I am not a lawyer, but I think that presenting the defendants’ case as written in their memorandum would not be lying, although I can see how doing so would make an honest man uncomfortable. Reuveni supported the morally right side when, in effect, he argued for the plaintiffs, but in doing so he failed to fulfill a lawyer’s obligation to zealously defend his client. If he wanted to do both, he should have declined to take the case in the first place (although presumably he would have been demoted or fired for that too).
With that said, a man can do the right thing now even when he could have done so earlier and didn’t (and doing so in court was certainly more dramatic than refusing to take the case would have been). I wouldn’t mind donating money to him the way that people of a different sort donated money to Daniel Penny.
I’m not sure how to reconcile my view with the principle that even the worst criminal defendants have the right to competent legal representation. I suppose I make an exception here because the federal government is never in danger of being railroaded.
The lawyer can make any case the client wish, but not by knowingly lying to the court (note that not sharing privileged information is a very different thing). In other words, saying things like “my client’s position is X” rather than making false statements of fact. And not falsely claiming their position has legal support in precedent if they know it doesn’t, etc.
More practically speaking, to ensure their client actually gets competent legal representation they would push their client to accept them presenting multiple legal arguments and not exclusively sticking to the narrative, allowing the lawyer to focus on the client’s legal rights and doing what a lawyer should do (basically “the client does not concede on any point, but if the court finds X then we argue A and if it finds Y we argue B”, offering legal arguments to “hypotheticals”), so you don’t leave any important legal arguments from the opposing side unanswered.
Tldr, make sure that no matter what the court finds, you’re making arguments to protect their legal rights and to ensure sentencing is fair.
And when a client is so unreasonable that their position can’t be represented accurately in a legal manner without simultaneously contradicting the client, well screw that client 🤷
I am not a lawyer, but I think that presenting the defendants’ case as written in their memorandum would not be lying, although I can see how doing so would make an honest man uncomfortable. Reuveni supported the morally right side when, in effect, he argued for the plaintiffs, but in doing so he failed to fulfill a lawyer’s obligation to zealously defend his client. If he wanted to do both, he should have declined to take the case in the first place (although presumably he would have been demoted or fired for that too).
With that said, a man can do the right thing now even when he could have done so earlier and didn’t (and doing so in court was certainly more dramatic than refusing to take the case would have been). I wouldn’t mind donating money to him the way that people of a different sort donated money to Daniel Penny.
I’m not sure how to reconcile my view with the principle that even the worst criminal defendants have the right to competent legal representation. I suppose I make an exception here because the federal government is never in danger of being railroaded.
The lawyer can make any case the client wish, but not by knowingly lying to the court (note that not sharing privileged information is a very different thing). In other words, saying things like “my client’s position is X” rather than making false statements of fact. And not falsely claiming their position has legal support in precedent if they know it doesn’t, etc.
More practically speaking, to ensure their client actually gets competent legal representation they would push their client to accept them presenting multiple legal arguments and not exclusively sticking to the narrative, allowing the lawyer to focus on the client’s legal rights and doing what a lawyer should do (basically “the client does not concede on any point, but if the court finds X then we argue A and if it finds Y we argue B”, offering legal arguments to “hypotheticals”), so you don’t leave any important legal arguments from the opposing side unanswered.
Tldr, make sure that no matter what the court finds, you’re making arguments to protect their legal rights and to ensure sentencing is fair.
And when a client is so unreasonable that their position can’t be represented accurately in a legal manner without simultaneously contradicting the client, well screw that client 🤷