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28 May 2021 / John Gould
Issue: 7934 / Categories: Opinion , Profession , International justice , Legal services
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The cab rank rule: To kill a mockingbird

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49933
Lawyers must not be drawn into choosing cases based on their beliefs… or even worse, their prejudices, says John Gould

A lawyer’s willingness to represent a pariah was once acknowledged as the paradigm of professional honour and integrity. It is a trope which has made heroes of fictional lawyers, from Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird to James B Donovan in Bridge of Spies. Perhaps now, however, times are changing, and lawyers fall to be judged not by their own character and skill, but by the clients they come to represent. A lawyer who chooses not to turn away a controversial client may find themselves vilified and their reputation damaged by a very public association with their client.

Guns for hire?

Earlier this year, the respected Queen’s Counsel, David Perry (pictured), found himself under an intense media spotlight for accepting instructions from the Department of Justice of Hong Kong to represent them in the prosecution of nine pro-democracy activists for unlawful assembly under

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The cab-rank rule remains a bulwark of the rule of law, yet lawyers are increasingly judged by their clients’ causes. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian McDougall, president of the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, warns that conflating representation with endorsement is a ‘clear and present danger’
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is already embedded in the civil courts, but regulation lags behind practice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ben Roe of Baker McKenzie charts a landscape where AI assists with transcription, case management and document handling, yet raises acute concerns over evidence, advocacy and even judgment-writing
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