Watergate 40 Years Later: Lawyer Ethics No Where To Be Found
Posted by Rick Shapiro
June 16, 2012 7:13 PM
June 16, 2012 7:13 PM
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Hard to envision,right?
But we all know that 40 years ago, on June 17, 1972, several of President Richard Nixon's henchmen, including G. Gordon Liddy, were arrested at the Watergate in Washington DC. They were burglarizing the Democratic National Committee headquarters offices at the time but had also committed other break-ins. The lead crooks were ex-CIA and FBI operatives.
Nice.
The Watergate scandal led to Nixon's disgrace and resignation. Good riddance, I say. It's amazing such a crook could be elected not once, but twice. I guess the American people are pretty trusting souls.
Watergate also shamed the entire legal profession because it took a legion of lawyers to protect Nixon and his scammy ways. Nixon had a knack for collecting a real bunch of swindlers, with the exception of John W. Dean, who actually had a conscience.
These days, the legal community is shamed not by crooks and burglars (as much), but by awful T.V. ads in which modern-day snake oil salesmen posing as personal injury lawyers yell about gauranteeing plaintiffs cash money. Do accident victims really think these hucksters are the best injury trial attorneys?
But back to the Watergate legacy.
In 1972 and the years that followed, the Watergate coverup shoved virtually all lawyers to the gutter in the eyes of the public in spite of the reality that most legal practitioners were — and remain — honest and ethical
A June 2012 ABA Journal by Mark Curriden outlined just how many lawyers were implicated in the Watergate break-in, coverup, or related Nixon activities. Most of those individuals were convicted of misdemeanors or felonies, got immunity or were pardoned. Just check out how many prominent attorneys showed a complete lack of ethics and moral scruples before and during the Watergate debacle:
Every one of these 14 lawyers was involved in some form of alleged criminal activity, though a few had convictions pardoned, overturned or reversed . Some had convictions reversed, several were granted immunity on several counts, but the bottom line is they all lost sight of which side of the law lawyers must stay on. Lawyers follow the law; they don’t break it.
In my view, the lessons of Watergate are that lawyers' ethical responsibilties are core attributes of practice, and when it comes to ethics, lawyers cannott trample over the line of what's legal.
When Nixon and his henchmen discussed in secret getting the goods on the Democratic opposition, which involved getting his hands on their written plans and strategies, do you think he had some idea the henchmen would need to commit a break-in under cover of darkness?
RNS
About the Editors: The Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm, which has offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as pro bono services.