The ABA Model Rules Make the Case for Preserving Legal Insight in a Library
21 years ago I wrote about a lawyer’s possible ethical obligation. I asked, “Why not?”
”American lawyers have a moral and social obligation to serve the public. Providing free legal information via a blog whether it be to corporate officers, in-house counsel, consumers or small business people serves the public two ways.
One, legal information will be made freely accessible 24/7 at the World’s library – the Internet. According to the Pew Foundation, the Internet is now Americans’ ‘go to’ place for information.
Two, the image of our legal profession will be improved. A recent ABA study found our reputation to be at an all-time low. In the same study, the public said we lawyers can improve our image by providing legal information to the public via the Internet, of all places.”
Today, I am citing the same ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct for the argument that lawyers and law firms should be preserving and making accessible the insight they have published over the last 21 years. Millions of published works by tens of thousands of legal professionals across jurisdictions around the world.
Per paragraph “[6] As a public citizen, a lawyer should seek improvement of the law, access to the legal system, the administration of justice and the quality of service rendered by the legal profession. As a member of a learned profession, a lawyer should cultivate knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients, employ that knowledge in reform of the law and work to strengthen legal education. In addition, a lawyer should further the public’s understanding of and confidence in the rule of law and the justice system because legal institutions in a constitutional democracy depend on popular participation and support to maintain their authority.”
Paragraph 7 supplies the force behind it. Preserving legal insight is perhaps not mandated, but it sits squarely within “improve the law and the legal profession” and the “ideals of public service.”
Paragraph 7 continues that “…[A] lawyer is also guided by personal conscience and the approbation of professional peers. A lawyer should strive to attain the highest level of skill, to improve the law and the legal profession and to exemplify the legal profession’s ideals of public service.”
When the Library at LexBlog stops to pick up your published works for preservation, thanks for