Virtue Ethics, Earnestness, and the Deciding Lawyer: Human Flourishing in a Legal Community

Abstract

Over the past few decades, academic scholarship in the field of legal ethics has closely examined, and reached widely divergent conclusions about, the moral challenges lawyers face because of their ethical position as individuals owing competing professional duties to clients, the courts, and other persons who are affected by the actions of lawyers and their clients. In addition, scholars have explored the moral challenges lawyers confront as persons ethically situated in law practices of varying natures (e.g., civil or criminal litigation, or transactional work) and settings (i.e., small or solo firm, government practice, or large firm). In this article, I intend to take a step back from those issues and then endeavor to take a few steps forward, to examine the ethical position of the lawyer and a lawyer’s decisions and conduct from the standpoint of moral philosophy. What does “good character” mean for a lawyer? What obstacles do lawyers, especially new ones, face in forming and maintaining a “good character” for the practice of law? What does it mean for lawyers in a particular geographic setting to live “in legal community,” and how can this community promote human flourishing for its members amidst the moral hazards found in the daily decisions of law practice?

Keywords: virtue ethics, professional identity, professional responsibility, legal ethics