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40 S. Tex. L. Rev. 137 (1999)
Common Good and the Duty to Represent: Must the Last Lawyer in Town Take Any Case

handle is hein.journals/stexlr40 and id is 147 raw text is: THE COMMON GOOD AND THE DUTY TO REPRESENT: MUST THE LAST LAWYER IN TOWN TAKE ANY CASE? TERESA STANTON COLLETT* I. THE RELEVANCY OF THE QUESTION ........................................ 141 II. THE HYPOTHETICAL CLIENT SEEKING AN IMMORAL BUT LEGAL O BJECTIVE ...................................................................... 145 III. VARIATIONS IN THE LAWYER'S ROLE ..................................... 147 IV. ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF REPRESENTATION ....................... 152 V. ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF DISCRETION .................................. 157 VI. THE PORNOGRAPHER'S LAWYER ............................................. 161 VII. THE LAWYER AS PLAINTIFF'S COUNSEL .................................. 168 VIII. DEFENDING THOSE ACCUSED OF CRIMES .............................. 174 IX . C ONCLU SION ................................................................................ 177 Ask any American lawyer whether there is a duty to represent any particular person or cause, and I suspect you will get a swift and emphatic no.' Give the lawyer a little time for reflection, and he or she might modify the answer to well... not unless the court appoints the lawyer to represent the client.,2 Ask if there are any other * Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law affiliated with Texas A&M University. I am grateful to Kara Croom and the other members of the South Texas Law Review for their hard work and enthusiasm in coordinating and presenting the Sixth Annual South Texas Law Review Ethics Symposium. I am also grateful for the assistance of my colleagues Buford Terrell and Phillip Page in insuring the realism of the hypothetical facts, and for the invitation of Michael McConnell to discuss this topic with members of the University of Utah Law School faculty. 1. A lawyer is under no obligation to act as adviser or advocate for every person who may wish to become his client ...... MODEL CODE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY EC 2-26 (1983). 2. Compare MODEL CODE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY EC 2-29 (1983) (When a lawyer is appointed by a court or requested by a bar association to undertake representation of a person unable to obtain counsel, whether for financial or other reasons, he should not seek to be excused from undertaking the representation except for compelling reasons.) with MODEL RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUcr Rule 6.2 (1998) (A lawyer shall not seek to avoid appointment by a tribunal to represent a person except for good cause .... ). See also THE AMERICAN LAWYER'S CODE OF CONDUCT ch. III cmt. (The Roscoe Pound-American Trial Lawyers Foundation, Revised Draft 1982) (explaining that serving the client is the basic reason for being a lawyer).