The article argues that lawyers have a professional responsibility to understand and support democracy, not because it is perfect, but because their role is essential to improving and sustaining it.
Ethics and Professional Responsibility
Titaev and Shkliaruk (2016), “Investigators in Russia: Who Creates Practice in the Investigation of Criminal Cases”
Analyzes the role of investigators in the Russian criminal justice process.
Goldstein (2022), “The Attorney’s Duty to Democracy: Legal Ethics, Attorney Discipline, and the 2020 Election”
An analysis of the roles that attorneys have played in facilitating democratic backsliding internationally to draw lessons for the American legal ethics regime.
Butler (2011), The Russian Legal Practitioner
Tracks the evolution of the legal profession in Russia. Includes a translation of the post-Soviet law on the legal profession.
Wald (2025), The Role of Lawyers in Mature Democracies When the Rule of Law is Under Attack
A deep dive into the argument for how lawyers, particularly in mature legal systems, must move beyond passive roles and actively defend the rule of law in response to growing threats to democratic principles.
Glendon (1996), A Nation Under Lawyers: How the Crisis in the Legal Profession Is Transforming American Society
Glendon outlines the changes within the legal system and offers her assessment of the people and ideas that are transforming our law-dependent culture.