Before anyone gets too worked up, there are two critical points worth noting: First, this is not yet a done deal, as even within the lean-in group formerly known as the American Bar Association, there are lawyers, even academics, who refuse to allow their feelings to trump their intellectual honesty. They know this is a mad dash down the road to perdition.
Second, the ABA’s model rules are suggestions. States can then choose whether to incorporate them into the actual code of ethics or laugh at them. The ABA has already lost what little credibility remained when it decided to hop aboard the diversity and inclusion train.
Yet, there remains this inkling of fear that either codgers who remember the ABA when it was relevant, or youngsters and academics, who tend to become involved with committees to either establish their brand or further their political agenda, will take this seriously. And for that reason, it’s worth noting that the latest effort to change the Model Rule 8.4 is insane.
It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to:
…
(g) harass or discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or socioeconomic status in conduct related to the practice of law. This Rule does not limit the ability of a lawyer to accept, decline, or withdraw from a representation in accordance with Rule 1.16.
The explanatory comment for this change provides:
[3] Discrimination and harassment by lawyers in violation of paragraph (g) undermines confidence in the legal profession and the legal system. Such discrimination includes harmful verbal or physical conduct that manifests bias or prejudice towards others because of their membership or perceived membership in one or more of the groups listed in paragraph (g). Harassment includes sexual harassment and derogatory or demeaning verbal or physical conduct towards a person who is, or is perceived to be, a member of one of the groups. Sexual harassment includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other unwelcome verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. The substantive law of anti-discrimination and anti-harassment statutes and case law may guide application of paragraph (g).
Eugene Volokh parses two aspects of this change, the imposition of a speech code as an ethical proscription on lawyers, and the inclusion of “socioeconomic status” as discrimination. On the former, he states:
So say that some lawyers put on a Continuing Legal Education event that includes a debate on same-sex marriage, or on whether there should be limits on immigration from Muslim countries, or on whether people should be allowed to use the bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity rather than their biological sex. In the process, unsurprisingly, the debater on one side says something that is critical of gays, Muslims or transgender people. If the rule is adopted, the debater could well be disciplined by the state bar.
Don’t get hung up on the example. It’s just an example, not the scope of the issue. Eugene goes into greater depth, and offers other examples as well. And as for socioeconomic status, he offers:
So let’s see how this works as to “socioeconomic status.” That term isn’t defined in the proposed rule, but the one definition I’ve seen — interpreting a similar ban on socioeconomic status discrimination in the Sentencing Guidelines — is “an individual’s status in society as determined by objective criteria such as education, income, and employment.” (Citations omitted.)
All of the following, then, might well lead to discipline if the ABA adopts this rule as part of its influential Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and then states adopt it in turn:
- A law firm preferring more-educated employees — both as lawyers and as staffers — over less-educated ones.
- A law firm preferring employees who went to high-“status” institutions, such as Ivy League schools.
- A law firm contracting with expert witnesses and expert consultants who are especially well-educated or have had especially prestigious employment.
- A solo lawyer who, when considering whether to team up with another solo lawyer, preferring a wealthier would-be partner over a poorer one. (The solo might, for instance, want a partner who would have the resources to weather economic hard times (and to help the firm do the same.)
- A law firm preferring lower-socioeconomic-status employees, giving someone who is poor or unemployed a hand up (even when its goal is not “to promote diversity,” because it’s not consciously looking for a workforce of mixed socioeconomic status, but simply to help the poor).
This is not a debate over whether you think it’s bad to discriminate on these bases, or talk about controversial subjects in a way that some find hateful. This is about turning political views into ethical proscriptions. This is about making a lawyer’s license subject to acquiescing to the political flavor of the day.
The old anti-discrimination proscription was subject to the caveat that it be “prejudicial to the administration of justice.”
Back when the rule was limited to actions that were “prejudicial to the administration of justice” and didn’t cover ordinary employment decisions, including socioeconomic status as one of the forbidden bases for discrimination may have made sense. For instance, insulting a witness because of his poverty, where the poverty is not relevant to the case, might reasonably be condemned. But now the rule is being broadened far beyond this.
This barely scratches the surface of the latent issues involved. Would it be an ethical violation for a firm to have gendered bathrooms? Would it be an ethical violation to require a new lawyer to wear a suit to court, if he lacks the money to pay for one? What about a decent suit? Could he wear that suit to an LGBT meetup? Could he even ask, or be told?
But the larger question is why would the ABA get itself embroiled in progressive political issues as a matter of legal ethics? That they want to have a policy that everyone drive a Prius to save the earth is fine. It’s not like anyone will give a damn. That they seek to inform state bars to modify their codes of conduct to make it unethical to drive any car but a Prius is nuts.
But we can’t talk any more about it, as it might be perceived as derogatory verbal conduct toward lawyers who can’t afford to buy a Toyota, and I would hate to be disbarred over this.
You said “gays.”
But I meant it in the most diverse, inclusive and non-discriminatory way possible.
I long for simpler days, when ABA made rules such as that you can’t have sex with your client, regardless of race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or socioeconomic status. (Unless the client was laready your spouse, and with a few other exceptions.)
Or advertise. Oh wait.
I quite the ABA when it deemed my views on abortion a violation of legal ethics.
I quit the ABA after my free year expired.
Ditto. And the free year wasn’t worth what I paid for it.
What could possibly go wrong with making virtually every act of hiring someone an ethical violation? I guess it would be ok, just like prosecutorial discretion is a good check against overbroad laws.
But what happens when a fat gay Muslim man with a limp wants to have sex with his straight male lawyer? If the lawyer turns the offer down based on the client being a client, that’s OK, but if the rejection is because perhaps some straight male lawyers aren’t into that sort of thing, would that rejection subject the attorney for four ethical violations?
Would the model rule adopt any presumptions? Would a rejection be presumed to be based on the attorney client relationship, or would it be presumed to be discrimination? If its the latter, an attorney who says no means no would be subject to an ethics complaint unless the basis for the objection is specified.
But specifying the reasons for a rejection might hurt the clients feelings too, and those pesky mircoagressions are everywhere.
Practicing law is really hard sometimes.
That’s a bit on the far fetched end of the spectrum, but what can’t be denied is that weird stuff happens that no one would anticipate or believe, and yet it does. All the time.
The ABA has fallen into the rut of latching on to every freakshow political cause, which it then wants to force onto every practicing lawyer. We can assume the new rule will subject lawyers to discipline if they do not afford all the special transgender protections EEOC is including in its consent decrees. Lawyers will be forced to mandate the annual, politically correct indoctrination for all employees, and to punish those who do not complete the “training.” The firm and all employees will be required to use the pronouns demanded by transgendered persons, and will be prohibited from using the transgendered persons’ former names or pronouns (because that is “gender stereotyping). Of course, there will be the federal bathroom rule as well. Whether or not the firm and its employees really believe in the gender “identity” asserted by transgendered persons, they will be required to speak and act as though they do. It is the classical “bow to the hat on the pole” mentality. Under the newly enlightened ABA rule, lawyers who don’t comply will no doubt be deemed too evil and unfit to practice law.
I would reply, but I’m not sure of your preferred pronouns, and don’t want to hurt your feelings and get disbarred.
From the ABA Treasurer’s Report to the Board of Governors:
“The ABA meets its Mission through the exceptional leadership and hard work of our volunteers as implemented by our excellent staff. That said, we have a very complex, somewhat conflicting organizational structure. We are centralized in many ways, decentralized in many ways, and in certain activities have elements of both centralization and decentralization. We face one enormous collective challenge: Dues revenues are falling and our non-dues revenues are not replacing our losses in dues.”
Yes, even though actual dues revenues are up from last year (because of the recent increases), they have fallen “under budget” once again. The cause? Declining membership. Declining membership is such a problem at ABA that they removed references to the year-over-year declines from the Treasurer’s Report a few years ago. Then, they came up with the free student memberships to pad the roles with a six-figure non-paying “membership” cohort. These steps perhaps help ABA to hide the problem, but they aren’t brining in any money.
Will ABA ever recognize that its offbeat political activism is destroying it? My guess is no. The organization does not seem to be able to hear what tens of thousands of departing members have tried to tell it.
It’s not that they aren’t able to hear. It’s that what they hear is wrong. All those departing members are just WRONG!!!
Of course. Although the ABA managed to be founded and function for 100 years as a dues-sustained organization, its inability to continue to do so can only be the result of the wrong-headed views of departing members.
The first hundred years, it’s existence was based on its focus on the legal profession. Good times.