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The cases a law firm represents does not define their values. Training in law school includes teaching that everyone is worthy of representation. Defense attor

• lapcat 3y ago
  > The cases a law firm represents does not define their values. In this case, they did. Davis wasn't just a lawyer, he was a politician: "Davis acquired much of his father's southern Democratic politics, opposing women's suffrage, Federal child-labor laws and anti-lynching legislation, and Harry S. Truman's civil rights program. He defended states' rights to establish the poll tax by questioning whether uneducated non-taxpayers should be allowed to vote." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Davis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Davis
• drewcoo 3y ago
  If firms can successfully represent clients with oppositional values, why rescind these offers?
• JackC 3y ago
  Hmm, I think cases do express values. I've worked for a firm that took a lot of low paying criminal defense work and barely broke even most years; taking those cases defined their values that poor people deserve an effective defense. I've also worked for a firm that helped polluters keep polluting and was very profitable; taking those cases defined their values that profitability matters more than second order effects in selecting clients. Lawyers absolutely express their values by selecting firms to work at and clients to represent. But I agree with your underlying point -- you can't read a lawyer's values from a particular client's values in isolation.