An Ethical Corporate Lawyer? Forum

[nimhnimh]

If I'm lucky enough to wind up in BigLaw I would feel horrible about defending these huge banks like Bank of America and Goldman Sachs that simply move money around and get away with fraud. I would also feel bad defending these huge corporations that look for the easiest ways to bust unions and lay off workers. What other institutions do BigLaw firms defend besides big banks and corporations? If any?

[merichard87]

Not all corporations have unions to "bust" and lay off workers and not all banks all banks are riddled with fraud.

[miamiman]

If I'm lucky enough to wind up in BigLaw I would feel horrible about defending these huge banks like Bank of America and Goldman Sachs that simply move money around and get away with fraud. I would also feel bad defending these huge corporations that look for the easiest ways to bust unions and lay off workers. What other institutions do BigLaw firms defend besides big banks and corporations? If any?

biglaw represents clients not causes, bro.

[vestedinterest]

i think you're delusional.

i hope you're a flame.

[nealric]

I would feel horrible about defending these huge banks like Bank of America and Goldman Sachs that simply move money around and get away with fraud. I would also feel bad defending these huge corporations that look for the easiest ways to bust unions and lay off workers. What other institutions do BigLaw firms defend besides big banks and corporations? If any?

Perhaps you should have embarked on a career as a WTO protester instead

[colovia]

If you're working for a big law firm, every dollar you make comes from a willing client. Unless you are committing fraud, that is much more ethical than working for, say, the government.

Furthermore, if you're in a transactional practice, which is most of what big law firms do, you're bringing about win-win situations, which is more ethical than, say, plaintiff's litigation, where you are trying to harm the other side.

[Pearalegal]

It would be even less ethical to refuse to represent a client in such a setting...the only reason the American legal system functions is because everyone has the right to an attorney. Gotta believe in the system to work in it.

Besides, if it makes you feel better, those big clients are what pay for the "good guy" huge pro-bono efforts of each firm.

[clintonius]

And there's always white collar defense.

[Anonymous User]

I'm helping defend a smallish company against the big bad record companies right now. But if the big bad record companies had come to us, we'd probably be on their side. What can you do? You do get the chance to defend the little guy too sometimes though at least, as long as they are getting sued for enough $$$$$$$ that they are willing to fork over $$$$ for legal fees.

Plus you know, there's like laws and stuff. If Goldman had committed clear-cut fraud, I don't think the SEC would settle. If they did commit clear-cut fraud, well now the SEC is arguably more evil than the Goldman lawyers. Mind blowing huh?

And all securities cases I've worked on this summer have been sophisticated party 1 v. sophisticated party 2.

[ToTransferOrNot]

This post = massive fail.