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Show -- BJ LEGAL ETHICS BJ Tho annual meeting of tho Amerl- !can liar Association always draws together to-gether some very thoughtful men. Their discussions nro well worth caro-ful caro-ful reading. Among tho addresses delivered to tho recent meeting of MM- l1'1" society at Salt Lake City, was Bl ' ono by Prof. Kollx frankfurter of tho Bl Harvard Law School. BB This speaker told tho assembled Bl , lawyors that "a body of law adapted BB ' to a spnrsoly sottled agricultural BB , community, baa suddonly been con- BB 1 ' froutod with tho task of adjusting It- H self to a vast democracy with 30,- BBpJ 000,000 wage earners and Increasing Bj I pressure of couQIctlng intorosts. BB! wonder Justice- often miscarries. BB The attempt to copo with tho Infl- B nlto complications of modern busl- BV ,; j ness has made luw n labyrinth. Thoro V aro endless opportunities for tochnl- B' callttes and dolays. A recent maga- B lno artlc'.o statos that mauy corpor- B atlon attorneys mnko it n practlso to B trap Judgos Into making orrors, that B afterward can bo used for tho pur- BBB poso of securing new trials. BB1 TUo making of statutes and proccu- B cuts to adapt law to modern business BB needs will bo tho work of. many years. BB ' In many respects tho existing stan- BB I dard of legal ethics seems to tho BB layman to bo wrong. J Tho maxim that an attornoy Is Jus- BB tilled In using all legal means lo so- BJ , euro tho reloaso of a cltont whom ho B knows or bollavos to bo guilty Is one Bjf 5 of many principles that sccmB to tho BB 1 layman to, conceal a vital soplilstry. mW Thero aro many puzzling questions BBf v that need redefinition. For Instanco B It may bo clear that n man owes a HB perfectly Just dobt. Yet If tho dobt Bhi 1ms passed boyond tho staluto of BJ qBBk limitations, tho lawyers would pro!)- BJ (A i.mBB ably fight tho case, nnd do their BT 'VbBt BBk" BBBL,. to save tho client from payment of tho debt. It may bo legally right but If tho defendant escapes paymout of a Just dobt, has not a moral wrong been committed Thero aro thousands thous-ands of rases whero It seems to the layman, as It did to the speaker who addressed tho Dar Association, that law needs adjustment to the conditions condi-tions of modern Hfo. Somo peo,plo say lawyers as a class aro dishonest. Yet for every tricky lawyer thero Is a rascally client. Lawyers Law-yers see so much of tho crookedness of llfo that It i.i a constant temptation to fight flro with flro. |