SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF A GOOD LAWYER

ABSTRACT
This assignment examines the social rights and responsibilities of lawyers in the
contemporary context. That context is the relationships between lawyers, the state, commerce
and the public. The traditional teaching of only substantive and procedural courses does not
make a good lawyer. This is because such instruction does not ensure that a lawyer will have
an awareness of the profession's social and moral responsibilities. These responsibilities
transcend the purely legal and procedural aspects of any particular subject of legal study or
practice. We should note that lawyers are practising their skills in a host of other
organisations. They include business corporations, government instrumentalities, accounting
firms, insurance companies, philanthropic foundations, insurance companies, advocacy
groups and trade unions. Some legal work is still very localised. But other legal services are
increasingly multijurisdictional, if they are referable to a territorial jurisdiction at all. Some
services seem to be constructed above the conventional state jurisdictions in a floating realm
of trans-national private law.

The building of a nation is fundamentally dependent on the foundation of good governance

controlled by the rule of law. In a state that treats the rule of law as sovereign, anarchy gets no
room to stay. In a developing nation, learning of law to practice as a principle of morality, in
the ultimate eventuality, converts the nation to a developed one lawyers, from time
immemorial, with the accuracy and diligence, have splendidly carved out a separate place for
themselves. They constitute the subtle nerves of the nation's spine because their role is vital
and respected, and Social responsibility is a complex concept, permeating every part of the
lifecycle of legal practice.

Lawyers constitute a voluntary professional association that, as part of civil society, is

interposed between the powerless individual and the state itself or a variety of influential
private organizations. However, while lawyers have an essential role to play, defending
fundamental civil rights, they also help bind local communities in suburban, rural and
regional areas. Now additionally they fashion commercial and humanitarian links between
different countries and cultures. Lawyers have contributed to state formation, just as today
they play a role enhancing the governability of society. 1

One of the crucial ethical questions that must arise for lawyers is this: what are a lawyer’s
social responsibilities? In other words, what are a lawyer’s obligations to the society she lives
in while she goes about trying to ply her trade and make a living?
There is a solid argument to be made to the effect that the keyway in which lawyers serve
society — their key social responsibility — is by serving their clients well. All parties to a
dispute are entitled to legal representation in our adversarial legal system. A strong
presumption of the system is that we are most likely to arrive at a just outcome if all parties to
the dispute are represented by lawyers who vigorously pursue their clients’ interests. So, the
morality of the whole system effectively stands or falls with the practice of zealous advocacy.
We can never be 100% confident in the outcome of a trial, perhaps, but at least we know each
side had its bulldog. All parties to a dispute are entitled to legal representation in our
adversarial legal system.

It has been argued that the defining feature of a profession is a commitment to promote and
preserve the public good that the interests of society are advanced by the existence of a
genuine legal profession rather than a legal industry in which lawyers operate businesses in

1
T. Halliday, ‘Lawyers as Institution Builders: Constructing Markets, States, Civil Society and Communities’
the Law. The challenge faced by profession is to instil, in difficult times, the sense of a
corporate responsibility based on a genuine belief that the practice of the Law is a noble
calling and not just a job. 2Through active participation in community affairs governance, a
lawyer's opportunity to fulfil their duty to the community has historically been fulfilled. For
example, by participation in local political activism, sitting on boards of local institutions, or
spearheading and participating in legal education efforts. The latter might include speaking at
local bar association education seminars or accepting a teaching position on a local
university's law faculty. It may also include providing legal services on a voluntary or pro
bono basis at local legal clinics. Every bar association should require its members to allocate
part of their time to pro bono legal services of their choice, either individually or jointly.
When people hear the word lawyer being spoken, they usually think of an individual who
goes to court every day and stands before a judge defending the freedom of another
individual. This is true in some cases; however, there are many different types of lawyers
with various job responsibilities and duties. No matter what type of lawyer one, maybe they
ultimately have a crucial role in others' lives. So, lawyers have a wide range of
responsibilities and duties when it comes to their profession. Their role in society is even
more critical. They act as a voice for others and a social engineer with intellectual challenges.
Apart from fighting cases lawyers provide their skills and knowledge to the society by doing
pro bono cases and lending legal services to the poor and needy. It implies giving free legal
services to the poor and needy who cannot afford the services of a lawyer for the conduct of a
case or a legal proceeding in any court, tribunal or before an authority. Firms should
formalize their pro bono practices and run innovative and impactful programmes in the public
interest. They need to aim towards an economically and ecologically sustainable practice by
re-evaluating, for instance, their waste-generation and energy-consumption patterns and using
only suppliers with established track records of compliance with responsible business
standards and criteria. Lawyers are expected to play a pivotal role in ensuring that the less
fortunate in the community are aided in advancing their livelihood through the law. Attorneys
could initiate some programmes to guarantee equality and societal growth. Also, advocates
are expected to offer free services to the disadvantaged population to promote human rights.

Attorneys should be at the forefront in ensuring the development and maintenance of a

responsible legislature that seeks to promote rights and liberties. Responsible legislation

2
Simon Longstaff, The lawyer’s duty to the community, St. James Ethics Centre, 1995.
entails the development of a legal framework that protects the freedoms and rights of citizens.
Also, advocates should ensure that the laws passed are not oppressive or discriminative
against society.

When an advocate takes up a case, he is mandated to ensure that technicalities of the law do
not result in a miscarriage of justice. An attorney has to use the law to preserve the rule of law
and, therefore, occasion the administration of justice and enforcement of rights. The
knowledge and skill of an advocate should not be held for the sole benefit of a lawyer.
However, they should be held in trust for the larger community.

Now, it is widely recognized among legal scholars that there are limits to zealous advocacy.
Lawyers are forbidden from directly breaking the law in attempting to help their clients, and
from derailing the court’s processes by, for example, suborning perjury or destroying
evidence.
Yale legal scholar Robert.W.Gordon wrote an excellent piece a few years back called “Why
Lawyers Cannot Just Be Hired Guns.” Gordon’s primary argument is essential that lawyers
play too important a role in modern society for them to think of themselves as solely
beholden to their clients. In particular, Gordon argues that a lawyer’s right to engage in
zealous advocacy only makes sense to the extent that lawyers also help support the system
within which such advocacy ends up being constructive: lawyers’ work on behalf of clients
positively requires—both for its justification and its successful functioning for the benefit of
those same clients in the long run—that lawyers also help maintain and refresh the public
sphere, the infrastructure of law and cultural convention that constitutes the cement of
society.3

It is worth noting that Gordon’s argument about social responsibility is essentially an

argument about the limits that apply to the fundamental moral obligation that lawyers have to
play their role in the more extensive legal system faithfully. Moreover, it is equally worth
noting that that obligation cannot be described without reference to that system and the role
we want lawyers to play within it. There is a general lesson here. We should not think of
ethics strictly in terms of the human micro-implications of a particular situation. We need

3
Ethics in Practice: Lawyers’ Roles, Responsibilities, and Regulation, edited by Deborah L. Rhode.
also to look carefully at the roles individuals play in important social structures, and the roles
those structures play in important social structures, and the roles those structures play in
society as a whole.
We should note that lawyers are practising their skills in a host of other organisations. They
include business corporations, government instrumentalities, accounting firms, insurance
companies, philanthropic foundations, insurance companies, advocacy groups and trade
unions. Some legal work is still very localised. However, other legal services are increasingly
multijurisdictional if they are referable to a territorial jurisdiction at all. Some services seem
to be constructed above the conventional state jurisdictions in a floating realm of
transnational private law.4

To a large degree, it may be asserted that the lawyer's contribution to society as a professional
is to use his skills to the best of his ability to serve his client's expressed desires, provided,
however, that these desires are not illegal. This may comprise the whole of criminal defence
advocacy. There is an only limited dispute with the proposition that every indicted person is
entitled to skill and vigorous efforts in his behalf, no matter what he did or how evil a person
he may be

There is, however, the controversy concerning tactics. The strident methods utilized in some
well-publicized cases to, in effect, put society on trial or to make an orderly trial impossible
have been much debated. Additionally, several more intemperate citizens tend to lose their
passion for due process in the presence of certain crimes and types of criminals. This is
certainly not new, although there may be more of it in recent times. Also, there is defence
counsel who tends to identify themselves with certain types of offences and alleged offences,
not because of their particular experience and skill in the line of cases, but because of the
strength of their emotional commitment to a particular class or cause-a degree of personal
involvement traditionally regarded as non-professional.

Here the lawyer is not engaged solely to put past conduct in the best possible light but uses
his talents to shape the future. Since the lawyer may be able to influence decision making, the

4
Y. Dezalay and B. Garth, Dealing in Virtue: International Commercial Arbitration and the Construction of a
Transnational Legal Order (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997).
questions arise as to what extent, on what terms, and upon what considerations should the
lawyer seek to use this influence. Further, what is his duty, and to whom does it run?

It has been accepted that lawyers will devote a portion of their time to representing people
who need legal assistance even though they cannot afford to pay for it. The gap between the
need for legal assistance and the ability to pay for it seems to be widening. Various factors
explain this development. As our society has become more regulated and more transient, we
have become more litigious. Costs of legal services have escalated beyond the means of
many people to afford them. Legal services offices and high volume, low-cost clinics fill
some of the demand for legal assistance. However, the gap should be narrowed further by
lawyers volunteering to help where help is needed without regard to the lawyer's
compensation.

Lives of people are not only affected by standing in court and proving if one is innocent and
guilty. They are affected even when a company takes over another, there is a change in the
banking rules, or even there is an increase in gas prices. One might not know, but lawyers are
not just confined to courtrooms but extended to the high-profile business meetings of these
Multinational Companies to the merchant selling his business to another. As their transactions
are governed by law and a corporate lawyer is the one who helps them in solving out the legal
paradoxes and allow them to do their business freely.

Most social evils are an outcome or creation of poverty and the misery that comes with being
poor in a country like India, at the same time it also needs to be borne in mind that the
judiciary no matter however committed it may be towards uplifting the cause of the poor is
ultimately bound by procedural formalities which do not take into account the misery or
problems of the masses. Therefore, the sufferings being so may not be possible for the legal
system to remove even a few such problems. In keeping with the same view, Justice Krishan
Iyer asserted that poverty creates unjust institutions and unjust society. Therefore, in a
country like India, you are ineffective socially and economically if you are lacking. The only
way you can then be empowered is through radical revamping of the socio-economic
structure. Such a radical change, according to him, could only be brought about in the form of
a revolution that the legal service program only is capable of gearing. Thus, the legal aid
program aimed to revamp the socio-economic structure by removing the socially unjust
institutions and creating a new order based upon humankind's ethos of human liberty,
equality, and dignity. Justice Blackmun in Jackson v. Bishop says that; "The concept of
seeking justice cannot be equated with the value of dollars. Money plays no role in seeking
justice."

We live in a world full of technology and gadgets when we lose our cell phone, or internet
connection is hampered we feel like we have been handicapped. One knows more about his
distant friend what has he/she taken in breakfast but barely know the name of the person
sitting next to him/her. Virtuality has become an integral part of reality and where there are
people there are inevitable misadventures. To prevent those misadventures, there is
'cyberlaw'. It is the age where the government is talking about digital India. With the increase
in digital activities, there is a hike in online frauds and scams. A recent study shows a 50%
increase in cybercrime complaints than from 2013 to 2014. The problem does not end here.
There is harassment, cyberbullying, and degrading regards of human values with these scams
as no one is there to keep a check.

Let us take a few examples Monika Lewinsky was the first victim of the cyber world, or as
she called as 'patient zero', the infamous Delhi MMS scandal, Lottery fraud cases, Charity
fraud and recent increase in Nigerian fraud where they make friends via Facebook or through
emails and then demand a brief amount of money to give you a substantial sum. Many have
fallen ill to this, recent a Mumbai based education institute owner.

Engineers can provide you with better software so it may not happen again. Doctors will give
you medicine to come out of your depression but provide you justice, who stand up for you
and bring the culprit down. It is Lawyers. They will take the stand and notice the society what
has happened and now what should be done so that the victim will recover from the injury
suffered.

Public opinion of lawyers is that one who will take up your time bind you into the legal
system and instead of providing you with the remedy will take up all the remaining resources
you have. You can freely give your opinion and say what one wishes to say why because our
constitution allows it—that constitution which was drafted by a majority of lawyers headed
by Dr B.R. Ambedkar. When the Bhopal Gas tragedy took place, which provided legal
support to the public and provided them with remedy, Justice Bhagwati developed the
concept of 'Absolute Liability' so the accused would be held liable for those innocent deaths.
In 'Nirbhya' case, the lawyers demanded speedy justice and asked the court if not 'Justice
Delayed is Justice Denied' to that innocent girl who was battling for life and death.

Lawyers keep in check that there is no one force which dictates the shape of the nation. A
lawyer is a client representative or a neutral third party, a law enforcement officer and a
public citizen with special responsibility for the quality of justice. You would not have
anyone without lawyers to protect you from the abuse of the law. Lawyers are unique to
support people, groups, and organizations with their legal issues and further the public good.
Public interest attorneys advocate civil campaigns for society's greater good to support those
in need of legal assistance who might otherwise not be able to afford lawyers.

Indeed, we can agree that not all problems faced by lawyers raise merely legal issues
requiring solutions arrived at by applying purely legal theory. As James Pike observed, "the
fact is that virtually every lawyer wants to feel that he is not only a good lawyer, but that he is
a lawyer of impeccable integrity."5

The vision of the lawyer's proper role was described by Chief Justice of New Jersey Arthur
Vanderbilt. Chief Justice Vanderbilt believed that a good lawyer has five functions: being a
wise counsellor, a contributor to the improvement of the legal system, a skilled advocate, an
unselfish and courageous leader of public opinion, and a professional willing to answer the
call for public service.6

The role of a lawyer is challenging and demanding. A lawyer's role is not merely to appear in
court and argue passionately on behalf of the client. However, there is a multitude of
background work and responsibilities related to this profession, especially in favour of the
country and not personally. A lawyer’s contribution is not seen in terms of calculative
methods. However, its impact can be felt by generations to come. A lawyer must be cautious
about his attributes and behaviour. As Mahatma Gandhi said -

Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words.

Keep your words positive, because your words become your behaviour.

5
J. Pike, Beyond the Law: The Religious and Ethical Meaning of the Lawyer's Vocation 91 (1963). 6
Vanderbilt, The Five Functions of the Lawyer: Service to Clients and the Public, 40 A.B.A. J. 31, 31-32
(1954).
Keep your behaviour positive, because your behaviour becomes your habits.

Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your values.

Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny.