Lynne Stewart Appearance Roils Law School
Hofstra law school’s decision to invite a disbarred lawyer to participate in a legal ethics conference on defending unpopular clients is raising some hackles.
The controversy centers on the invitation extended to Lynne Stewart, who has been convicted of providing material aid to terrorists for helping an imprisoned sheik communicate with his followers. Stewart gave up her law license and is appealing a 28-month sentence.
Law professor Monroe Freedman of Hofstra told the Wall Street Journal Law Blog that several angry letter-writers have protested the invitation.
Stewart is one of several speakers slated to appear at the conference entitled “Lawyering at the Edge: Unpopular Clients, Difficult Cases, Zealous Advocates.”
Freedman has an answer for critics who point out the irony of a disbarred lawyer speaking at an ethics conference. He says students who hear Stewart’s presentation are likely to view her “not as a role model, but as a cautionary lesson. That’s effective education in lawyers’ ethics, which is too often considered a dry, uninteresting, and unimportant subject.”
