Legal ethics expert Monroe Freedman dies at age 86
Legal ethics expert Monroe Freedman died last Thursday at the age of 86.
The cause of death was chronic lymphocytic lymphoma, a granddaughter told the Washington Post. A law professor at Hofstra University at the time of his death, Freedman co-wrote the book Understanding Lawyers’ Ethics that is used by many law schools, the New York Times reports.
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told the Times that Freedman “invented legal ethics as a serious academic subject” by recognizing the complexity of lawyers’ ethical dilemmas. “He was on my speed dial for everything I ever did involving legal ethics,” Dershowitz said.
According to the Times, Freedman was a “gleeful jurisprudential provocateur.” In a controversial 1966 law review article, Freedman argued lawyers’ obligation to provide a vigorous defense in criminal cases required them to remain silent when clients ignored warnings not to perjure themselves on the witness stand.
The article raised the hackles of then-federal appeals judge Warren Burger, who later became chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Burger made an unheeded call for Freedman’s disbarment.
