Seminal, Controversial Law Professor Dies at 86

Professor Monroe Freedman attended Harvard Law School and
went on to distinguish himself as a writer, teacher, and lawyer
not afraid to bring up difficult ethical issues.
Image:  Shutterstock

Monroe H. Freedman, whose work in legal ethics significantly impacted the legal system in the late 20^th century, died last Thursday at his home in Manhattan.  He was 86.

Freedman was born April 10, 1928, in Mount Vernon, New York.  He received his BA from Harvard and a Master’s from Harvard Law School.  After working as a volunteer counsel to The Mattachine Society, an early gay rights group, Freedman was a consultant to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and the first executive director of what later became the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  He became a law professor at Hofstra University on Long Island in 1973, and his book Understanding Lawyers’ Ethics, written with Abbe Smith, is assigned in law schools throughout the US.

“He invented legal ethics as a serious academic subject,” Harvard Law School professor Alan M. Dershowitz said. “Prior to Freedman, legal ethics was usually a lecture given by the dean of the law school….But Monroe brought to the academy the realistic complexity of what lawyers actually face.”

Freedman was known for inciting challenging discussions on ethical topics.  Drawing on a background of Hebrew scripture, Christian Gospels, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant, Freedman was interested in defining the scope of lawyers’ responsibilities, especially with regard to their clients.  His 1966 article in The Michigan Law Review called “Professional Responsibility of the Criminal Defense Lawyer:  The Three Hardest Questions” looked at a lawyer’s obligation to represent clients vigorously and protect their privacy, even to the point of not calling them on committing perjury on the stand.  In other words, he wrote, while a lawyer should advise his or her client not to perjure themselves on the stand, a lawyer’s duty is also to remain silent once a client has already done so.

Several prominent jurists, including Warren E. Burger, who later became the United States Chief Justice, subsequently tried (unsuccessfully) to have Feedman disbarred.

Freedman’s other books include Lawyers’ Ethics in an Adversary System (1975) and Group Defamation and Freedom of Speech: The Relationship Between Language and Violence (1995), which he edited with Eric M. Freedman. He was also the editor of “How Can You Represent Those People?” (2013), a collection of articles about a lawyer’s obligation to take on distasteful clients.