Lawyers take pride in a professional tradition of representing unpopular clients, understanding it as a contribution to the rule of law and the practice of toleration in a polarized society. This does not mean that lawyers are fully insulated from criticism for the clients they represent. Much of the frustration experienced by lawyers who are criticized for representing unpopular clients arises from what lawyers see as the public’s inability to understand the rule of law and the function of the legal system in resolving conflicts over rights and justice.

In his book Canceling Lawyers, W. Bradley Wendel (Edwin H. Woodruff Professor of Law at Cornell Law School) draws on a series of case studies to argue that there is genuine value in a system of formal law that aims at settling social disagreement, but that is not the whole story. Public criticism of lawyers may reflect the sense that the legal system has fallen short of ideals of fairness and inclusiveness. Accepting a certain amount of public criticism is necessary to avoid a dangerous isolation of the legal profession from accountability to the broader political community, or from the humanity of lawyers being submerged by their professional role.

Programme

The programme for the day is as follows:

• 3.00 pm     Welcome + brief introduction Iris van Domselaar (Chair Legal Philosophy and Legal Ethics) and Eric Boot (Assistant Professor Legal Philosophy and Legal Ethics)
• 3.10 pm     W. Bradley Wendel (Edwin H. Woodruff Professor of Law, Cornell University) on Canceling Lawyers
• 3.40 pm     Wim Dubbink (Professor of Professional Ethics, Tilburg University): Comments on Chapter 1
• 3.50 pm     Sanne van Oers (Dean of The Netherlands Bar): Comments on Chapter 3
• 4.00 pm     Break
• 4.15 pm     Birgit Spiesshofer (Of counsel at Dentons and Professor of Business Law and Business Ethics at the University of Bremen): Comments on Chapter 5
• 4.25 pm     Richard Moorhead (Professor of Law and Professional Ethics at the University of Exeter): Comments on Chapter 5
• 4.35 pm     Reply by W. Bradley Wendel
• 4.50 pm     Q&A
• 5.15 pm     Concluding remarks
• 5.20 pm     Drinks in REC A3.16
• 6.30 pm     End

Location

The location (except for the drinks) will be in room REC A5.14. More information on how to get to the building can be found here.

This will be a hybrid event, in REC A5.14 and online via zoom.

About the speaker

Professor W. Bradley Wendel is one of the world’s leading legal ethics’ scholars, trained as both a lawyer and a philosopher. He has a B.A. from Rice University, a J.D. from Duke Law School, and an LL.M. and J.S.D. from Columbia Law School, in legal philosophy.

Before entering academia, Professor Wendel clerked for Judge Andrew J. Kleinfeld on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Fairbanks, Alaska, and practiced as a products liability litigator in Seattle. He started his academic career at Washington and Lee Law School and moved to Cornell Law School in 2014.