Abstract

In the past few years, the Canons of Professional Ethics (hereinafter referred to as the Canons) have been the subject of widespread criticism. Cognizant of their deficiencies and of the need for a reappraisal, the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association created the Special Committee on Evaluation of Ethical Standards to examine the Canons and to recommend changes. This committee, concluding that "the need for change in the statements of professional responsibility of lawyers could not be met by merely amending the present Canons," recently released its preliminary draft of a proposed Code of Professional Responsibility (hereinafter referred to as the Code). If adopted by the House of Delegates, the Code will replace the present Canons.

Representative of the sweeping changes that have been made by the Code are the provisions of proposed Canon 6. These provisions, which embody a new approach to the problems of protecting the independent judgment of lawyers, constitute the subject of this article. The proposed Canon provides: "A Lawyer Should Exercise Independent Professional Judgment on Behalf of Clients." This general concept, together with the interrelated ethical considerations and disciplinary rules which are derived therefrom (see discussion infra), defines the scope of the lawyer's obligation to exercise his professional judgment solely for his client's benefit, free from compromising interests.

This article does not attempt to treat the entire spectrum of problems related to preserving independent judgment; rather, it is intended to be a comprehensive discussion of (1) the Code's approach to protecting the independence of a lawyer's judgment juxtaposed to that under the existing Canons, and (2) the effect of the Code's approach on those interests which may interfere with a lawyer's exercise of independent judgment. Prior to a discussion of specific problem areas, it will be helpful to examine generally the function and structure of the proposed Code.

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