is unethical but it is unfortunate that this does happen in the real world. Rudy is instantly hooked on Kelly and offers her help outside of his professional practice. Although Rudy was very attracted to Kelly, he let this attraction go too far. His involvement became too great between Kelly and Cliff Riker. It was ethical of him to have concern for her condition and her future, but he did not make the right choices after this. Rudy crossed the imaginary line between lawyers and clients, one that forced him to get stuck in the middle of Kelly and Cliff's relationship. Rudy encourages Kelly to file for divorce, an action which is ethical because he was exercising his professional judgment on behalf of his client. He was concerned with the best interest of his client which is completely ethical. Spending excessive time and beating Cliff, however, were the immoral actions taken by Rudy. He did not maintain the integrity and competence of the