The Model Rules: A Foreword

Extract

This quarter's American Bar Foundation Research Journal book review section is devoted to review articles of the American Bar Association's proposed Model Rules of Professional Conduct. In the strict sense the current draft of the Model Rules is not a book—its typescript pages and denomination as “Discussion Draft” clearly identify it as subject to change. Yet even in their preliminary form the Model Rules merit careful analysis. First, the Discussion Draft is important in its own right. It is the most significant legislative proposal in the field of legal ethics in over a decade. Second, the problems discussed in these reviews—for example, enforcement, lying in negotiation, disclosure of client confidences, and client control of decision making—will continue to be serious problems no matter what changes are made in future drafts of the Model Rules. Third, by inviting the comments of some of the leading scholars in legal ethics before a final draft is written, we have been able to supply the Commission on Evaluation of Professional Standards with drafts of the symposium contributions in ample time for the Commission to consider making some of the changes the reviewers suggest. Last, because these scholars (most of whom are also practitioners) are familiar with the ethical literature of the last decade, they should be able to set the Model Rules in the context of that literature—no small accomplishment.