Lawyers face increasing pressure from clients, politicians, prospective hires, international and civil society organisations to act as gatekeepers: to reject certain clients or cases or mitigate their involvement. This can be at variance with the traditional role of lawyers to provide access to justice.
This volume presents a systematic exploration of the gatekeeping debate. It discusses the key dimensions of gatekeeping, the risk of abuse of identifying lawyers with their clients in authoritarian regimes, the limits of partisan lawyering and the legal boundaries to representation. It also discusses the question of representation that may be in line with professional duties, but still be considered controversial based on soft law, moral or societal expectations. A key take away is that the gatekeeping discussion would benefit from the differentiation between whether a client deserves representation and how a lawyer should represent the client.
The contributions are written by high profile academics and professionals from various jurisdictions around the globe, aiming to provide solid, multi-facetted, balanced and comprehensive guidance for lawyers, academic researchers, regulators, bar associations and law societies.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Claudio Visco, President of the International Bar Association; Foreword by Larry Catá Backer, Series Editor; Introduction: Lawyers as gatekeepers. Introduction and overview, Jonathan Soeharno and Birgit Spiesshofer; Part II: Gatekeeping: Fundamental Questions; 1: Must 'good' lawyers refuse 'bad' cases? Understanding the gatekeeping debate, Jonathan Soeharno; 2: What can the standard conception offer morally conflicted lawyers?, Tim Dare; 3: Who decides on the wider public interest? Moral pluriformity and access to justice, Rebecca Roiphe and Bruce A. Green; 4: Do lawyers bear responsibility for the (wider) public interest? Comparing The Netherlands and England, Jonathan Soeharno and Iain Miller; Part III: The Authoritarian Challenge; 5: The historical backgrounds of the gatekeeping discussion – lawyers and their associations under two totalitarian German regimes, Dirk Uwer; 6: Lawyers in China's Hong Kong. The price of speaking up and not speaking up, Pui-Yin Lo; 7: Undesirable clients; undesirable lawyers – The emerging structures of gatekeeping strategies in the U.S.A., Larry Catá Backer; Part IV: Lawyer Independence Versus Partisanship; 8: Saying 'no' to the client – A US perspective, Bruce A. Green and Rebecca Roiphe; 9: Regulating lawyers on client or case acceptance: The case of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), Andrew Boon; 10: Closing the gate on SLAPPs, Jonathan Goldsmith; Part V: Preventing facilitation of illegal activities; 11: The responsabilization of lawyers, Juliane Kokott; 12: Anti-money laundering – An EU perspective, Birgit Snijder-Kuipers; 13: Crackdown on lawyers after the coup: Abuse of Anti-Terror Laws in Turkey, Ali Yildiz and Kevin Dent KC; Part VI: Preventing Facilitation of Unwanted or Morally Objectionable Activities; 14: Morally motivated gatekeeping and the rule of law, W. Bradley Wendel; 15: Wise counsellors or gatekeepers? Lawyers guiding businesses to respect human rights and the challenges in Japan, Daisuke Takahashi; 16: Gatekeeping responsibilities in the supply chain, Birgit Spiesshofer; 17: Legal ethics and climate change: A view from inside client-lawyer representation in the United States, Ellyn Rosen and Shawn Harpen; 18: Tax advisers as gatekeepers, Hans Gribnau; Part VII: Way Forward and Conclusion; 19: Gatekeeping responsibilities of lawyers between the 'if' and the 'how: Lessons learned and way forward, Birgit Spiesshofer and Jonathan Soeharno
About the Author :
Jonathan Soeharno is professor of Administration of Justice and Legal Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is a practising lawyer and acting appeal court judge.
Birgit Spiesshofer is professor of International Economic Law and Business Ethics at the University of Bremen and attorney-at-law in Berlin, Germany.
