By: Mark Glennon*
In 1770, John Adams defied the prevailing anti-British sentiment — that he shared – by representing British soldiers accused of killing five colonists in the Boston Massacre, successfully acquitting six.
Fortunately for America, that did not impair his reputation or harm his career. He went on to represent Massachusetts in the Continental Congress, help draft the Declaration of Independence, became the second president and negotiated the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War and recognized America as a nation.
His representation of the British soldiers thereby became precedent for an important principle – that lawyers should face no judgement, recriminations or shame for representing unpopular positions and clients. The accused have a right to counsel, no matter how vile the charges against them may be. Today’s code of ethics for lawyers says a lawyer’s “representation of a client…does not constitute an endorsement of the client’s political, economic, social or moral views or activities.”
But that principle is under increasing attack, from both the left and the right. Hillary Clinton was attacked for defending a child rapist as a court-appointed attorney. Attorneys representing Guantamo Bay detainees were attacked for defending terrorists. David Boies who became famous representing Al Gore in the 2020 Bush v. Gore election case, has lost dozens of staff lawyers because of his firm’s work for convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein and disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
The list goes on and on. Last fall, 600 students at leading law schools pledged not to interview or work for a major law firm because of its work for ExxonMobil in climate change litigation.
You have to wonder what such people would have said about Abraham Lincoln. As a lawyer, he represented a slave owner trying to keep ownership, and he ultimately thrived representing huge railroads, the robber barons of the day, in lucrative corporate matters.
Enter the Chicago Tribune with its new article, “Richard Irvin’s tough-on-crime campaign for governor ignores his years as a criminal defense attorney.” Irvin’s claim as a candidate for Illinois governor to being law-and-order guy is questionable, the article would have you conclude, because he represented criminal defendants in private practice. Yes, he’s a former prosecutor, the article says, “But he then worked for almost 15 years as a criminal defense attorney, specializing in defending people accused of the same types of crime he rails against in his campaign ads.”
Making it worse, the article is a news story consuming a full page in the Tribune’s Sunday print edition, not an opinion column, though it’s not very well disguised.
The article does at one point say, “To be sure, working as a criminal defense attorney is not at odds with support of law enforcement.” However, the article’s entire premise is directly opposite, laying out in detail the clients he represented in private practice, which supposedly inform us about Irvin’s views on crime.
Not until the very end does the article make the point that experience on both sides of an issue may be an asset rather than a liability. It quotes another defense lawyer who formerly prosecuted who said, “You don’t necessarily have a bias…. You’re not a tool that’s insensitive one way or the other.” The article could properly have been written as an opinion column with that as the lede instead of a news article that betrays the 250-year old principle established by John Adams.
Irvin is being questioned on related matters, such as his outspoken support for Black Lives Matter. Let the debate on that rip. Same for anything else in his or any candidate’s record.
Then decide what you want about Irvin or any other lawyer running for office, but don’t judge any of them by the alleged sins of their clients. Doing so has us on a dangerous path that threatens to make it difficult or impossible for unpopular people or causes to find counsel. Innocence, guilt or degrees of guilt should be decided in the courtroom based on law and facts, not in a lawyer’s office based on calculations about whether he might be judged or shamed for doing unpopular work.
David Boies put it this way: “Once you start a culture that attacks lawyers for taking on clients that you believe are wrong, there’s a real danger that culture will deprive clients you think are right of good representation.”
*Mark Glennon is found of Wirepoints.
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the free speech controversy brewing in Wilmette due to the city’s refusal to fly a religious freedom flag, the city’s left-wing excesses and the growing culture war, the latest money spent on the illegal immigrant crisis, and more.
Good column. I read the referenced Tribune article yesterday and was dismayed. I feel many of those commenting on your column are missing the point you are making: one of the exceptional features of the American criminal justice system is the right to defense. Those who can’t imagine themselves defending a criminal should, indeed, be in another line of work. But the principle–or feature–is still desirable for reasons that should have been covered in everyone’s 10th grade civics class. That said, I felt yesterday’s Tribune article was an example of journalistic malpractice. The story–whether news or not is debatable–seems to… Read more »
After the fraud of BLM has been exposed in the last year or so, Irvin needs to come forward and denounce the organization. Otherwise, forget being Governor. Illinois deserves a governor with a moral compass.
It would be a nice gesture but he can forget about it anyway. He’s the candidate in the field less good than Jabba.
HYPOCRISY ALERT Chicago Tribune Media Frauds/Hoaxsters Churn Out Fake News Fairy Tales To Slander Police — Then They Go After A GOP Candidate For Governor, For Having Been A Criminal Defense Lawyer — What Was Once A Great Newspaper Is Now A Gutter Level S**t-Rag
David “Boies,” not ” Boise”
Lawyers seem to be the ones bringing this onto their own profession. I’m sure law school is not immune to all the woke indoctrination. Such woke thought is at the root of connecting what jobs you take on as a lawyer to a moral judgement of your character and cancellation. I really don’t think the public at large started this, I’d lay the blame on law school lawyer / professors on a mission.
After the law school burst in the early 2010’s, most high achieving students know that law is a bad career – too many lawyers, too expensive, not good enough job prospects for those not in the top 20 law schools. So to fill those empty seats, most schools lowered their admission standards which opened up the door for the social justice warriors who care not for money or jobs or even too many lawyers. They’re out for social justice and there’s no price that can be put on equity. Because you’d had to be a crazy these days to go… Read more »
The current crop of students by and large learn very little about economics. If you asked graduates of top law schools today how the concept of scarcity works in an economy, you will get either blank stares in return or a narrative over the oppressive nature of capitalism. Heck, I went in the 80’s to a so-called Tier 1 school, graduated with no debt at the very top of the class, was a Law Review editor along with a bunch of other inflated and scammy awards, and I thought the whole thing was barely worth it in terms of return… Read more »
The ‘criminal defense lawyer’ attack on Irvin is because he is a Republican. They would never use this line of attack on a Democrat. Cap Fax had an article about this ‘oppo’ drop the other day, and surprise surprise, the Trib picks up on the same topic at the same time…. The reality is, and few want to say this outloud, is that many lawyers – especially in private practice – go back into their communities looking for work. And there is a lot of criminal work in the black community. There’s a lot of black criminal defense attorneys for… Read more »
Ahem. “Amoral money hungry sociopaths the profession used to attract”?
I know, I know, it’s a common refrain about lawyers, but it’s a much different climate in law school these days. It’s social justice this, equity that. After the law school bubble bust last decade, law school admissions dropped off a cliff: https://data.lawschooltransparency.com/enrollment/all/ There were as many law students 1974 as there were in 2019. Many schools had to lower their admission standards just to fill classrooms. And with that lowering of admissions standards came less qualified students, many of whom are of the….social justice persuasion. They’re not amoral sociopaths looking to make money. They’re more about fighting for social… Read more »
https://www.law.northwestern.edu/diversity/
This is the NU diversity page:
Student Affinity Groups
Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA)
Black Law Students Association (BLSA)
Disability Law Society (DLS)
Diversity Coalition
First Generation Law Student Association (FIRSTGEN)
Invisible Identities
Jewish Law Students’ Association (JLSA)
Latinx Law Students Association (LLSA)
Middle Eastern Law Students Association (MELSA)
Muslim Law Students Association (MLSA)
Native American Law Students Association (NALSA)
OUTLaw
South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA)
Student Mental Health Alliance (SMHA)
Veterns Law Association (VLA)
Women of Color Collective (WOCC)
Women’s Leadership Coalition (WLC)
Yes, totally different today. Virtually every law prof is a leftist, and the atmosphere of repression towards anybody who challenges the left is extreme.
And the “leftists” used to be the ones who thought EVERY defendant was entitled to the best defense and that the burden of proof was on the prosecutor to prove illegality had occurred.
Its so sad that the biggest jerk offs now are the only ones standing up to the woke radicals. It’s time for true liberals to stand up before they tear the whole country down.
It’s time for true liberals to stand up before they tear the whole country down. The ACLU has abandoned its prior mission of the advocacy of civil liberties. They instead focus their ire on the typical woke communist nonsense. Gone are the days of free speech and civil rights. Today its forced mask wearing, transgender grooming and all the other blatantly communist ideas that go against the very idea of an individual civil liberties, because the ACLU is now part of the collective. Interestingly enough, the website has a page devoting to complaining about gerrymandering in Ohio, FL, IN and… Read more »
That’s one of the biggest fallacies ever.
Would you want to be the lawyer to defend Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Osama Bin Laden and *Insert histories most vile mass murder slimeball here*
Lawyers already have a very negative reputation for having no morals, lying constantly, and trying to dispute self-evident facts.
Good article. I remember Bois representing Gore. He later admitted that he had 10 blue suits that he purchased from Lands End that were the same. I remember stories of Hillary representing the rapist and she laughed and vilifed the young girl that was raped.
But having your prop tax law business and serving in state or aldermanic legislatures is still perfectly ethically/morally exceptable in the land of pay-to-play?
No, it isn’t, or at least shouldn’t be. Conflict of interest for those already in office is a different subject.
The #2 contributor to the Illinois Democratic Party is the cottage industry known as slip-n-fall. For every legitimate claim, how many bogus claims have those attorneys prosecuted? Also, aren’t people of color disproportionately on the defense side of cases? So they shouldn’t be defended?
Seems a bit unorthodox, but the Dems aren’t exactly the most clever bunch.
The ACLU needs to change their name…
They should be at the forefront of combatting government over-reach, and fighting to preserve the 1st Amendment rights of *everyone*, not just the chosen few…
American Criminal Liberties Union is the perfect name for them.
The ACLU is no longer about civil liberties, it’s run by ideologue progressives who try and force progressive values. They’re never suing to preserve right anymore. They’re suing to make effectuate change and not in a good way either.